The Northern Ojibwa and the Fur Trade: An Historical and Ecological Study by Charles A.BishopReview by: E. Palmer Patterson IIThe Canadian Journal of Sociology / Cahiers canadiens de sociologie, Vol. 1, No. 3 (Autumn,1975), pp. 393-394Published by: Canadian Journal of SociologyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3340423 .

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future-which middle ground and middle range sociology has never been able to "explain".

University of Sheffield, England Ian Taylor

Charles A. Bishop, The Northern Ojibwa and the Fur Trade: An Historical and Ecological Study. Toronto: Holt, Rinehart and Winston of Canada, Ltd., 1974, xx, 379 pp.

Considering how much writing has been done about Indians in Canada, it is always a bit overwhelming to contemplate how much serious historical writing needs to be done. The potential for M.A. and Ph.D. topics based on the source material available must be considerable. Professor Bishop's book is an excellent example of the scholarly contribution which can be made to the study of Canadian Indian history. He has dealt with the history of the Northern Ojibwa, more particularly those who have come to compose the community at Osnaburgh House. If he had contributed only a fraction of what he has to our knowledge and understanding, it would have been a valuable contribution.

"The focus is on social and economic change stemming from their altering relationships with fur traders, missionaries, government agents and other Indian tribes; and from shifts in the environment which created new adaptive responses." (p. ix) "For the Northern Ojibwa of Osnaburgh House, the emphasis appears to be on changing economics, since the most notable recent changes, at least, have come as a result of changing subsistence patterns and living standards . . . the new order is more a by-product of these . . ." (p. 74). These brief statements at the outset of the book tidily sum up the content. They also illustrate the clarity of the presentation.

Using the ethnohistorian's technique of "up-streaming", he has traced back in time through the various phases or stages (eight in all) the history of his subject. The interaction of game resources, economic activity, and social organization is carefully documented through a three hundred year period and provides the main subject matter for this study. While recreating the unique story of these people, he has also indicated to us many of the experiences which, as we know from other studies, they shared with other Indians across Canada. Population movement, epidemic disease, shifts in subsistence patterns, increase of friction with neighbouring peoples, changes in social, political, and religious life, and technology are some of the categories he has examined.

The author has portrayed the acceleration of change and the loss of autonomy by the Osnaburgh House people from earliest contact in the seventeenth century to 1967. Where there are areas of disagreement among scholars about aboriginal social organization and the patrilineal clans among the Ojibwa, Professor Bishop has taken a clear position and yet not without careful regard for the conclusions of other scholars who have contributed to the debate. In doing this, he has judiciously employed both primary and secondary sources. The result should be of interest both to students and to specialists.

Attention has also been given to the topic of land tenure and the impact of the fur trade. In dealing with topics such as the history of social

future-which middle ground and middle range sociology has never been able to "explain".

University of Sheffield, England Ian Taylor

Charles A. Bishop, The Northern Ojibwa and the Fur Trade: An Historical and Ecological Study. Toronto: Holt, Rinehart and Winston of Canada, Ltd., 1974, xx, 379 pp.

Considering how much writing has been done about Indians in Canada, it is always a bit overwhelming to contemplate how much serious historical writing needs to be done. The potential for M.A. and Ph.D. topics based on the source material available must be considerable. Professor Bishop's book is an excellent example of the scholarly contribution which can be made to the study of Canadian Indian history. He has dealt with the history of the Northern Ojibwa, more particularly those who have come to compose the community at Osnaburgh House. If he had contributed only a fraction of what he has to our knowledge and understanding, it would have been a valuable contribution.

"The focus is on social and economic change stemming from their altering relationships with fur traders, missionaries, government agents and other Indian tribes; and from shifts in the environment which created new adaptive responses." (p. ix) "For the Northern Ojibwa of Osnaburgh House, the emphasis appears to be on changing economics, since the most notable recent changes, at least, have come as a result of changing subsistence patterns and living standards . . . the new order is more a by-product of these . . ." (p. 74). These brief statements at the outset of the book tidily sum up the content. They also illustrate the clarity of the presentation.

Using the ethnohistorian's technique of "up-streaming", he has traced back in time through the various phases or stages (eight in all) the history of his subject. The interaction of game resources, economic activity, and social organization is carefully documented through a three hundred year period and provides the main subject matter for this study. While recreating the unique story of these people, he has also indicated to us many of the experiences which, as we know from other studies, they shared with other Indians across Canada. Population movement, epidemic disease, shifts in subsistence patterns, increase of friction with neighbouring peoples, changes in social, political, and religious life, and technology are some of the categories he has examined.

The author has portrayed the acceleration of change and the loss of autonomy by the Osnaburgh House people from earliest contact in the seventeenth century to 1967. Where there are areas of disagreement among scholars about aboriginal social organization and the patrilineal clans among the Ojibwa, Professor Bishop has taken a clear position and yet not without careful regard for the conclusions of other scholars who have contributed to the debate. In doing this, he has judiciously employed both primary and secondary sources. The result should be of interest both to students and to specialists.

Attention has also been given to the topic of land tenure and the impact of the fur trade. In dealing with topics such as the history of social

393 393

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 16:22:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

organization and land tenure systems, as well as others, he calls attention to subjects which the historian might tend to ignore or minimize, but which are indispensible to a serious examination of social history.

