Abstract
MR. HALLIDAY has a personal experience of the Indians of British Columbia which goes back to 1873. He has been in personal contact with them for thirty-eight years, of which twenty-six were spent in charge of the Canadian Government Indian Agency of the Kwawkewlth (Kwakiutl), of Vancouver. His reminiscences of Indian custom fall into two parts. In the first, he describes an imaginary potlatch ceremony, that remarkable custom by which position and prestige was made to depend upon the lavishness with which gifts were distributed by the head of a clan at a feast; and in the second he records such of his experiences among, and impressions of the Indians, while acting as a Government official, as will serve to throw light on Indian character and mentality as expressed in religious belief, attitude to law and authority, and achievement under the white man's system of education. Mr. Halliday's views on racial origins are not to be taken seriously.
Potlatch and Totem: and the Recollections of an Indian Agent
By W. M. Halliday. Pp. xvi + 240 + 24 plates. (London and Toronto: J. M. Dent and Sons, Ltd., 1935.) 15s. net.
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[Book Reviews]. Nature 136, 934 (1935). https://doi.org/10.1038/136934c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/136934c0