Abstract
Ethnography of the Washo of Nevada, U.S.A. ROBERT H. LOWIE, during a stay of several weeks at Minden, Novada, and at Coloville, California, in 1926, was able to supplement the somewhat exiguous technical information available concerning the Washo. This is an isolated stock or an aberrant Hokan group ranged about Lako Tahoe in western-most Nevada and easternmost California (Univ. California Pub. Amer. Ethnol. and Archccol., 36, 5; 1939). Kroeber sets their number in 1770 as possibly 1,500, where more recent figures approximate 300. Their settlements were minute, their huts usually being from two to four. The chief had nothing to do with fighting enemies or adjusting quarrels within the tribe. His sole function was to arrange dances and other gatherings, where he would exhort the Washo to be good. Special headmen led in hunting jack rabbits, deer and antelope respectively. The antelope headman dreamed the right to office, the two others were purely secular leaders, the rabbit chief being chosen by the people. Property rights were maintained for clumps of pine nut trees, patches being marked off by lines of rocks. While brothers never quarrelled over pine nut privileges, trespass by a stranger was resented. Acorns were not a staple of diet, though the Washo made a dish of them. The pine nuts were gathered by men and women co-operatively. When dried, the nuts kept for about a year. Along the Walker River, the Washo constructed many ‘fish houses’. Trout were speared and fish were also taken in nets or clubbed to death. Antelope, deer and jack rabbits were hunted communally. Other species of animal added to the food supply; porcupine, grasshoppers and locusts were eaten. The shamans became such through dreams, but not every dream was interpreted as a transfer of supernatural power, even though it might be of an uncanny character.
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Research Items. Nature 144, 638–639 (1939). https://doi.org/10.1038/144638a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/144638a0