Being and Becoming in Huron-Wendat Worlds

Summary

Seventeenth century accounts of Huron-Wendat life, like those of myriad other Eastern Woodlands groups, underscore a relational ontology wherein the media which separate humans from non-humans, as well as the organic from the inorganic, is principally porous and naturally given to communion. These same accounts, however, also suggest that the Huron-Wendat possessed an intricate soul schema that, while variegated and capable of metamorphosis, was nonetheless primary and essentialist in nature. In this paper I highlight and think through the complexities of such an ontology, chiefly the inherent tension between the relational and the essential, and assess where and to what extent this might be manifested in Huron-Wendat material culture.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 81st Annual Meeting, Orlando, FL (2016)   •
• Dynamic Worlds, Shifting Paradigms: Relational Ontologies in Archaeology

Keywords

Spatial Coverage