Potlatch: Native Ceremony and Myth on the Northwest Coast

by Beck

Overview

Among the Northwest Coast Indians (Tlingit, Haida, and others), potlatches traditionally are lavish community gatherings marking important events, such as funerals or marriages. In celebrations that often last many days, sumptuous meals are served; legends about clans and ancestors are sung and enacted with dances, masks, costumes, and drums; totem poles are often raised; and gifts are presented to all guests. Through this custom, cultural ties are renewed and strengthened.

Using details from historical potlatches, and skillfully weaving in legends about animals and spirits revered by Natives—Raven, Grizzly Bear, Salmon, Frog—Mary Beck creates a compelling account of the potlatch ceremony and its place in a community's celebration of life, death, and continuity.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780882409443
Publisher:	Turner Publishing Company
Publication date:	03/31/2013
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	128
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Mary Giraudo Beck has lived Ketchikan, Alaska, since 1951, when she married a third-generation Alaskan. Besides rearing a family, she taught literature and writing courses for thirty years at Ketchikan Community College, a branch of the University of Alaska. Mary has an abiding interest in the Native culture of Southeast Alaska and a commitment to recording its oral literature. Previous works include two books, Heroes and Heroines in Tlingit-Haida Legend and Shamans and Kushtakas: North Coast Tales of the Supernatural, essays on Native mythology, and articles on travel by small boat to towns and Native communities in Southeast Alaska.

Read an Excerpt

For centuries Pacific Northwest Coast peoples from Alaska, Canada, Washington, and Oregon have held potlatches to honor the dead and sometimes also to celebrate births and marriages. These elaborate ceremonies employed complex symbolism and included singing, dancing, recitations of lineages and rights, distribution of gifts, and hosting a lavish feast. Invited guests witnessed these activities and thereby validated their hosts’ claims to names, rank, and property. But the claims of the guest to their own rank and prestige were enhanced through the honor accorded them in the position of their assigned seats and the value of the gifts they received, both being determined by the individual’s wealth and status.