"So Fine and Pleasant, Beyond Description": The Lands and Lives of the Pegogamaw Crees

The Pegogamaw Crees occupied a large region centred on the lower North and South Saskatchewan Rivers. Many of these Crees were actively involved in the fur trade, particularly as middleman traders. As a result, they were frequently referred to by the fur traders through to the smallpox epidemic of 1...

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Bibliographische Detailangaben
Veröffentlicht in:Plains Anthropologist. - Taylor & Francis, Ltd.. - 49(2004), 191, Seite 217-252
1. Verfasser: Meyer, David (VerfasserIn)
Weitere Verfasser: Russell, Dale
Format: Online-Aufsatz
Sprache:English
Veröffentlicht: 2004
Zugriff auf das übergeordnete Werk:Plains Anthropologist
Schlagworte:Biological sciences Business Behavioral sciences Applied sciences Physical sciences
Beschreibung
Zusammenfassung:The Pegogamaw Crees occupied a large region centred on the lower North and South Saskatchewan Rivers. Many of these Crees were actively involved in the fur trade, particularly as middleman traders. As a result, they were frequently referred to by the fur traders through to the smallpox epidemic of 1781-82, following which they apparently disappeared as a distinct sociopolitical entity. We have interpreted the Pegogamaw as forming a discrete macro band (nation) of 600-800 persons who were divided among a number of regional bands. We view the social geography of the Pegogamaw as influenced by their cultural landscape, their sociopolitical organization and their economic system. This social geography was focused around several traditional ingathering centres at which the members of the regional bands gathered in the spring, and sometimes in the autumn. Movements through the reminder of the year took smaller groups away from the latter centres to the locations of food and other resources, and almost certainly to spiritually charged locations. The ingathering centres, therefore, and the camps in the "hinterland" composed the lands of the Pegogamaw. It is to this social geography that we look when interpreting the late precontact archaeological record of this region.
ISSN:2052546X