Woah!!! Anthro- WHAT ??? This word
is WAY to big. Hey guys I didn't invent it. OK? Read on and I WILL tell
you what it means and make it pretty simple. Just hang in there with me
and you too can amaze your friends (and your parents and teacher ) by using
the word anthropology, and even some other words just as big and complicated.
NOT GOOD ENOUGH. Well how about if I show you how to pronounce these words
too? Now that is a deal you cannot pass up so read on and learn.
Read this first? Why? Because
it has definitions for new words -- because it explains a lot of basic things
you are going to need to know to better understand the rest of this web
site -- and, because you will learn some neat things.
Notice I keep saying cultures instead
of tribes? Most Texas
Indians did not live in tribes. All Texas
Indians were part of one or another culture. There is more on the difference
between tribes and cultures in this chapter. What do we mean when we say
culture instead of tribes? Here is a short definition of culture.
Culture, the common
beliefs, values, material things, and language shared by a particular defined
group of people.
Just because Indians speak the same
language, dress the same, live in the same kind of houses and eat the same
kind of foods and use them same kinds of tools does not make them all part
of a tribe. It does make them part of the same culture. The word tribe has
a special meaning when used to describe Indians, but more on that later.
When we study Indians, or Africans,
or Mexicans or any other large group of people we are studying another culture
of people. The study of other cultures is called Anthropology. That is a
very big word. Here is what it means. Anthro is Greek and means man. ology
is Greek too. It means the study of something. So, anthro + ology = man
+ study or, the study of man. Anthropology is the study of humans. Doctors
study people too, so how is anthropology different from medicine? Anthropology
studies human culture. In anthropology, human culture has special meanings.
Anthropologist split the definition of culture into two major subgroups.
Material and non-material. Material culture is the stuff you can touch and
see; tools, buildings, clothes, foods and designs. Non-material culture
is made up of things you cannot see or touch; like language, music, stories,
science, customs, and religious beliefs. Each of these things, like a language
or a certain tool, is a part of the culture of a particular human group.
Every Texas Indian cultural group, like a tribe
or band, had its own set of material cultural goods and non-material culture.
American culture has its own material and non-material cultures too. A Ford
car or a hamburger would be part of American material culture. Rock and
Roll music and the English language would be part of American non-material
culture.
There are different levels of culture
within other cultures. These smaller cultures within a larger culture are
called subcultures. We have a distinct African American subculture that
is a part of a bigger American culture. There are also Hispanic and Asian
subcultures within American culture. America has many subcultures.
Cultures are invented by and defined
by their members over time. New things are added and old things are left
behind and forgotten. Cultures also borrow from other cultures. Americans
like pizza and tacos so much they are now a part of American culture. But,
pizza is from Italian culture and tacos come from Mexican culture. Americans
have borrowed pizza and tacos and made them part of their culture. The Texas
Indians who farmed got their first corn and the know how to grow it from
Mexico.
They borrowed the corn and skills to grow it from Mexico.
Culture is transmitted to new members
by the older members of a culture. Babies and kids are one kind of new members
of a culture. Parents, teachers, friends, almost everyone in a culture teaches
kids the language, rules, music, stories and much more. So culture is taught
and culture is learned.
Anthropologists are the persons
who study cultures. They learn all they can about the culture of a particular
group of people and then write about, teach, and report what they find.
I, the author of this book, am an anthropologist. Much of what we know about
Texas Indians comes
from anthropologists who study Indian culture. Most of the cultures anthropologists
study are still here or are part of recent history. What about the past
human cultures? Now for another big word.
Archeology. Here is what it means.
Archeo means "the past" in Greek. You already know what ology
means. So, arche + ology = the study of the past. Archeologists study the
distant past. Usually they study the parts of the past we know nothing about
because no one wrote them down. When the story of the past is written down
it is history. Archeologists are like detectives. They dig up very old places
where humans once lived. Then, they take everything they find ( material
cultural items, right? Ever try to dig up words or music? ) and try to figure
out what happened there. They want to know about the people and the human
cultures of the past. So they are like anthropologists. In fact, most archeologists
are also anthropologists too. Once they find out the who and what about
the past they write it down and the story then becomes a part of history.
