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11

SOME ASPECTS OF POLITICAL ORGANIZATION AMONG THE AMERICAN ABORIGINES

Huxley Memorial Lecture for 1948

By PROFESSOR ROBERT H. LOWIE, PH.D.

In a gross description of continental areas theAmerican aborigines figure as separatistic and demo-cratic, contrasting in the former respect with theAfrican Negro, in the latter with both African andPolynesian. The illuminating studies on Africanpolitics edited by Drs. Fortes and Evans-Pritchardhave demonstrated decisively what readers of P. A.Talbot or Henri Labouret had long known, to wit,that the traditional picture of Negro government isover-siimplified. To be sure, there have been manypowerful monarchies in African history, but east ofthe Niger, in the Upper Volta region, and in theAnglo-Egyptian Sudan not a few tribes resist integra-tion as much as any people in the world. In 1931the 69,484 Lobi on French soil in the Upper Voltacouutry were spread over 1,252 mutually independentsham villages (pretendus villages); a single one had-over 600 residents, while 44 of these hamlets numberedfewer than 100, so that M. Labouret properly speaksof a particularisme accuse. Within no unit werethere any chiefs, and assemblies convened to ad-judicate particular issues had no means to executetheir decisions. In short, the gamut of possiblevariations is realized in Negro Africa: we find therevast kingdoms on the pattern of Uganda and Benin)but also minute, headless, "anarchic " groups (Fortesand Evans-Pritchard, 1940; Labouret, 1931, pp. 51,56, 215, 386).In the present essay I shall examine the correspond-ing phenomena in aboriginal America. In a dis-cussion of this sort it is convenient, if not inevitable,to use such terms as " the State," " law," " govern-ment," "political," " sovereignty." Conforming tothe views of Max Weber, Professor Radcliffe-Brownand Professor Thurnwald as I understand them, Itake these words to imply the control of physicalforce so far as a given society recognizes it aslegitimate. Thus, the King of Uganda could right-fully order the execution of a subject, no matter howarbitrary the decree 'might seem from our point ofview; and in West Africa the Mumbo Jumboorganization properly flogged malefactors. On theother hand, similar acts by the Ku Klux Klan are in

usurpation of functions monopolized by the Statein Western civilization.However, a genetic view of political structure mustreckon with the fact that primeval anarchy couldnot suddenly blossom forth into a modern Stateclaiming absolute dominance within its territoriallimits. It is, indeed, a documented fact that thestates of the most advanced modern peoples did notdevelop contemporary pretensions until relativelyrecent times, yet their immediate antecedents didhave a political organisation, in other words, lawsand government. A simple society, may be differ-entiated so as to foreshadow government, yet thecoercive element may be lacking. The Yurok ofnorth-western California and the Ifugao of Luzonhave no chiefs or judges whatsover, yet a dispute intheir- midst is settled by unofficial go-betweensapproved by public opinion, who offer their services,though without an iota of authority. A logicaldichotomy of societies on the rigid definition ofStatehood indicated above would rule out suchphenomena as quite irrelevant to a study of govern-ment, but the common sense of comparative juristsregards them as highly significant. In the followinginquiry, then, I shall indeed retain the exercise offorce as the criterion of a full-fledged politicalorganization, but I shall also consider what seemevolutionary stages toward that consummation.The questions I ask concerning American Indiansmay be phrased as follows: Within what territoriallimits does authority create some measure of soli-darity ? And what is the nature of the authorityencountered ? Specifically, where, in America, was astate of modern type realized ? What trends can bediscerned towards its evolution ?

SEPARATISM ND INTEGRATIONNotwithstanding my initial qualifications, Africansystems on the whole do differ noticeably from thoseof the New World. According to Roscoe, the Bagandaonce numbered three million; by 1911 civil warsand the sleeping sickness had sadly reduced them,

