Abstract
THE KHALLAM.—Miss Erna Gunther has made a careful study of the Khallam, embodying existing literature, which is not extensive, in addition to her own personal observations. This has now appeared as No. 5, vol. 6, of the Publications in Anthropology of the University of Washington. The information obtained in the field was mainly collected at Jamestown, Washington Harbour, and Esquimault, but the Khallam formerly lived on the southern shore of the Strait of Juan de Fuca from the mouth of the Hoko River to Port Discovery Bay opposite Vancouver Island. They thus live in the region designated by Wissler as “the Salmon area,” which extends along the Pacific Coast from Alaska to San Francisco bay. Their villages were for the most part on the coast, and their principal means of subsistence was sea food, especially salmon. Characteristically, agriculture was non-existent, vegetable food being obtained by gathering wild products-berries and roots. Each village, however, as a rule had one or two hunters, depending entirely on bow and arrow, who alone knew the mountainous country behind the shore. The villages consisted of a single row of rectangular houses with doors facing the water. The smaller houses were twenty feet by thirty feet; the potlatch house was fifty feet by two hundred feet. In camping, mats were carried to form temporary shelters. Their marriage regulations differed according to the social standing of the individual. People of high rank married outside the tribe; but such a marriage was only possible to families of considerable wealth; and although marriage with a relative was avoided, union with a cousin might be necessary in order not to mate with a person of lower rank. Poor people who could not marry outside the village or tribe because of the expense of the feasts involved made the best arrangements they could, avoiding parallel and cross-cousin marriages. Marriages with the northern tribes were the most desired. Most of the people are now Shakers, and it is difficult to obtain any complete account of the old religion, but, as in most of the American tribes, the secret society and the guardian spirit were prominent, while there was little idea of superior deities whom every one worshipped.
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Research Items. Nature 119, 683–685 (1927). https://doi.org/10.1038/119683a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/119683a0