On Manitou and Consanguineal Respect between Human and Animal Societies in Southern New England

Summary

By definition, hunter-gatherer societies rely upon few, if any, domesticated animals. Domestication is counter to many hunter-gatherer worldviews, where human and non-human animals are seen as sharing a literal biological connection. From here, in essence, domestication is akin to slavery. Examples from the ethnohistoric and archaeological records will be used to illustrate how local Native groups in southern New England treated wild and domestic animals and animal remains in culturally prescribed ways, which pushes against the notion that animals should be placed in such a dichotomy in this context. Counter to the idea that humans are "rulers" over the animal kingdom, the Woodland Indian concept of manitou shows how animals, in fact, also controlled humans in very real ways.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Where the Wild Things Are Not: Human-Animal Interaction in the Space between Wild and Domestic   •
• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 13213