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12 ROBERTH. LoWIEbut not below the million mark. In 1668 Dappercredited Benin with a regular army of 20,000, whichat a pinch could be increased to five times as many;the capital was five or six Dutch miles in circumfer-ence and had thirty main streets. In about 1870Schweinfurth set the Shilluk at over a million; partlybecause of wars recent estimates are far more modest,yet they fluctuate between 50,000 and 100,000.Shortly before this explorer's visit a million Mangbettuhad been under the sway of a single ruler. Morerecently the king of Ashanti had a quarter of a millionsubjects (Roscoe, 1911, p. 6; Talbot, 1926, pp. 162 f.;Schweinfurth, Vol. 1, p. 15, Vol. 2, p. 35).Except in the few higher civilizations of Mexico,Yucatan, Colombia and Peru, there is nothing tomatch even the least of these figures, apparentparallels proving deceptive. To be sure, aboriginalChile is said to have been inhabited by from half amillion to a million and a half Araucanians, but" there was no peacetime overall chief, no centraliza-tion of authority." There were, indeed, greater andlesser territorial units, but the subordination of thesmaller " must have been close to purely nominal."Only during the nineteenth century " the earlieratomistic peacetime political structure assumed some-what greater unity, cohesion and hierarchization."To take a humbler figure, the 55,000 Navaho nowrank as the largest native tribe in the United States.But, in the first place, theirs has been a mushroomgrowth: in 1868 they did not exceed 15,000-possibly not 9,000. Secondly, it is not clear thateven this number were ever under a single govern-ment (Cooper, 1946, pp. 694, 724; Kluckhohn andLeighton, 1946, xv, p. 73).As a matter of fact, a tendency to separatism wasgeneral. So advanced a people as the Hopi-some3,000 in all-live in eleven villages, mislabelled" towns " by grandiloquent ethnographers. Yet eventhis paltry population neither has nor has had acommon head: " between pueblo and pueblo thereis an attitude of jealousy, suspicion and subduedhostility " (Titiev, 1944, pp. 59-68).Much ado has been made about the Creek Con-federacy in the south-eastern United States and theIroquois League of northern New York State. Un-questionably both prove wider political co-operationthan was common in the New World, but theirachievements must not be overrated. Authenticatedoccurrences reduce the cohesion involved in thesealliances to a proper scale. It so happened that oneof the Creek tribes, the Kasihta, became friendlywith the alien Chickasaw. When the latter were atwar with the Confederacy in 1793, " the Kasihtarefused to take up arms with the other Creeks andtheir right to act in this independent manner was

never questioned." Strictly parallel conduct amongthe federated Iroquois during the American Revolutionwas noted by Morgan. Each tribe was permitted todecide upon its course of action: the Oneida and halfof the Tuscarora sided with the colonists, the other"leagued" tribes with the English. It was as thoughin 1914 Bavaria and half of Baden had joined theAllies to fight their fellow-Germans. Apart from thisdisintegration in a crisis, earlier claims on behalf ofthe League's influence have been exploded by Fenton'shistorical researches. The Iroquois did raid far andwide, but it hardly holds true that " their dominionwas acknowledged from Ottawa river to the Tennesseeand from the Kennebec to Illinois River and LakeMichigan." In any case, at its peak in the seventeenthcentury the League never embraced over 16,000 or atmost 20,000 persons (Swanton, 1930, pp. 368-376;Hewitt, 1907; Fenton, 1940; Morgan, 1877, pt. 2,chap. 5).Since the one-eyed is king among the blind, thetwo faltering attempts at consolidation by the Creekand the Iroquois remain noteworthy " climactic "results, as my colleague Professor Kroeber mightphrase it. In world perspective, however, they areunimpressive.If skilful farming populations showed no greatersense of nationalism, little can be expected of thehunters. The Caribou Eskimo lacked permanentpolitical units altogether, each community being inProfessor Birket-Smith's judgment " an incoherentconglomerate of families or households, voluntarilyconnected by a number of generally recognized laws."The largest settlements have a population of about50, and all of them jointly do not exceed ten timesthat figure. Earlier reports, to be sure, suggest arecent decline, due largely to famine, but even half acentury ago the largest separate tribe of the areawas not credited with over 178 souls. To turntoward the southern tip of the New World, the Onapopulation at its peak is set at between 3,500 and4,000. Since this embraced 39 wholly independentterritorial hordes, the average size of the politicalunit was about 100 (Birket-Smith, 1929, pp. 65-75,260; Gusinde, 1946, p. 97).-Extreme as the Eskimo and the Fuegian instancesmay seem, they are paralleled on varying levels ofcultural complexity. The exceptionally favourablefood supply of North-west Californians failed toproduce solidarity beyond the bounds of kinshipand of immediate proximity. Of the seventeenindependent Yurok hamlets listed in 1852, the largesthad only 165 inhabitants; three others had over100; five, well under 50.Up and down the Pacific coast of North Americasimilar conditions prevailed. In north-eastern Wash-



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14 ROBERTH. LowIEThe Chibcha numbered possibly a million, buttheytoo, -were divided up among several distinct states, ofwhich Zipa, the largest, is credited with 300,000souls. The untrustworthiness of early estimates isindicated by a fantastic reference to armies of 50,000whereas no more than 600 Zipa braves attacked theSpanish troops (Kroeber, 1946, pp. 887-909).In short, the solitary convincing instance ofgrandiose expansion in the Western Hemisphere isthat of the Incas of Cuzco, Peru. Their realm didextend from Ecuador to northern Chile, embracingpossibly 6,000,000 subjects. However, we must re-collect that aggrandizement was a very late pre-Columbian achievement. " In early 'times neitherthe Inca nor any of their neighbours thought oforganizing their conquests as a permanent domain."Until the reign of Pachacuti (ca. A.D. 1438) " townsvery near to Cuzco preserved complete freedom ofaction and raided one another's territory wheneverthere seemed to be a good opportunity for plunder"

