CHAPTER III
SOCIAL ORGANIZATION

Ancestral Family—The Village Community—The Family—
Kinship Terms—Slaves

S in other communities, the social, religious, and economic

aspects of Bella Coola life are interdependent, but there

is an added complexity in the influence of mythological con-

cepts. This not only complicates investigation in the field,

but it also renders a logical description of their customs diffi-

cult. Some reference to practices recorded in detail in later
chapters is unavoidable.

In many communities, ethnologists have been able to begin
with the social organization of the people. Among the Bella
Coola, this is impossible, since their religious beliefs colour
every aspect of their life, and these must be understood by
anyone who wishes to comprehend their culture asa whole. In
this chapter, too, it is necessary to commence with a descrip-
tion of that aspect of mythology which serves as the cohesive
bond to one of the social units, the ancestral family.

ANCESTRAL FAMILY

As recorded in the last chapter, it is believed that in the
beginning of time 4/guntdém caused the first men and women
to be created in his house above and sent them down to popu-
late the earth. They came in groups of two, three, four, or
more, brothers and sisters, or more rarely man and wife, to
different parts of the Bella Coola valley. They brought with
them tools, houses, clothing, even sustenance in the shape of
fish and animals. More important, from the point of view of
social organization, they brought with them names and cere-
monial prerogatives. In fact, the Bella Coola believe that
their culture was created by 4/quntaém in the distant past, and
has not been the result of slow growth. It is true that there

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