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3 unusual facts about potlatch


Potlatch

Chief O'wax̱a̱laga̱lis of the Kwagu'ł describes the potlatch in his famous speech to anthropologist Franz Boas,

For some cultures, such as Kwakwaka'wakw, elaborate and theatrical dances are performed reflecting the hosts' genealogy and cultural wealth.

Potlatch, Idaho

The company developed and ran Potlatch on a model mostly patterned after that used by Pullman Company for its company town in Illinois.


Cultural ecology

It derives from the work of Franz Boas and has branched out to cover a number of aspects of human society, in particular the distribution of wealth and power in a society, and how that affects such behaviour as hoarding or gifting (e.g. the tradition of the potlatch on the Northest North American coast).

Elk River, Idaho

Elk River was formerly the site of a Potlatch sawmill, phased out after several decades during the 1930s.

Gitlaan

Anderson, Margaret, and Marjorie Halpin (2000) "Introduction" to Potlatch at Gitsegukla: William Beynon's 1945 Field Notebooks, ed.

St. Maries River Railroad

For several years from 1980 until the mid-1980s, Potlatch also owned and operated 45 miles of adjoining former Milwaukee Road trackage, between St. Maries and Avery, Idaho, as a private logging railroad that connected with the St. Maries River Railroad.

William Beynon

Anderson, Margaret Seguin, and Marjorie Halpin (eds.) (2000) Potlatch at Gitsegukla: William Beynon's 1945 Field Notebooks. Vancouver: UBC Press.

William Henry Pierce

First informally and then formally after his ordination in 1886, Pierce worked to convert Natives and suppress indigenous customs (like the potlatch and secret societies) in B.C. coastal villages such as Alert Bay, Bella Bella, Port Essington, Greenville, and Klemtu, and even Wrangell, Alaska.


see also