(Rowe, 1946, pp. 184 if., 201-209, 257 ff.)With a unique exception, then, the AmericanIndians must be regarded as eminently separatistic.However, there was certainly no sudden mutationfrom an Ona-like to an Inca-like condition. TheCreek and the Iroquois schemes indicate a stage ofsolidarity, however imperfect, on a larger than normalscale. Still more illuminating are phenomena withinthe historic period. Whereas the two well-knownleagues united mainly communities of like or closelyrelated speech, Pontiac (1763) and Tecumseh (died1813) brought together wholly unconnected tribes.The Ottawa chief rallied not merely his own peopleand their Algonkian congeners, but also the Senecaand the Wyandot of Iroquoian stock and the SiouanWinnebago. The Shawnee leader arrayed Algonkians,Wyandot, and even Creek Indians against the UnitedStates. Though both uprisings proved abortive,though they culminated in negation of British andAmerican overlordship rather than in the creationof a close-knit aboriginal state, they do prove thatunder strong emotional stimulus exceptional nativescould and did visualize co-operation of major scope.Individuals of comparable organizing skill, howeverdiverse their motivation, must be credited with thenascent forms of Andean imperialism (Mooney, 1896,pp. 668 f., 681-691).

COERCIVE UTHORITYI now turn to my second theme-the manifestationor adumbration of coercive authority in aboriginalAmerica. As in Africa, so here too, the range ofobservable phenomena is very great. At one extremewe find the " anarchic " Eskimo, north-west Cali-

fornians, and Fuegians; at the other, the Incas ofPeru. But in the New World, the latter must beregarded as atypical, and an intermediate conditionrepresents the norm. By this I mean a condition withdifferentiation of one or more individuals as headmen,even though their actual power is circumscribed oreven negligible. For convenience of exposition I shallcall these officials " titular chiefs " in contrast to the" strong chiefs " possessing unquestioned authority.After discussing the functions of these two types ofcivil heads, I shall examine the factors that mayhave strengthened the titular chief's hands in theAmerican milieu; and I shall likewise consider whatagencies aside from chiefs of either category haveassumed State functions.Titular Chiefs.-Titular chiefs vary considerably inactual status. The Chipewyan individuals who bearthe title exercise so little influence apart from theaccident of personality that one might perhaps justas well put this north Canadian tribe into the chieflesscategory with the Eskimo and the Fuegians. Else-where the office is not only honorific, but also fraughtwith definite public functions. In order to overcomesemantic difficulties it will be best to emphasize whatthe titular chief is not, before trying to indicate hispositive attributes. That he cannot, in manyAmerican societies, correspond to an African chief isapparent whenever a single band or tribe has morethan one title-bearer. Three hundred Canella areheaded by three " chiefs "; another Ge people, thePau d'Arco Kayapo, generally had two; the relatedGorotire band, five (in 1940). Until 1880 the Omahahad two principal chiefs, with a varying numberof lesser ones; this oligarchy was then supersededby a septet of uniform rank. Among the Arapahothere were four chiefs, and'the Cheyenne with apopulation never greatly exceeding 4,000 had forty-four (Birket-Smith, 1930, p. 66; Dorsey, 1884,p. 357; Nimuendajui, 1943; Llewellyn and Hoebel,1941, pp. 67 if.) A series of examples from diverseculture areas will elucidate what American chiefstypically lacked.The Ojibwa (round Lake Superior) had a council"with vague and limited powers." It selected achief " whose power was even vaguer than that ofthe council," and who was " less able to work his willagainst an existing custom." Tanner, who lived inthis region from 1789 until 1822, mentions " theunstable power and influence of the chiefs." In anassembly of 1,400 Assiniboine, Cree and Ojibwa, heremarks, "not one would acknowledge any authoritysuperior to his own will." A chief was, indeed,entitled to some deference, " but this obedience . . .continues no longer than the will of the chief corre-sponds entirely with the iuclination of those he



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16 ROBERT H. LOWIE1877, pt. II, chaps. II, IV, V; Jones, 1939, p. 82;Titiev, 1944, pp. 59-68; Parsons, 1939, pp. 154 f.;Dorsey, 1884, p. 217; Dorsey and Murie, 1940,pp. 112 f.).This dichotomy prevails even where a fusion ofcivil and military pre-eminence seems at first blusheasily realized. In several South American tribesthe " chief" did lead war parties, but whereas hebecame a virtual autocrat on a raid he relapsed intohis usual impotence on his return. On this pointearly sources on the Kariri and the Tapuya (easternBrazil) agree with recent ones on the Taulipang (southof the Roroima) and the Jivaro (Ecuador). OneNorth American phenomenon is instructive in thiscontext. The Iroquois League found it desirable tocreate two generals " to direct the movements of theunited bands," but these officials never aspired to adictatorship. To quote Morgan, " the essentialcharacter of the government was not changed....Among the Iroquois this office never becameinfluential (Koch-Griinberg, 1923, p. 94; Nantes,1706, p. 103; Pompeu Sobrinho, 1934, p. 18;Karsten, 1923, pp. 7 f. ; Morgan, 1877, pt. II, chap. V.).In short, the conceptions of civil and of militaryleadership were distinct in America. There. wassporadic tyranny even in the democratic NorthernPlains societies, but it sprang from individual bully-ihg, usually supported by a powerful body of kinor from putative supernatural sanction, not from thecoup d'etat of a captain returning drunk with successand filled with the ambition of a despot.Besides being a skilful peacemaker, the ideal chiefwas a paragon of munificence. This may hold moreoften in North than in South America, but in-stances are not wanting in the south. Thus, aNambikuara headman constantly shares with histribesmen whatever surplus of goods he may haveacquired: " Generosity is the quality . . . which isexpected of a new chief." In the north, this demandis constant. In Alaska, where the Eskimo wereaffected by the ideology of their Indian neighbours,the title of " chief " automatically devolved on thatNunivak who entertained most lavishly at villagefeasts. A chief of the Tanaina Athabaskans (aboutCook Inlet) feeds and clothes the destitute, providesfor the households of men away on hunting trips,adopts orphans, and even pays for shanmanisticservices that are beyond a poorer tribesman's means.The coastal tribes of British Columbia, notwithstand-ing their emphasis on hereditary status, insisted thata headman should validate his clainms by frequentdistribution of property. In the Plains area chieftain-ship and niggardliness were mutually exclusive. Toquote Wissler, " no Blackfoot can aspire to be lookedupon as a headman unless he is able to entertain well,

