THE ALKATCHO CARRIER OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 385

PERSONALITY

It was not possible in the field, due both to the briefness of
the study and the high mobility of the Carrier, to determine
any but the most general and rather vague personality pictures
of Carrier individuals. There was no doubt, however, that per-
sonality differences were well marked so that we have no basis
for the establishment of a personality “‘type.’’ The socially ap-
proved personality traits, previously discussed, were possessed in
some measure at least by all but one of the Carrier. Whether
the aberrancy of this one individual can be regarded as a malad-
justment resulting from the acculturation process is by no means
certain. Yet the social behavior of this individual is so reminis-
cent of the maladjustment personality in a broken down culture
that it deserves notice here.

If one were to ask any Carrier who the most disliked person
in the village is, all fingers would unerringly turn to X. Now
well past forty, X has never been married, and it is quite unlikely
that he ever will be. It is one of the current jokes in the village
that not even A, the old and very homely widow, would marry
him. X wears a tailored, though ragged suit. He can read and
write English (this makes him extremely useful to the Carrier
in their trading enterprises, and they do make use of this ability,
yet so great is their dislike of his character that this does not
redeem him). Because of his slavish devotion to the ways of the
White man, he is contemptuously called “mister.”

X’s great vice is laziness. For a month after the fall hunting
season had started, X procrastinated about setting out for his
trap-line. Day after day with one excuse after another he post-
poned the trapping trip. One day he had a cold—a running nose
was sufficient to put X to bed. When his food ran out he hunted
rabbits, and when unsuccessful he spent the day in bed. The
men are very bitter against X and show him no sympathy. But
the women have been known to bring him food secretly.

What X did not lack, though, was pride. No matter how many
days he had gone without food he never complained or asked
for charity. He maintained, in fact, a pretense that he was very
well off and much superior to the “wild coyotes’ as he called the