Aspects of Social and Political Relations in the Great Basin
What are the most basic components of social organization?
What is a tribe? As mentioned earlier, there are three principal tribes that came to inhabit the Great Basin. Geographical and linguistic observations suggest that these tribes all originated in the post-Pleistocene abundance of the China Lake district, northern Mojave Desert. From there, over a long period of time, these tribes expanded into the Great Basin -- The Northern Paiute (northward), the Shoshone (northeastward), and the Ute (eastward). The Washo are the only non-Uto-Aztecan speakers and seem to be a residue of an older period when Hokan speakers were pervasively occupying California. A tribe is an ethnic nation that shares a common language and cultural history. (All of these are in the Numic group of Uto-Aztecan speakers.)
What is a tribelet? Few tribes in the Western US were politically unified wholes. Instead, most tribes were divided into tribelet regions and only these tribelets could muster any kind of collective or "political" activity. Thus, the Paiutes can easily be divided into various subgroups that are principally associated with geographical features of the region: the Owens Valley Paiutes, the Mono Paiutes, and other groups associated with Walker Lake, Carson Sink, the Humboldt River, Pyramid Lake, etc. Even the small Washo tribe is typically divided into three tribelets.
What is a village? The final division brings us to villages. In the Great Basin, villages were usually very small, loosely associated groups of extended families. Since most Great Basin people remained in an Archaic mode of habitation, even the concept of "village" is questionable, and we are definitely talking about winter habitations. From late spring through summer and into fall, it was not unusual for extended families to go their own ways in seeking out fishing, hunting, and gathering ranges. It was not until the fall pinyon harvest that tribelets again gathered as whole communities and prepared for winter residency in their villages.
What are the components of social organization subordinate to villages?
Families? As mentioned, above, family structure in the Great Basin was (typical of most of Native America) built on extension of nuclear families across generations. A family group centered on a nuclear family but widened out through siblings of the parents (aunts and uncles) and their children (cousins). Extension also included vertical elements (grandparents and children). Deaths and divorces and remarriages made all of this more complex.
In almost all Native American languages these relationships were taken far more seriously than we do in contemporary American English; thus, separate words were available, e.g., for cousins who were related by different connections or, e.g., for an uncle who is the brother of one's mother versus one who is the brother of one's father. In some tribes these distinctions were carried into five generations. Among most Great Basin people, however, the generational depth of distinctions was only three, at best.
Clans? There were no well organized moieties or clans among Great Basin people.
Secret societies? While there do not seem to have been specifically secret societies, there were what might be termed "collectives." In their principal form, these were "hunting clubs" that regularly worked together, hunting rabbits, antelope, or water fowl -- all situations that demanded cooperative hunting efforts and primarily in the winter. In most of these activities, both men and women (as well as children) were involved. In all such cases, the organization of collective hunting was taken quite seriously so that individuals were known to others as "rabbit boss" or "antelope boss." These societies were of sufficient importance that, many times, they formed the central gathering force of villages themselves.
Marriage
Who can marry whom? Incest taboos are universal in the human species. The only question is how extensively they are practiced. European royalty, as we know, arranged numerous marriages of close relatives. Americans may allow marriages of cousins, sometimes even first cousins. Some Native American tribes, however, prohibited marriage of kin even into five generational depths! Many tribes prohibited marriage within the same moiety or clan as well. This often imposed substantial hardships for young people seeking suitable mates.
In general, for the Great Basin, however, the rule was flexibility and adaptation aimed at economic survival. Marriage was not allowed among kin, but kinship was blurred beyond three generations. There were no moieties to avoid. Marriage outside of village or tribelet had the additional advantage of securing economic ties more broadly.
The economic issue was so intense in the Great Basin that society allowed a variety of polygamous marriages to occur. In polyandry, a woman married two men and this had the advantage, literally, of putting two men out in the field hunting and fishing. In polygyny, a man married two women (often sisters) and this had the advantage of creating an efficient household "staffed" by two women, taking care of both crafts, gathering, food preparation, and child care. The Basin is also well known for a special kind of marriage called "sister exchange" in which two brothers marry two sisters or a brother and sister marry a sister and brother. This arrangement tied families together by a doubly strong bond, but it also provided an easy adjustment in case of a death.