often invite others to his board, and make a practiceof relieving the wants of his less fortunate bandmembers." The Cheyenne or the Crow had identicalstandards of behaviour (Levi-Strauss, 1944, p. 24;Lantis, 1946, p. 248; Osgood, 1937, p. 132; Sapir,1915; Wissler, 1911, p. 23; Llewellyn and Hoebel,1941, p. 79).A third attribute of civil leadership is the gift oforatory, normally to be exercised on behalf of tribalharmony and the good old traditional ways. Speakingof the Sherente, Nimuendajui reports: " On manyevenings . . . I saw the chief assemble the village.Stepping in front of the semi-circle . . . , he wouldimpressively and vividly harangue the crowd forpossibly an hour. Usually he began circumstantiallyexplaining the half-forgotten ceremonial of somefestival.... There followed a lengthy admonition ...to preserve ancient usage. In conclusion, he wouldurge all to live in peace and harmony. . . . " Theextinct Tupinamba of coastal Brazil regarded aspecies of falcon as the king of his zoological class:" ils se fondaient sur le fait que cet oiseau se levaitde bon matin et haranguait les autres oiseaux, toutcomme le chef de la hutte le faisait chaque jour,a l'aube, dans les villages tupinamba." In the Chacothe contemporary Pilaga merely postpone oratoryuntil nightfall: " Ce prurit d'eloquence est communa tous les caciques et constitue . . . un des principauxattributs de leur dignite..... Le theme habituel deces harangues est la paix, l'harmonie et l'honnetete,vertus recommandees a tous les gens de la tribu."In characteristic fashion a Chiriguano explained toNordenskiold the existence of a female head of thetribe: her father had taught her to speak in public.Thousands of miles to the north, in the Shoshonevernacular a headman figures as " the talker," which"designates his most important function." Maricopaand Apache chiefs, too, were matutinal lecturers;and among the Havasupai (Arizona) Spier says:" it might be said not that a chief is one who talks,but that one who talks is a chief (Metraux, 1928,p. 179; 1937, p. 390; Nordenskiold, 1912, p. 229;Steward, 1938, p. 247; Spier, 1928, pp. 237 f.1933, p. 158; Goodwin, 1942, pp. 165 f., 178).In my opinion, then, the most typical Americanchief is not a lawgiver, executive, or judge, but apacifier, a benefactor of the poor, and a prolixPolonius.Strong Chiefs.-But not all chiefs were only titular.A relatively small, but significant number of societieshad genuine rulers. It is best to begin with an un-exceptionable example, the Inca state, the outstandingAmerican sample of Drs. Fortes and Evans-Pritchard'scategory A-political systems with a well developedgovernmental apparatus.



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Some Aspects of Political Organization Arnong the American Aborigines 1The Inca emperor, ruling by divine right, un-doubtedly did control means of coercion. Throughan elaborate c bureaucracy " he exacted tribute fromhis subjects auid directed their labouirs, even theirprivate lives. He did not scruple to transfer niassesof the population from one province to another inthe interests of the dynasty. What elsewhere inthe New World were private wrongs here becameoffences against the Crown and called for summaryofficial penalties.Emblematic of autocracy wrere the trappings ofroyalty otherwise conspicuously rare in America.The. ruler wore and carried impressive regalia,travelled in a litter borne by special attendants, kepta large harein, and surrounded his court with anelaborate etiquette. His corpse was prepared forpreservation in the palace, and his favourite wivestogether with a suitable retinue were strangled toaccompany their mnaster to the hereafter (Rowe,1946).Concerning the Aztec chief the authorities yieldcontradictory and confusing evidence, but it seemsclear that he did not conform to the Inca pattern..He was apparently not closely identified with thesupreme deity; and, notwithstanding fixed successionwithin a lineage, he could be deposed. The hereditaryhalach-uinic of the Maya probably wielded greaterpower, claiming tribute as well as military service andperiodically examining subordinate chiefs in. order toweed out pretenders. Significantly, both he and thesacred war leader travelled in a litter, a synibol ofexalted rank also attached to a Chibeha mnonarch,who resembled his Peruvian parallel in other respects.He, too, received tribute, kept a seraglio, hedgedhimself about with ceremonials, and was buried withseveral wives and slaves. When he expectorated, anattendant caught the spittle in an extended cloth-a form of flunkeyism hardly conceivable among thieCrow or Cheyenne (Roys, 1933, pp. 192 f. ; Tozzer,1941, pp. 165, 222; Kroeber, 1946; Vaillant, 1941,pp. 113 if.).It may be natural to find a full-blown politicalsystenm among the materially advanced populationswhose very numerical strength requires some centralcontrol if there is to be any solidarity. But, interest-ingly enough, the outlines of such a systein appear alsoin the tiny states of the south-eastern culture area of