The emphasis on change and continuity is apparent throughout, though the author indicates he is not unmindful of the culture of poverty inter- pretation which is sometimes applied to studies of the Indian today. "At present the community is beginning to resemble one similar to that of 'poor whites' . . . yet a community identity remains and there are many features that distinguish it as 'Indian' and 'Ojibwa,' although these are not necessarily aboriginal." (p. 350). Change and continuity are an overriding theme, but, within that framework, it is necessary to allow a flexibility of definition of the term "Indian". This seems to be reiterated in the closing sentence of the book. Transition and uncertainty face the Northern Ojibwa but, the author seems to be telling us, they will continue to be Northern Ojibwa.

The book is enhanced by nine maps, forty-three tables, and five figures, all of which are helpful explanatory devices. The volume is part of a new series on native peoples, geared to university level audience. It contains a minimum of specialized vocabulary which might be dismaying to the non- specialist reader. Enough has already been said to show that, while this is a detailed study, it calls the reader's attention to its significance for the larger study of northern Indians. As the Northern Ojibwa have been shown to have adapted a more flexible social organization to suit their changing needs, so also the Northern Athapaskans may be studied for evidence of "similar patterns of adjustments" (p. 349). For a recent overview of these other Subarctic peoples of Canada, the reader might see the short, but informative work by James W.VanStone, Athapaskan Adaptations (Chicago, 1974). Professor Bishop's book will stand as an invaluable contribution to the literature of the eastern Subarctic peoples.

The University of Waterloo E. Palmer Patterson II

Peter P. Ekeh, Social Exchange Theory: The Two Traditions. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1974, 237 pp., $8.95 hardcover.

Ekeh's central thesis is that social exchange theory contains two polemical veins of thought: a.) French "collectivism", which comes in mainly via the work of anthropologists, and b.) British "individualism", which enters principally through the work of American sociologists. While references are made to the contributions of several other central theorists in both traditions, the book emphasizes the work of Levi-Strauss (the "collectivist") and Homans (the "individualist"). It is argued that within exchange theory the collectivist school not only predates, but, indeed, stimulates the rise of the individualist school. Exemplifying par excellence the broader conflict between these two schools of thought, the thesis of "generalized exchange" propounded in Levi-Strauss's Les Structures elementaires de la Parente (1949) is shown to have provoked the antithesis of "individual self-interest" developed in Homans and Schneider's Marriage, Authority, and Final Causes: A Study of Unilateral Cross-Cousin Marriage (1955), and later in Homans's Social Behavior: Its Elementary Forms (1961). Though Ekeh equivocates (cf. pp. 17-18), one is left finally with the conclusion that he sees

organization and land tenure systems, as well as others, he calls attention to subjects which the historian might tend to ignore or minimize, but which are indispensible to a serious examination of social history.

The emphasis on change and continuity is apparent throughout, though the author indicates he is not unmindful of the culture of poverty inter- pretation which is sometimes applied to studies of the Indian today. "At present the community is beginning to resemble one similar to that of 'poor whites' . . . yet a community identity remains and there are many features that distinguish it as 'Indian' and 'Ojibwa,' although these are not necessarily aboriginal." (p. 350). Change and continuity are an overriding theme, but, within that framework, it is necessary to allow a flexibility of definition of the term "Indian". This seems to be reiterated in the closing sentence of the book. Transition and uncertainty face the Northern Ojibwa but, the author seems to be telling us, they will continue to be Northern Ojibwa.

The book is enhanced by nine maps, forty-three tables, and five figures, all of which are helpful explanatory devices. The volume is part of a new series on native peoples, geared to university level audience. It contains a minimum of specialized vocabulary which might be dismaying to the non- specialist reader. Enough has already been said to show that, while this is a detailed study, it calls the reader's attention to its significance for the larger study of northern Indians. As the Northern Ojibwa have been shown to have adapted a more flexible social organization to suit their changing needs, so also the Northern Athapaskans may be studied for evidence of "similar patterns of adjustments" (p. 349). For a recent overview of these other Subarctic peoples of Canada, the reader might see the short, but informative work by James W.VanStone, Athapaskan Adaptations (Chicago, 1974). Professor Bishop's book will stand as an invaluable contribution to the literature of the eastern Subarctic peoples.

The University of Waterloo E. Palmer Patterson II

Peter P. Ekeh, Social Exchange Theory: The Two Traditions. Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1974, 237 pp., $8.95 hardcover.

Ekeh's central thesis is that social exchange theory contains two polemical veins of thought: a.) French "collectivism", which comes in mainly via the work of anthropologists, and b.) British "individualism", which enters principally through the work of American sociologists. While references are made to the contributions of several other central theorists in both traditions, the book emphasizes the work of Levi-Strauss (the "collectivist") and Homans (the "individualist"). It is argued that within exchange theory the collectivist school not only predates, but, indeed, stimulates the rise of the individualist school. Exemplifying par excellence the broader conflict between these two schools of thought, the thesis of "generalized exchange" propounded in Levi-Strauss's Les Structures elementaires de la Parente (1949) is shown to have provoked the antithesis of "individual self-interest" developed in Homans and Schneider's Marriage, Authority, and Final Causes: A Study of Unilateral Cross-Cousin Marriage (1955), and later in Homans's Social Behavior: Its Elementary Forms (1961). Though Ekeh equivocates (cf. pp. 17-18), one is left finally with the conclusion that he sees

394 394

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.223 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 16:22:03 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions