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Social Science Native American Studies

The Curtain Within

Haida Social and Mythical Discourse

by (author) Marianne Boelscher

Publisher
UBC Press
Initial publish date
Jan 1989
Category
Native American Studies, Customs & Traditions, General
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9780774844758
    Publish Date
    Nov 2011
    List Price
    $99.00
  • Hardback

    ISBN
    9780774803113
    Publish Date
    Jan 1989
    List Price
    $41.95

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Out of print

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Description

The Curtain Within explores the management of social roles and symbols to achieve various goals by people living in a modern Haida community. Moiety and lineage, social rank, the rules of entitlement to inherited property, and the mode of thought encoded in mythology still have force in Haida society. Political action did not and does not take place within the context of formal political institutions; instead it exists through the management of the symbols of social relationships and of entitlement to tangible and intangible property.

 

About the author

Contributor Notes

Marianne Boelscher is a researcher with the Shuswap Nation Tribal Council and visiting assistant professor of sociology and anthropology at Simon Fraser University.

Editorial Reviews

Presents some interesting information about the relevance of cultural categories of the past for today's Haida people.

American Anthropologist

The various tables of kin terms, calendars, and names are excellent and the conclusions intriguing. Readers, moreover, will never be able to read or listen to a Haida story without questioning its meaning or the message it conveys.

BC Studies