North America. This anomaly has been recentlystressed by Steward. Indeed, the Natchez sovereigncame very close to the Inca conception of royalty.He claimned relationship with the solar deity, hiskinsmen ranking as " Little Suns"; held power overlife and death; travelled in a litter; and in deathwas followed by wives and servants, his bones beinglaid to rest in a temple near those of his predecessors.

His subjects were obliged to keep at least four pacesaway from his person and would hail himn "withgenuflections ainld reverences." Elements of thisconmplex,such as the litter characterize the Timucuaof Florida and the Chickasaw of Northern Mississippi;and though the monarchical principle is generallyw-eaker in the south-east as a whole than among theNatchez, it reappears in full force in Virginia. "Ashalfe a God they esteeme him," Captain John Smithreports in wxritingof the Powhatan chief. This rulerarbitrarily ordered his subjects to be beaten, tortureda1(d killed, and kept a sizeable bodyguard to executehis will. "What he commandeth they dare notdisobey in the least thing." He deman(led tributeof skins, beads, corn and game; and nuImerousconcubines w'aited upon him Here and there un-democratic usages turn up as far north as NewEngland, where they have been plausibly ascribed tosouth-eastern influei ces. However that be, thespecific resemiblances among Peruvians, Natchez, andPowhatan suggest a common origin for so atypicalan Amierican polity (Swainton, 1911, pp. 100-110, 139ff.; 1946, pp. 161, 17it), 598 if., 641-654, 728, 730;Flannery, 1939, pp. 116 f., 122 f.; Steward, 1947,p. 97). Of course, this does not imply that the socialscheme diffused from the Inca Empire itself, a chrono-logically impossible assumption, but rather thatcertain elements of a monarchical system crystallizedsomewhere between Yucatan and Peru and spread ina period considerably antedating the expansion ofInca sovereignty. If I understand Professor Stewardcorrectly, this agrees with his recent interpretation ofthe facts.Given the nmarked libertarian bias of most Americanaborigines, how can we conceive the growth ofabsolutism ? What could convert the titular chiefwho cajoled his tribesmen into preserving the socialequilibrium into a veritable king ?E'olutionary Germs.-In re-examinlng the chiefiessor virtually chiefless tribes we discover here and therethat the Indians wilingly subordinate themselves tosome individual for a particular enterprise. In a rabbitdrive the Washo and neighbouring Shoshoneans ofthe western Basin temporarily followed a leadernoted for his skill as a hunter, though " apart fromthat special occasion his authority was nil (Lowie,1924, pp. 196 f., 284 f., 305).

An exceptionally large gathering may favour thesimilarly spontaneous acceptance of a director. TheYahgan, who normaly move about in very smallgroups, unite up to the number of eighty when abeached whale provides food for the participants at aninitiation ceremony. Without an election somemature man well posted in traditional usage emergesas the master of cereionies and henceforth plans theB



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18 ROBERT H. LOWIEdaily routine. What is more, he appoints a constable,who in turn chooses a number, of deputies. Thesepolicemen exercise genuine legal authority: theyforcibly drag refractory tyros to the initiation lodge,overpower a troublemaker, bind him, and let himlie for half a day without food or drink. The Yahgan,furthermore, have a men's club: the members as awhole bully their wives into fetching fuel and foodfor the assemblage, and one man has the duty ofkeeping women from prying (Gusinde, 1937, pp.199-208, 653, 779 if., 798 ff., 805-961, 1319-1376).Informally established offices are not necessarilyephemeral. The Nambikuara illustrate the rise of arelatively stable chieftaincy, as suggestively de-scribed by Levi-Strauss (1944). A man with inborngifts of leadership forms the nucleus for a group thatvoluntarily acclaims him, thereby shifting responsi-bility to his shoulders. He directs the food questduring the difficult dry season, shares his surplusfreely, prepares arrow poison for his adherents, andplans their entertainments. In requital, they concedehim certain prerogatives, such as plural marriage, butwithout their approbation he is powerless. Here,then, there emerges a titular chief with genuineinfluence, though still not a ruler.By way of contrast there is a short-lived butabsolute authority of the war leader as alreadynoted for several South American groups. ForNorth Afierican parallels we have fuller data. ACrow supposedly organized his raid only whenprompted by a supernatural patron, whence theleader's ascendancy over all who joined his expedi-tion: theirs were the menial tasks, his the loot todispose of as he chose, but also the responsibility forfailure and losses. The equalitarian attitudes ofeveryday life recede, supplanted by a transitory over-lordship. Omaha captains even appointed policemenwho had the right to beat refractory or laggingwarriors. Fleeting dictatorship of this limited rangeis not irrelevant to our problem. About 1820 theCheyenne conceived themselves as one huge war-party, whose leader thus automatically becamesupreme, supplanting the tribal council of " chiefs."Yet in consonance with native ideology he retainednot a vestige of his special authority when his taskwas done (Dorsey, 1884, p. 321; Llewellyn andHoebel, 1941, p. 163).Undisputed supremacy for a restricted period wasalso granted during religious festivals. When aHopi ceremony is in process, Stephen (1936, p. 728)learned, " the chief of it is chief of the village and allthe people." Similarly, the priest who directed aCrow Sun Dance was not merely the master ofceremonies, but the temporary ruler of the tribe,superseding the camp chief.

