North American Indians of the Plains (1920) (14779169541)

Identifier: northamerican11wiss (find matches)
Title: North American Indians of the Plains
Year: 1920 (1920s)
Authors: Wissler, Clark, 1870-1947
Subjects: Indians of North America
Publisher: New York : American Museum of Natural History
Contributing Library: American Museum of Natural History Library
Digitizing Sponsor: IMLS / LSTA / METRO



Text Appearing Before Image:
n passed. The Blackfoot, GrosVentre, Assiniboin, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Crow, Hidatsa,Mandan, Ankara, and Pawnee, also had each a numberof societies upon whom the governing body called forpolice service. In addition to these specific parallels, wefind that all tribes using the camp circle, or organizedcamp, when hunting buffalo, also appointed police whoexecuted orders in a similar manner. Among the tribeshaving soldier societies we again find certain markedsimilarities in the current names for these organizationsas shown in the following partial list, compiled by Dr.R.H. Lowie: Mandan HidatsaKit-foxes Haven.- Ravens Half-Shorn Balf-Shorn Beads Beads Foolish Dogs (Irasj I >ur- Dogs Small Doge Old Dogs Dogs Soldiers Enemies Buffaloes Bulls ArikaraFoxes Crows BlackfootKit-- MosquitoesRavens Mad Dogs Cra« Dogs Young Dogs —Big Young I>_- DogeSoldiers j Hi / s ildiers(?)Mad Bulls Bulls ArapahoKit-foxes CrazyLodge cntreKit-:Flies CraayLodge Doge Dogs SOCIAL mi;., \\IZ VI ION 05
Text Appearing After Image:
Fig. 35. A Dog Dancer Hidatsa. (After Maximilian.) !•<» iNDi \v- 01 l in. PL IIN8 It will be noted that a mad or foolish society i- found in each of the six tribes a- i- also a dog society, while the kit-fox and the raven are common to a Dumber.Investigations of these organizations have shown thaithough those bearing similar name- are not exact dupli-cates, they nevertheless have many fundamental ele-ments in common. The most probable explanation of this correspon-dence in name and element is that each distinct societyhad a common origin, or that the bulls, for example,were created by one tribe and then passed on to other-.This is an important point because among anthropolo-gists there are two extreme theories to account forsimilarities in culture, one that all like cultural trait-.wherever found, had a common origin, the other thatall were invented or derived independently by thetribes practising them. The former is often spokenof as the diffusion of cultural traits, the latter