366 ACCULTURATION IN SEVEN AMERICAN INDIAN TRIBES

abdomen. The wound festered and the young man was close to
death. The old shaman well aware of the consequences, cured
the boy and died shortly thereafter. His body had not yet been
made strong enough for his utilization of supernatural power.
Had he been “made strong’ by other shamans, which necessi-
tated a potlatch, he would not have died.

For the Alkatcho Carrier supernaturalistic practices had one
main function, the arming of the individual with another tool
for acquiring wealth. It was entirely to this end that the guardian
spirit quest at puberty was conducted, that men sought to make
themselves pure by continence and by fasting, that people sought
shamanistic power. Attitudes toward menstruants, and toward
mothers at parturition were also conditioned by the fact that
women at this period represented a source of danger to the food
supply of the community. Of course problems of health were also
concerned in supernaturalistic practices. The pubescent girl, by
not.adhering to the rigid dietary regulations, was liable to in-
jure her health permanently. One practice at birth offered the
mother two alternatives, if she hung the navel stump of her
child from a tree he would always be successful as a hunter; if
she threw it into the water her next delivery would be easier.
This was always a difficult choice for any mother.

MORES—PROPERTY ATTITUDES

Property on the Northwest Coast, as we have seen, was given
a high valuation; its possession gave the individual tremendous
prestige, and its destruction testified to the strength of character
of a noble. Property was wielded as a potent weapon in individ-
ual rivalries. To a large extent Alkatcho Carrier property atti-
tudes conformed to the Coast pattern, although the destruction
of property on the lavish scale of the rich maritime peoples was
regarded as utterly absurd by the Carrier.

Each village embraced a none too sharply defined area of ter-
ritory within which any village member could hunt, and from
which trespassers were excluded. This village territory was
roughly divided into a number of sadeku-held trapping grounds,
over which village members could hunt but could not trap unless