Non-Chiefly Authority.-Perhaps the most remark-able instances of authority, full-fledged and notaltogether ephemeral, turn up in connection withimportant economic undertakings which are to besafeguarded in the common interest.A pertinent phenomenon from northern Brazilseems to have eluded general notice. The Apinayechief, if properly qualified, succeeds his maternaluncle in the office, by virtue of which he guards thevillagers' interests and orders the execution of evilsorcerers. But at the planting season a pair of menrepresenting the moieties begin to act as independentexecutives. One of them collects the seeds, invokesthe Sun to prosper them, and is the first to plant aplot. Both of these officials watch the crops, chantdaily songs to promote growth, and forcibly preventor punish premature harvesting. " Woe to any Indianwoman who should dare to remove clandestinely eventhe most trifling product from her own plots beforematurity is officially announced " If the rule isbroken, they " attack the houses of the village orthe camp, raging and throwing everything aboutpellmell, breaking the vessels and flogging withthorny whips any women who have not fled in goodseason, or gash them with a special weapon.Even the chief's wife was once severely chastized fortransgressing the law. Apart from the religiousfeature, the phenomenon reminds an Americanist ofthe Winnebago or Menomini constables who punishedoverhasty gatherers of wild rice (Nimuendajiu, 1939,pp. 13, 19, 89, 131 f.; Radin, 1923, pp. 226 f.;Skinner, 1913, p. 26).The last-mentioned officers from the Woodlands ofNorth America are obvious variants of the familiarPlains Indian " soldiers " mentioned by Parkman.Their activities developed most spectacularly duringa communal hunt, upon whose outcome the very lifeof the natives would depend. In order to ensure amaximum kill, a police force-either coinciding with amilitary club, or appointed ad hoc, or serving byvirtue of clan affiliation-issued orders and restrainedthe disobedient. In most of the tribes they notonly confiscated game clandestinely procured, butwhipped the offender, destroyed his property, and, incase of resistance, killed him. The very sameorganization which in a murder case would merelyuse moral suasion turned into an inexorable Stateagency during a buffalo drive. However, Hoebel andProvinse have shown that coercive measures extendedconsiderably beyond the hunt: the soldiers alsoforcibly restrained braves intent on starting warparties that were deemed inopportune by the chiefs;directed mass migrations; supervised the crowds ata major festival; and might otherwise maintain lawand order (Wissler, 1911, pp. 22-26; 1912, pp. 17,



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Some Aspects of Potitical Oganization Among the American Aborigines 1924; 1922, pp. 161, 178; Richardson, 1940, pp. 9 f.;Jenness, 1938, pp. 11, 41; Mandelbaum, 1940,pp. 203, 225; Kroeber, 1908, pp. 147 f. ; Hoebel,1936, 443-448; 1940, p. 82; Provinse, 1937, p. 347).Here, then, we find unequivocal authoritarianism.Theoretically, the police acted, at least in a number oftribes, under the direction of the tribal chief or council.The foundation was thus laid for either an autocracyor an oligarchy. Why did this logical end fail to beconsummated ?In*the first place, let us revert to the seasonalrhythm of the Plains Indians. During a large partof the year the tribe simply did not exist assuch; and the families or minor unions of familiesthat jointly sought a living required no specialdisciplinary organization. The soldiers were thus aconcomitant of numerically strong aggregations,hence functioned intermittently rather than con-tinually.Secondly, the " constitutional " relationship ofchief and police was by no means so simple as mightappear. It was definitely not that of the head of amodern state toward his army. Denig, whoseobservations on the impotence of Assiniboine chiefshave been quoted, ascribes to the police " the wholeactive power of governing the camp or rather of carry-ing out the decrees and decisions of the councils." Hehimself witnessed " two killed and many severelythrashed for their misdemeanours." Were thesoldiers, then, strictly subordinate to the council, asDenig's phraseology implies ? Well, according tothe same authority, if councillors threatened to growviolent at a meeting, " two soldiers advanced to themiddle of the lodge and laid two swords crosswiseon the ground, which signal immediately restoredorder and quiet." There was thus a dispersal ofsovereignty: the titular chief had none, the councilwas in principle a governing board controlling apolice squad that carried out their decisions, but defacto the theoretically subordinate police acted withconsiderable independence (Denig, 1930, pp. 436,439, 442, 444 f., 448, 455, 530 if.).The much fuller data on the Cheyenne collectedby Messrs. Llewellyn and Hoebel (1941, pp. 67-131)corroborate this interpretation. Here a self-perpetu-ating council of forty-four " chiefs " with safe tenureduring a ten-year term of office was headed by fivepriest-chiefs, one of whom took precedence as therepresentative of the mythical culture here, SweetMedicine. This did not make him the equivalent ofa Shilluk kinLg,or he " wielded no consequent specialpolitical authority " nor was he above the traditionallaw. Unlike other Plains peoples, the Cheyenne forritual reasons conceived homicide as a crime. WhenLittle Wolf, the head chief and man of superb record,

