SMF205 Lecture Notes - Lecture 21: Indian Act, Sarah Carter
2 Nov 2016
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Unsettled pasts: reconceiving the west through women"s history. In aboriginal communities, the kinship system provided expectations about proper behaviour and shared responsibilities of wives, husbands, daughters, sons, daughters-in-law, sons-in-law, and others, which were conveyed through oral traditions and rituals. Marriages were arranged generally among elders, relatives, or close friends of the people to be married, and the relationship involved reciprocal obligations among the sets of relatives. The marriage was validated, and the reciprocal obligations of both parties established, through an exchange of gifts that could be initiated by either set of relatives. Same-sex marriages were accepted in many plains societies. One or more of the spouses might be a two-spirit, who took on the activities, occupations, and dress of the opposite sex. Most western canadian aboriginal nations practiced polygamy, and it was particularly prominent in plains societies. Marriages were dissolved for reasons of incompatibility, lack of support, or abuse.