When is marriage allowed? First marriages usually occurred by mid-teens to late-teens. Remarriage could occur at any age later on.
How is marriage arranged? Marriages were often informally arranged by parents. While society was rarely stratified so that status was not a factor, economic well being was definitely a factor. Parents of a girl wanted to arrange a marriage with a boy who was a good hunter and fisherman and who was generous and attentive. Parents of a boy wanted to arrange a marriage with a girl who had been well brought up in the duties of women and who was good at making the utilities necessary for households in the Basin as well as being good at preparing the Basin's typical foods.
Marriage itself was by no means a formal thing. Inquiries might be made by an uncle or aunt. The boy might make several visits to the prospective wife's family. (It should be noted that in most Native American societies discussions of such matters were almost always extremely tangential. E.g., an uncle, rather than saying that his nephew had an interest in a girl would extol the young man's virtues in great, though abstract depth and mention that he might be participating, next week, in the rabbit drive.) At any rate, when the girl had conveyed her acceptance, the boy moved into her family's household and remained there for up to a year, hunting and fishing for the family and becoming integrated with his new brother's-in-law. This was an important period in the construction of social and economic ties between families.
Where do newly married couples live? After the first child was born, the young couple was free to create their own household. In many Native American societies, there were strict rules about where the new household should be (e.g., the boy's father's village for a patrilocal society); however, in the Great Basin the rule was "ambilocalism," meaning ambivalence. The couple set up their household wherever the economic opportunities looked best.
How and on what grounds are marriages dissolved? This was a precarious existence and marriages were not infrequently dissolved by the death of either spouse, either by accident or by disease. Divorce, as such, was also reasonably common. Divorce issues included economic (worst of all) or sexual incompetence (bad enough), unfaithfulness ("understandable" but still unacceptable), and personality mismatches.
What is the status of children? From infancy through childhood, children spent most of their time under the supervision of their mothers. Growing toward adolescence, children spent increasing amounts of time watching and modeling activities of the appropriate gender. This probably began sooner for girls since they were already with their mothers. Boys were eventually instructed in hunting and fishing skills as well as in the crafts necessary for these. Puberty generally began serious instructional periods for both, but the Basin did not tend to celebrate this event in dramatic ways. For the boy, a more serious and dramatic event -- and true admission to manhood -- was the occasion of his first successful hunt (usually a deer hunt).
Property and inheritance. Who can own property? How is property passed onward? Since the Great Basin remained in an Archaic lifeway there were no permanent homes and no sedentary lifestyle, these being the factors that usually lead to issues of property. Individuals possessed "property" only in that original sense that they had personal belongings -- both men and women. When an individual died, he/she was buried. Some of the person's most intimate property was buried with him/her; the rest was burned at the burial site. The person's house was taken apart or otherwise destroyed. The person's name was never again mentioned.
What is the village's political organization? Chief(s)? Ceremonialists/priests? Shamans/healers? While most Native American villages had formal systems of governance by chiefs, often established by inheritance, it will be no surprise that Great Basin villages had few formal arrangements of this kind. After all, the villages were little more than extended family groups anyway. Most of the authority was possessed (again, for economic reasons) by the "rabbit boss" or the "antelope boss," etc., and that authority clearly did not extend beyond the occasion of the collective hunt. In time of need, authority was vested in the elders. If collective action was called for or if inter-village tension had to be negotiated, the elders would do this. Occasionally, by habit of consultations, an elder emerged as "headman" for a group and possessed the title as well as practical respect until death. Other headmen could emerge only by earning the title and being recognized by consensus.
There were few situations that warranted officially sanctioned ceremonialists or priests. Shamans, however, were universal and the Basin was no exception. A shaman possessed special access to the spiritual world and, consequently, shared in spirit power. Since ailments were deemed spiritual problems -- disease, poor hunting, small fish runs, bad weather -- it was the shaman whose power was enlisted to bring about a re-balance of the person or of the world. A person usually experienced signs of spiritual power relatively early in life and then received training and coaching to help develop access. These experiences were enhanced by exposure, drugs, and visiting powerful sites. The shaman usually had to demonstrate his/her power to the satisfaction of the community through a variety of exhibitions.