killed a tribesman, though under mitigating circum-stances, he did not escape the penalty, but went intovoluntary exile. A lesser chief is known to have beenseverely flogged by the soldiers for a similar offenceand was likewise banished, though not demoted inrank.To turn to the council as a whole, it is true that theyappointed one of the five existing military clubs tooversee a migration or a communal hunt. But, apartfrom such matters as directing travel, the " chiefs "were little concerned with secular affairs, sometimeswaiving the right to a definitive decision and thusleaving a great deal to the discretion of their appoint-ees. Accordingly, the police became the finalauthority in a large number of issues either beyondthe competence of their electors or deliberately turnedover to them by the council for settlement. Thesoldiers thus could, and repeatedly did, inauguratelegal precedents, nor does it appear that these wereever challenged by the " chiefs."

Llewellyn and Hoebel draw attention to anextraordinary illustration of police autonomy. Duringa march directed by the Fox society, a councillornamed Sleeping Rabbit answered a taunt by shootingthe interlocutor, a member of the Dog organization.The arrow could not be extricated. The Foxesseverely mauled and kicked the criminal; and whenthe victim's arm grew worse they decreed that Sleep-ing Rabbit must amputate it, a novel verdict. Publicsentiment, crystallized in the four other societies,favoured exiling the culprit, but he avowed his guiltand, in self-infliction of a fine, presented the Foxeswith five good horses. This settled the matter.As our authorities show, this was emphatically notan example of composition. Damages accruedneither to the victim nor to his kin nor to his society,but to the Foxes. They were the State in this case,receiving the indemnity as a Bantu ruler might incorresponding circumstances. Of course, so far aswe know, the case is unique and might have remainedso throughout Cheyenne history; but the merepossibility of its occurrence is significant.The relations of the Cheyenne council and soldierswere, of course, determined by the general Americanconception of chieftaincy. If more than temporarysovereignty were to be attained at all, it would thusmore naturally centre in the police. Here we encountera third factor that militated against autocracy oroligarchy. In this culture area the constabularyforce was rarely fixed, being as a rule recruiteddifferently for different seasons or even for specificoccasions. In a Pawnee village, for example, thechief's adjutant and three of his deputies acted aspolice, but for a buffalo hunt a priest chose one offour societies as a nonce police (Dorsey and Murie,

B3 2



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20 ROBERT H. LOWIE1940, p. 113). The Cheyenne, we have noted, hadfive such organizations; it was not likely that fourof them would calmly submit to the oligarchicalpretensions of one rival body.It so happens that in this tribe the Dogs did enjoyan unusual advantage over the other clubs: by anaccident of history, a century or more ago, the malesof one band collectively joined this society, so thatin this solitary instance society and band coincidedin adult male membership. The chief of the Dogswas thus ipso facto head of his band, and the Dogmien remained united during the winter when rivalclubs were scattered over various local divisions.Here, then, the germ for hegemony occurred, but itnever reached fruition.A further point must be mentioned. Within anyone of the military clubs its chief was supreme, issuingorders like a war captain and sometimes ruling hismembers with an iron hand. Yet the libertarianimpulses of these Indians would not brook servilityin an absolute sense ; in 1863, characteristically, theDogs forbade their chief to attend a treaty council withAmerican commissionersIn short, though the Plains Indians indubitablydeveloped coercive agencies, the dispersal of authorityand the seasonal disintegration of the tribes precludeda permanent State of modern type. Generalizing forthe whole of America, there were sundry gropingstowards centralization of power, but counteractingtrends made them fall short of permanent results.Yet, such results were achieved in Peru and in sorelatively simple a setting as that of the Powhatan.What were the circumstances involved in these cases ?And is it possible to detect similar factors in thenormally libertarian societies ?The Religious Factor.-When Alexander the Greataspired to imperial grandeur, he was not contentwith the glory of a successful general, but claimeddivinity and, as a mark of its acceptance, prostration.This sacred character, we have seen, supposedlybelonged to the Inca ruler and to the Natchez GreatSun; the obeisances and genuflections in theirpresence are the equivalent of Alexander's demand forpros8cune'sis. With frankly evolutionary aim I shallassemble some data from the simpler American tribesin order to show that religious beliefs were used toattain political influence there; and I suggest thatthe awe which surrounded the protege of supernaturalpowers formed the psychological basis for morecomplex political developments. It is possible for atitular chief to add to his standing by combiningspiritual blessings with civil eminence, or he mayenter an alliance with the religious functionary, thusforeshadowing the familiar spectacle of State andChurch joined in the support of the established order.