Archeologist are important sources
of information about Texas
Indians because the Indians did not write down anything about themselves
until very recently. To get the whole story about Texas
Indians we have to combine what the anthropologist know about Texas
Indians of today and of history with what the archeologists have found out
about the Texas
Indians of long ago.
Tribes, bands,
groups, kings and chiefs
When studying other cultures it is important to be accurate in describing
how they are organized and what kind of leadership they have. When we talk
about Indians we like talk about Indian as living in tribes. But we are
using the word culture instead of tribe. This is because the word tribe
describes one way cultures organize themselves politically. There are other
ways cultures organize themselves that are not tribes. In the past some
Texas Indians were organized as tribes.
But, most Texas
Indians were not organized as tribes. So calling some Indian cultures tribes
may be wrong. So why do so many people do it?
As a European based culture we like
to think of people organizing themselves like we do. We think of the way
countries like America,
England and Mexico organize themselves.
In European cultural organization each country has one leader. It used to
be a king, now it is often a President or Prime Minister. When the Europeans
first met the Indians they assumed the Indians had countries and leaders
like kings too. They expected each Indian culture to be what they called
a tribe. And, they wanted each tribe to have a chief and only one chief,
just like each European country had one king. So, when they first met the
Indians they tried to classify them into tribes with one chief for each
tribe. As you will see in this book, this was wrong. We still talk about
all Indians as being in tribes because the first Europeans called all Indian
cultures tribes. Some Texas Indians were
in tribes. Most were not. They organized themselves in several different
ways. To understand and learn about Indians we need to learn and understand
the different ways they organized themselves.
When is a tribe of Indians not really
a tribe? The answer is, when the Indians are a band or a group. Only a few
of what we call Indian tribes in Texas
are really tribes. A tribe is one way of organizing and grouping similar
people together. There are other ways people organize themselves that are
not real tribes. Only after the Europeans came were the Indians forced into
todays tribes. When we call a Indian culture a tribe we are not always right.
Confused? Read on.
What is the difference between a
group, a band, and a tribe? Well, a group is small and a tribe is big and
a band is in between in size. But that isnt a very good definition is it?
These are all ways for people to organize themselves. Each can have a leader
and followers. Many Texas
Indian tribes are not tribes at all, they are really bands or groups. To
understand lets start with the smallest level of cultural organization,
the group.
A group is, well, it is a group.
A group is more than two people but not a whole lot of people. A class room
of kids and their teacher is a group. All the kids in a big school are not
a group. One way of defining a group is that all the people in a group know
each other by name. They all share a common identity as members of the group.
Members of a group share values and customs of the group. In the Indian
cultures a group is usually made up of all the members of one or several
families who all live together. This would be the mothers, fathers, sisters,
brothers, grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins from one big family or
several related families all living together. There would be from 5 too
30 people living in the group. Much more than 30 and it is too big to be
a group any more. The most capable man would usually lead the group.
Example of group
organization.
The Lipan Apache Indians were organized into groups and there was not
really an Lipan Apache tribe. There were no Lipan Apache leaders higher
than the leader of each group. All the Apache groups spoke Apache, dressed
in similar clothes and ate the same kinds of food. So all the groups were
Apache and all these Apache groups together are what we should call the
Apache culture. But, people who dont know better still call the Apache a
tribe. Now you know they are wrong. Sometimes the groups would BAND together
to fight a common enemy. When this happened they might appoint a temporary
leader over several groups and group leaders. With the Apaches this leader
was always temporary. As soon as the fight was over the band would separate
back into groups again. The Apaches were not the only Indian culture in
Texas organized into groups. There are
several others as you will see.
Bands
The next level of cultural organization
is the band. A band is made up of several groups that stay together under
one leader. The leader of the band would then be what we call a chief. Many
tribes were organized as bands.
Example of band
organization
The Comanche Indians were organized as bands,
not as groups or as a tribe. Each band had its own name. Each Comanche band
had its own leader. There were groups of families in the bands. In the Comanche,
groups or families could leave one band and join another. But, there was
no one leader or chief over all the Comanche bands. Each band did what it
wanted to when it wanted to. The bands might join together to fight a common
enemy too big for just one band to fight. Sometimes several bands would
camp together for a while. The Comanche were not the only Indian culture
in Texas organized into bands. There are
several others as you will see.
