Evolution of Warfare and Conflict on the Northwest Coast
Evolution of Warfare and Conflict on the Northwest Coast
The impact of Western expansion on the Subarctic, with western Europeans advancing from the east and Russians and Americans from the West, changed the tempo and nature of indigenous warfare by creating new and intensified opportunities for young males to compete. The developing fur trade changed the demographics, trade networks, access to the sources of new goods, and the competitive structure among all subarctic societies. Western goods, as critical material resources, have been argued as being the objects over which warfare is instigated. We argue that these goods replaced indigenous goods as high-status items and that possession of them was another means to increase status and prestige among young males. This competition for access to goods considered to be high status, and sometimes just competition for status, formed the foundation for violent conflict in the western American Subarctic.
The investigation and analysis of Native American warfare has been an important part of ethnohistory and anthropology for many years (Burch 1974; Codere 1950; Lowie 1913; Slobodin 1960; Swadesh 1948; Turney-High 1971). While most early investigations were descriptive (McClellan 1975a, 1975b; Turney-High 1971) or brief footnotes in ethnographies (Birket-Smith and de Laguna 1938), more recent works have attempted to place Native American conflicts in the context of modern anthropological theory (Chagnon 1988; Ferguson 1983, 1984, 1990, 1995; Maschner 1997a; Maschner and Reedy-Maschner 1998; Whitehead 1992). The result of these investigations has been two broad and nearly universal conclusions: that indigenous warfare has existed for thousands of years in the New World (Haas and Creamer 1993; Lambert 1994, 1997; Maschner 1992, 1997a; Maschner and Reedy-Maschner 1998; Mason 1998; Milner et al. [End Page 703] 1991; Wilcox and Haas 1994) and that the nature of that warfare changed dramatically with the expansion of
The impact of Western expansion on the Subarctic, with western Europeans advancing from the east and Russians and Americans from the West, changed the tempo and nature of indigenous warfare by creating new and intensified opportunities for young males to compete. The developing fur trade changed the demographics, trade networks, access to the sources of new goods, and the competitive structure among all subarctic societies. Western goods, as critical material resources, have been argued as being the objects over which warfare is instigated. We argue that these goods replaced indigenous goods as high-status items and that possession of them was another means to increase status and prestige among young males. This competition for access to goods considered to be high status, and sometimes just competition for status, formed the foundation for violent conflict in the western American Subarctic.
The investigation and analysis of Native American warfare has been an important part of ethnohistory and anthropology for many years (Burch 1974; Codere 1950; Lowie 1913; Slobodin 1960; Swadesh 1948; Turney-High 1971). While most early investigations were descriptive (McClellan 1975a, 1975b; Turney-High 1971) or brief footnotes in ethnographies (Birket-Smith and de Laguna 1938), more recent works have attempted to place Native American conflicts in the context of modern anthropological theory (Chagnon 1988; Ferguson 1983, 1984, 1990, 1995; Maschner 1997a; Maschner and Reedy-Maschner 1998; Whitehead 1992). The result of these investigations has been two broad and nearly universal conclusions: that indigenous warfare has existed for thousands of years in the New World (Haas and Creamer 1993; Lambert 1994, 1997; Maschner 1992, 1997a; Maschner and Reedy-Maschner 1998; Mason 1998; Milner et al. [End Page 703] 1991; Wilcox and Haas 1994) and that the nature of that warfare changed dramatically with the expansion of