The latter conitingency is classically exemplified inGayton's (1939) study on the Yokuts, a CentralCalifornian stock of some 18,000 souls divided intoover fifty autonomous tribelets, probably neverexceeding 800 in population. In each of these unitsan acceptable member of the Eagle lineage served aschief, representing the mythical Eagle who had ruledthe world in dim antiquity. Notwithstanding thislofty role, the chief was not an autocrat, but he didhold more than nominal precedence. Provided withfood by his tribesmen, enjoying a monopoly of tradein highly prized products, entitled to a share in doctors'fees, he was the wealthiest man in the community.By way of reciprocity, it was his duty to entertainvisitors, to help the poor, and to contribute generouslyto the cost of festivities. He determined movementsfrom and to the village and alone could authorizethe death penalty for a public enemy. In general, headhered to the part of a peace-preserving headman,rarely making a vital decision without previouslyconsulting other venerable men.Nevertheless, a chief could de facto magnify hispower with the aid of a favourite shaman. In lieuof taxation the Yokuts expected the persons attendinga festival to defray the expenses. If a wealthyvillager evaded this obligation, the chief's medicine-man would smite him with illness and impoverish hisvictim by exorbitant fees for sham treatment. Sincethe chief's consent was essential for violent measuresagainst the doctor, he could always dismiss complaintson the subterfuge of insufficient evidence. It isimportant to note that public opinion as a rulesympathized with the chief and the shaman, for themiser who failed to contribute at festivals therebyimposed extra burdens on his fellows.Given the native faith, an unscrupulous chief couldevidently work his will in collusion with a shamanisticaccomplice. Yet in the long run, Dr. Gaytonexplains, such knavish tricks led to a revulsion offeeling. A chief could not safely give rein to hismalevolent inclinations. In the face of continuoussuspicion his prestige would wane, in extreme instanceshe might even be supplanted in office by a lessobjectionable scion of his line. As for his accessory,the attitude toward doctors being ambivalent here,as in much of North America, a persistently male-volent leech was likely to be killed by the enragedfamily of his victim. In short, the Yokuts system in-volved a considerable strengthening of chiefly in-fluence without, however, approaching anything likedespotic rule. Its instructiveness lies largely indemonstrating religion as a prop of the civil head onthe relatively low plane of a simple hunting people.In a not inconsiderable number of South Americansocieties there is a personal union of temporal and



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22 ROBERT H. LOWIEWhen not pitted against the terrible odds actually en-countered by Pontiac and Tecumseh, natives of theirmentality would be able to ovetcome both the

dominant separatism and the dominant libertarianismof their fellows and create the semblance of a modernstate.

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EDS. ... .. ... ... ... 1940 African Political Systems. Oxford University Press.GAYTON, A. H. ... ... ... ... 1939 " Yokuts-Mono Chiefs and Shamans." UC 24.GILBERT, WM. HARLEN ... ... ... 1943 The Eastern Cherokees. BAE-B 133. Washington.GILLIN, JOHN ... ... ... ... ... 1936 The Barama River Caribs of British Guiana. Pap. Peabody Mus.,Harvard University, 14, No. 2. Cambridge.GOODWIN, GRENVILLE ... ... ... 1942 The Social Organization of the Western Apache. University ofChicago Press.GUSINDE, MARTIN ... ... ... ... 1937 Die Feuerland Indianer. II: Die Yamana; vom Leben und Denkender Wassernomaden am Kap Hoorn. M6dling bei Wien: VerlagAnthropos.- ........... ... ... ... ... 1946 Urmenschen in Feuerland. Berlin, Wien, Leipzig.HIEWITT, J. N. B. ... ... ... ... 1907 " Iroquois." HAI, BAE-B 30, 1. Washington.HOEBEL, E. ADAMSON ... ... ... 1936 "Associations and the State in the Plains." Amer. Anthrop. 38.... ... ... ... ... 1940 The Political Organization and Law-Ways of the Comanche Indians.Mem. Amer. anthrop. Ass., No. 54.JENNESS, DIAMOND ... .. ... ... 1938 The Sarcee Indians of Alberta. Nat. Mus. Canada, Bull. 90. Ottawa.Anthrop. Ser., 23.JONES, WILLIAM ... ... ... ... 1906 Central Algonkian. Archamol. Rep., 1905. Toronto, pp. 136-146.1939 Ethnography of the Fox Indians. Edited by Margaret Welpley

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24 ROBERT H. LoWIEReferences

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