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Winnebago Indian
Social Organization
Social Organization.-The
Winnebago social organization is based on two phratries, known,
respectively, as the Upper or Air, and the Lower or Earth, divisions. The
Upper division contains four clans:
Thunderbird,
War People,
Eagle, and
Pigeon (extinct), and the
Lower division eight clans: the
Bear,
Wolf,
Water-spirit,
Deer,
Elk,
Buffalo,
Fish, and
Snake.
An Upper individual must marry a Lower individual, and
vice versa. While there is no law restricting marriage between the clans
of the two phratries, there is some evidence showing a tendency of certain
clans to intermarry. The Thunderbird and Bear clans are regarded as the
leading clans of their respective phratries. Both have definite functions.
The lodge of the former is the peace lodge, over which the chief of the
tribe presides, and in which disputes between Indians are adjudicated. No
person could be killed in the lodge, and an offender or prisoner escaping
to it was protected as long as he was within its precincts. The lodge of
the Bear clan was the war or disciplinary lodge: prisoners were killed,
and offenders punished in its precincts.
Besides these functions, the Bear clan possessed the
right of "soldier killing," and was in charge of both ends of the camping
circle during the hunt. Each clan has a large number of individual
customs, relating to birth, the naming feast, death, and the funeral wake.
The chief item of interest in this connection is the fact that a member of
one clan cannot be buried by the members of another clan of the same
phratry. (For details of the social organization, see Radin in Am. Anthr.,
xii, no. 2, 1910.)
The gentes as given by Dorsey are
as follows:
1. Shungikikarachada ('Wolf')
2. Honchikikarachada ('Black Bear')
3. Huwanikikarachada ('Elk')
4. Wakanikikarachada('Snake')
5. Waninkikikarachada ('Bird')
(a) Hichakhshepara ('Eagle')
(b) Ruchke ( 'Pigeon')
(c) Kerechun ('Hawk')
(d) Wakanchara ('Thunderbird')
6. Cheikikarachada ('Buffalo')
7. Chaikikarachada ('Deer')
8. Wakchekhiikikarachada ('Water-monster')
The books presented are for their
historical value only and are not the
opinions of the Webmasters of the site.
Handbook
of American Indians, 1906
Index of Tribes or Nations
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