Territories Quiz

docx

School

University of British Columbia *

*We aren’t endorsed by this school

Course

425

Subject

Geography

Date

Oct 30, 2023

Type

docx

Pages

Uploaded by sumeragiakeiko

Question 1: In at least one paragraph and using examples from the course material, explain how the geography of an Indigenous group's territory affected their way of life. Think of language, shelter, food gathering, transportation and culture. The environment in which an Indigenous group lives in can be called their territory. This territory with its geography can have extensive influences on how the people might maintain their way of life, and this was especially the case with British Columbia. The modern province of British Columbia is a land of mountains and water systems, of so many different climates and habitats with varying kinds of flora and fauna. It is this sort of variations on geography, climate, and resources that led to the people living to adapt to those different circumstances, resulting in perhaps the most diverse Indigenous cultural landscape in Canada. For example, about half of all Indigenous languages in Canada are located in British Columbia. One way the environment shaped Indigenous lives was in the forms of society. The Interior societies tended to have a more flexible and horizontal form, which can be considered “democratic” without a class system from our perspective. This is because the harsher environment of the Interior meant that it was harder for a society to have many people living in one location, and as such the smaller groups meant it was much easier for the family unit to survive, thus contributing to a horizontal social structure. On the other hand, the richer coastal societies could afford to have much higher population and density, which meant that without a stricter vertical hierarchy to ensure a chain of command and delineation of rights among the people and between different groups, the likelihood of conflict would be very high. As such, the very richness of the environment led to a far more “organized” class system that does not appear in the interior. This same environment difference shaped the sort of shelter the people lived in and the transportation they used. With the coastal region, the abundance of food meant that it was easier to establish permanent villages to serve as a base for the people to live, along with larger shelters in the form of longhouses where multiple branches of the same family can live together. The abundance of water led to the development of canoes, which would facilitate large scale transportation. On the other hand, the Interior region with its harsher environment meant that smaller bands would live in a season-based semi-nomadic fashion, comprised of smokehouses near rivers in the summer and semi-underground pithouses for the winter. If we go to the far

north, we see the people living a fully nomadic lifestyle using tepees and ridgepole lodges, following the hunt as needed. This also meant that there were more use of sleds and single-seat kayaks, as well as animals such as dogs to pull sleds and later on, horses to transport things on the land. As can be seen, the diverse environment of British Columbia has led to the development of a wide variety of Indigenous groups with their different languages, social structures, food, shelter, and transportation. We have seen how the resource abundant coastal regions allowed for a more hierarchic social structure supporting large groups of people, with permanent villages and canoe- based transportation. On the other hand, the relatively sparse Interior meant that the people lived in smaller units of the band system, leading semi-nomadic to nomadic lifestyles and a more horizontal and equal-based society. Even in today’s modern industrial world where the people can change the soundings to suit them, the influence of the environment is still very strong, and knowing the environment can help understand the people and society.

Question 2 1. Indigenous, Aboriginal and First Nations These three times are usually used interchangeably, but they all have specific meanings. Indigenous is a broad term used for people who have long-standing relationship with a particular land, often being the oldest surviving “first” inhabitants. Aboriginal has a similar meeting as Indigenous, but tends to have the connotation that “there was no one before them.” Given that this can easily lead to conflicting claims between Indigenous people and cause conflict, the usage of this word is decreasing in favor of Indigenous. Finally, First Nations is for the Indigenous people who are neither Inuit nor Métis, with the latter groups being either those who came to Canada much later (Inuit) or formed a new culture as a fusion of First Nations and Europeans (Métis). While many might not really consider the differences between the terms to be important, it must be understood that words and their meanings have power. By comprehending how different groups can be categorized, and also realizing the inherent harm that the term Aboriginal has in the context of Canada, I could fully appreciate the diversity of these people and the importance they have to us. 2. Potlatch The potlatch is perhaps the most important social gathering for Indigenous people there can be. It can be summarized as a ceremonial gathering for a special occasion such as marriage, deaths, title inheritance, celebration of adulthood, adoptions, and other important occasions. It is a time when the entire band, tribe, and community are expected to appear. Along with the important occasion, typically material wealth and land were given away to all in the community, having been gathered and given to the leader for such an occasion. This is a way to communicate acceptance of the special occasion being celebrated, as well as ensuring that no member of the community would be wanting for the basic goods, food, and tools to survive. The potlatch helped me understand the communal nature of the Indigenous people, for just as they respected and lived in harmony with nature, they also appreciated the harmony required within a society for that society to function properly together. It also woke me up to the fact that if people are in want, it is difficult for a society to be able to function smoothly, and thus I find the potlatch to be an important concept to incorporate to our own lives. 3. Title Indigenous/Aboriginal Title is perhaps one of the most difficult concepts to understand. Ultimately, Aboriginal Title does not mean some exclusive rights to a land or territory, but more

Your preview ends here

Eager to read complete document? Join bartleby learn and gain access to the full version

Access to all documents
Unlimited textbook solutions
24/7 expert homework help

that as people who have a deep connection to the land from the complex relationship to the territories and related ongoing social structures and political and legal systems, they have unique collective rights as to the use of the land. This concept can be confusing becomes of our modern liberal understanding of property rights, which is meant to be exclusive of those who do not have a right to a piece of land. Understanding this concept allowed me to realize that even in this modern day, there is no single way of thinking left. Sure, with globalization we might have similar ways of thinking, but just as territories influence how we live, our concepts of rights can be different instead of some single liberal idea. This has opened my eyes to new ways of thinking.