Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item:
http://hdl.handle.net/11375/24244
Title: | Waswanipi Realities and Adaptations: Resource Management and Cognitive Structure. |
Authors: | Feit, Harvey |
Department: | Anthropology |
Keywords: | Ethno-ecology;Ecosystems Analysis;Cognitive Models;Ecological Anthropology;Nature-Culture;Hunting Knowledge and Recipies;Local Resource Management;Hunting Territories;James Bay Cree;Waswanipi Cree |
Publication Date: | 1978 |
Citation: | Feit, Harvey A. 1978. Waswanipi Realities and Adaptations: Resource Management and Cognitive Structure. Ph.D. Dissertation, McGill University, Department of Anthropology. 1683 pp. (Corrected copy.) |
Abstract: | Each of the two main paradigms for ecological anthropology, ecosystems analysis and ethno-ecology, explores only one pair of phenomena relevant to cultural ecology, environment and action, or environment and cognition-belief respectively. This study argues that ecological analysis is weakened by the exclusion of any one of those three orders of phenomena as objects of study. A detailed analysis of cognitive models and behavioral practices of resource management of Waswanipi Cree hunters shows how cognitive knowledge and religious beliefs incorporate realistic environmental relationships and practical possibilities for action; and, how action informed by those models and beliefs can effectively manage hunting, animal populations, human social distributions on the land, and subsistence. Cognitive models and beliefs are formulated as recipes for action that can be used in diverse situations so that actions are responsive to changing environmental and social conditions. Decisions concerning alternative goals, situations and strategies are shown to be socially located with the men who are the "owners" of hunting territories and leaders for their use. - - L'anthropologie écologique traite de trois catégories de phénomènes: culture, environnement et comportement. Les deux "nouveaux" paradigmes explorent seulement deux des trois phénomènes relatifs a l'écologie culturelle, l'analyse des ecosystèmes qui traite de l 'environnement et du comportement et l'ethnoécologie qui traite de l'environnement et de la culture. La présente étude indique l'importance de l'interaction entre les trois catégories de phénomènes. Une analyse détaillée des données sur les croyances et le comportement concernant l'aménagement des ressources par les chasseurs cris Waswanipi démontre comment ces croyances religieuses reflètent à la fois la structure culturelle et les relations concrètes avec l'environnement; et comment le comportement de ces chasseurs en accord avec leurs croyances peut effectivement contrôler la chasse, les populations animales, la distribution géographique des populations humaines ainsi que leur subsistance. Les croyances se réalisent sous forme de recettes s'appliquant à des situations diverses et par la suite le comportement des chasseurs s'adapte aux conditions changeantes. Les décisions concernant les buts, les situations et les stratégies sont prises par les hommes qui sont reconnus socialement comme étant les "propriétaires" des territoires de chasse. |
Description: | The thesis copy in this Repository includes a page with notes of a few errors in labelling hunting territories, and corrections on the relevant pages. These errata are not on the thesis copy available at McGill University, at: http://digitool.library.mcgill.ca/thesisfile43592.pdf. The preparation of the thesis was done during two distinct blocks of time. When the James Bay Hydro-electric Project was announced in 1971 the Cree people from the region decided to fight the project in the courts, and then to negotiate a settlement with the Governments of Quebec and Canada. I was asked and to participate in their opposition, the court case and then in the negotiation and implementation of the James Bay and Northern Quebec Agreement that ensued. I welcomed the opportunity. It thus worked out that the information and knowledge recorded by the co-research done jointly with Waswanipi Cree people between 1968 and 1970, and reported in the initial drafts of the thesis in 1971-72, were applied and used before the full results of the research were in a form that was appropriate for university thesis submission. The thesis preparation and writing were completed part-time in 1977-78 during the continuing initial implementation of the JBNQA, and the thesis was defended in 1979. The thesis is very long and not as readable as it would have been with additional editing and cutting. The main information and findings of the thesis research are presented in a series of articles published both prior to and following thesis completion. Preliminary reports of the dissertation research were presented in: 1971, L'ethno écologie des Cris Waswanipis, http://hdl.handle.net/11375/23942; edited and reprinted in English in 1973 as, The Ethno-Ecology of the Waswanipi Cree, http://hdl.handle.net/11375/24143; 1972, The Waswanipi of James Bay, http://hdl.handle.net/11375/23561; 1973, The Twilight of the Cree Hunting Nation [editor’s title], http://hdl.handle.net/11375/23564; and, 1973, Expert Testimony in Superior Court, Québec, Case No. 05-04841-72, http://hdl.handle.net/11375/24034. Following completion of the dissertation reports of findings were presented in: 1988 [1987], Waswanipi Cree Management of Land and Wildlife, http://hdl.handle.net/11375/24145; the first sections of 2014 [1986], Hunting and the Quest for Power, http://hdl.handle.net/11375/23927; 1986, James Bay Cree Indian Management and Moral Considerations of Fur-bearers, http://hdl.handle.net/11375/23936; 1987, North American Native Hunting and Management of Moose Populations, http://hdl.handle.net/11375/23935; and later 1994 Dreaming of Animals, http://hdl.handle.net/11375/23915; and 2000, Les animaux comme partenaires de chasse, http://hdl.handle.net/11375/23535 (with an English version). Other publications have drawn on the dissertation, some extensively, but they include significant material from later research. |
URI: | http://hdl.handle.net/11375/24244 |
Appears in Collections: | Anthropology Publications |
Files in This Item:
File | Description | Size | Format | |
---|---|---|---|---|
FEIT_PhD_Dissertation_with_Errata_Corrected-McGill_OCR_1978.pdf | 51.04 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Open |
Items in MacSphere are protected by copyright, with all rights reserved, unless otherwise indicated.