Tribes
The next level of organization is
when several bands stay together under one leader. When this happens it
is called a tribe. A tribe is a group of bands under one leadership.
The leader is usually a chief, but in some tribes a council of band leaders
would lead. A tribe has several hundred people in it. This is how we usually
think of Indians, living in tribes with one chief. The truth is until the
Europeans came most "tribes" were not tribes at least not from
the Indians point of view. They were bands or groups that shared a common
language and culture but, they were not true tribes. This is a special use
of the word tribe that tells you something about the organization level
of the Indians.
Example of a tribe
The Caddo Indians lived in tribes. There were several different tribes
of Caddo in the distant past. Each Caddo tribe had a chief. But, the Caddo
also organized their tribes into an even larger organization called a confederacy
or paramount chiefdom.
The confederacy
/ paramount chiefdom
There is one more level of Indian
organization in Texas.
The confederacy.
When talking about Indian confederacies the words paramount chiefdom are often used. A paramount chiefdom and confederacy are basically
the same thing. A confederacy is a group of semi independent tribes that
share a common larger leadership. In a tribal confederacy each tribe has
a chief. Then, over these chiefs, there is a bigger chief. This bigger chief
is called a paramount chief. Paramount
means the most important . So a paramount chief is the most important chief
out of all the chiefs. He is higher than the other chiefs. Think of the
United States.
Each state has its own chief, the Governor of the state. Then, each state
is a part of the United
States and the President leads over the
governors. The President of the United States
is more important than the governors so he is like a paramount chief over
the governors of the states.
Example of a confederacy
or paramount chiefdom
The Caddos of East Texas were a confederacy
of tribes led by a paramount chief. Each of the Caddo tribes was independent
and had its own identity. Each Caddo tribe had its own chief. They chose
to cooperate together in a confederacy because they wanted to, not because
the paramount chief made them. The Caddo paramount chief was leader over
the other chiefs. A Caddo tribe could leave the confederacy and sometimes
a tribe would leave for a time.
Chiefs and leadership
There are two ways Indian chiefs and leaders get to be a chief or leader.
One way is for the son of a chief to become the next chief. This is also
the same way European kings became kings. The kings oldest son becomes the
next king when the king dies. Only a few Indian tribes did this. This can
be bad for the Indian tribe ( or European country ) because the son may
not be very smart or a very good leader. Another way to chose a leader is
to make the smartest and the most experienced man the leader. This is what
most of the groups, bands and tribes of Texas
Indians did.
Farmers, Hunters
and Gatherers
Now that we know something about
groups, bands, tribes and confederacies we can ask; why did some Indians
choose to be organized as bands, and some as groups, and some as tribes?
This is an important question. Before you read on stop and try to think
of some reasons why the Indians did not all just use the same kind of organization?
Part of the answer is; they used the kind of organization that was best
for them. OK, why is being in a band better for the Comanches and being
in a group better for the Apaches and being in a confederacy of tribes better
for the Caddo? To get a big clue ask yourself another question? What is
the easiest way for each of these Indian cultures to get a reliable source
of food? Indians did not have supermarkets to get food at. They had to get
food from the land around where they live. The kind of environment people
live in has a lot to do what kind of food is available. Using these Indian
cultures as examples, lets look at the kind of environment where each of
these cultures live.
The Apaches lived in the desert environment of far West Texas.
In the desert, it does not rain very often. When it does rain, it does not
rain very much. Deserts do not have much water. Plants and animals need
water to live. Because there is not much water there are few food plants
and food animals for Indians to find and eat in the desert. The plant and
animals in the desert are spread out and there are not many of them in any
one place. Even a few people hunting food and gathering plants will find
and eat all the food in one place in a short time. Then they have to move
on to a new place to find more food. If there were a lot of people living
together they might not be able to find enough food to live on. They would
starve and some people would die. This is why the Apaches organized into
small groups and did not organize into larger bands. A group ( a small number
of people ) can live in the desert because a small number of people do not
need very much food. A band with many more people would not be able to find
enough food in a desert.
The Apaches hunted and gathered
food. They were not farmers. They did not plant crops like corn. Anthropologists
call people who hunt and gather get ready hunter gatherers. Hunter gatherers hunt wild big animals and
gather wild plants and very small animals for food. When they have caught
and found all the food in an area they have to move on to a new place. People
who move all the time and have no permanent homes are called nomads or nomadic people. Almost all hunter gathers
are nomadic.
