350 ACCULTURATION IN SEVEN AMERICAN INDIAN TRIBES

tices and beliefs, part of the basic Athabascan culture, remained
unchanged. This apparent religious conservatism may be attrib-
uted to a number of factors. In the first place, the Bella Coola were
not anxious to reveal their secret society secrets to the Carrier,
whom they were eager to impress and awe. Secondly, to the Car-
rier, whose religious outlook may be regarded as fundamentally
pragmatic, the highly elaborated and pervasive religious ideology
of the Bella Coola must have appeared as extraneous. Further-
more, it appears as though the Alkatcho Carrier accepted no more
of Bella Coola culture than necessary to maintain proper marital
relations. Finally, the fear engendered in the Carrier by the super-
naturalistic aspects of secret society performances (any mis-step
or breach of etiquette at these performances was severely punished
by sorcery), apart from the great expense of conducting the long
drawn out performances, must have acted as a deterrent against
their adoption. Neither was the widespread Bella Coola sorcery
taken over by the Alkatcho Carrier. And here again, the desperate
fear of the Bella Coola “black box” might very easily have led to
a scrupulous avoidance of any contact with these practices. If
Bella Coola sorcerers were as much feared during the early days
of contact as they are today, it is easy to understand how the Carrier
would have avoided them like the plague. Such avoidance would
obviate the possibility of learning the sorcerers’ techniques.

In material culture, a crude counterpart of the Coast plank
house was introduced. But apparently the Carrier never developed
the appropriate skills to deal with the complicated art forms and
wood working techniques of the Bella Coola. It would have been
indeed an extraordinary industrial revolution for the Carrier,
with their extremely rudimentary technology and art forms, to
have reached in a short time the technological level of the Coast.

WHITE CONTACT AND THE DISSOLUTION OF THE POTLATCH-RANK
SYSTEM
THE ABORIGINAL COMMUNITY

The present-day village of Alkatcho is an amalgam of a num-
ber of village populations combined as a result of a great popu-