The Comanches did not live in a
desert. The Comanches lived on the plains. A
plain is an environment with a lot of open grass land. There are trees in
spots and along the rivers and streams in the plains. The plains get regular
rain and there is enough water for lots of grass, plants, and animals to
live on. All the grass and water supported large herds of buffalo. With
so many buffalo they are a good source of lots of food. Because there is
a lot of food and water on the plains the Indians could live in larger bands
and not in smaller groups. The Comanches were nomadic hunter-gatherers.
They were nomadic because they followed the big herds of buffalo around.
They were hunter - gatherers because they hunted buffalo and gathered some
plants when they could. But, hunting buffalo was the best and easiest way
to get lots of food on the plains. Crops like corn can be planted and grown
along the rivers and streams in the plains. Some Indian cultures north of
Texas
did plant corn and crops on the plains. But, most hunted the buffalo because
hunting buffalo was a easier way to get food on the plains of Texas than planting and raising crops.
Most of East
Texas is a forest of trees with openings of grassy fields in
the forest. The Caddo Indian tribes lived in East Texas.
A forest has lots of plants and animals that people can eat. In a forest
there are things like nuts and berries and deer to eat. But the Caddo got
most of their food by planting corn and other crops. The Caddo were farmers, not hunter gathers. East Texas has lots of
streams, rivers lakes and springs for water. It also rains often in East Texas. The openings in the forest have rich soil
and are good places to raise lots of corn, squash, beans and other crops.
Raising crops like corn was the easiest way to get lots of food. The Caddo
did hunt some deer and turkeys and they did gather some wild plants for
food when that was easy. But, they did not move where they lived to hunt
and gather. They stayed put in one place and farmed because where they lived
it was easier to get lots of food by farming.
Farmers have to stay with their
crops to tend them. They have permanent houses and stay in one place. This
is called sedentary. Sedentary people do not move around all the
time in search of food. Sedentary cultures stay in one place. Modern Americans
are sedentary.
Sedentary and nomadic cultures have
different kinds of material cultures. Remember material culture is made
up of things like houses, tools and weapons. Because they live such different
kinds of lives, sedentary and nomadic cultures have different kinds of material
cultures.
Language
Ok, one last thing to add to all
this anthropology stuff, language. We all speak English or at least most
of us do. So do the people in England
and Australia and Canada.
That makes all those countries part of the family of English speakers. Just
because Americans or Canadians speak English does not make them citizens
of or even part of the country of England.
Remember the Comanche bands? All the Comanche bands spoke Comanche, but
they did not see themselves as part of a big tribe called the Comanche.
Now lets make things more confusing. The Comanche language is Shoshonean.
The Shoshonees were a Indian culture found way up north in Wyoming
and Colorado.
The Comanches once lived with the Shoshonees and were a part of Shoshonee
culture. The bands we now call Comanche left Wyoming and moved south and became the
Comanches we all know. Just because the Comanches speak a form of Shoshonee
we do not call them Shoshonees. We call them Comanche. Now lets get real
confusing. Shoshonee is a part of an even larger language family, the Uto-Aztecan
language family. So is the Apache language, and the Navaho, and several
other Indian cultures. These are all Uto-Aztecan. This means that once,
a long, long time ago all these Indian cultures were once living together
and were the same. They split up and moved apart a long time ago. After
they were away from each other their languages started to change. After
hundreds of years the languages changed so much they became very different
from each other. Apaches and Comanches can understand some words from each
others language, but they cannot hold a conversation. Language is one important
way of telling when Indian cultures are related and how closely they are
related. Anthropologist use language as one way to group Indian cultures
together. So a book might say a Indian culture is in the such and such language
family. One last example. The Caddo language is not just the language spoken
by the Caddo of Texas. There is a
Caddo language family. The Pawnee Indians and the Wichita Indians all spoke forms of the
Caddo language family. This means they are all related. It does not make
the Pawnee Indians Caddo Indians. It is important to give the language and
language family when doing a report or telling about any Indian culture.
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by Rolf E. Moore and Texarch Associates, all rights reserved. Graphics may
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