died.
Males and females were treated differently from the moment of birth. The umbilical cord of a baby girl was cut with a knife belonging to her mother; that of a boy was cut with the father’s knife (Murdock 1934b: 248–49). Personal names (as opposed to honorific names) were bestowed in infancy and were sex linked. According to Murdock (1934:249), the mother, after consultation with the child’s father and grandparents, named a male infant after his real or classificatory paternal grandfather, while a female was named after one of her “grandmothers,” a second-generation woman of the infant’s own or the father’s father’s lineage. Harrison (November 25, 1912) notes that a shaman was often called in to determine which matrilineal ancestor had been reincarnated in the newborn and to name the infant accordingly.
While still infants, both males and females had their ears pierced, and, if of high rank, children of both sexes were tattooed on the arms, hands, and legs, and occasionally on the chest and back. It was customary, Harrison reports (December 16, 1912), for the parents to give small potlatches when their child was named, when its nose and ears were pierced, and again when it was tattooed.
The item of adornment that marked the Haida female, the labret or lip plug, was acquired during girlhood. An early maritime explorer (La Pérouse 1798:165) remarks that all Haida women wore the labret, while most other ethnographers have claimed that the lip plug was a distinguishing mark of high-status women. Former missionary Charles Harrison described the procedure of insertion and the significance of the implement:
… a hole is cut through the lower lip and an ivory or bone plug is inserted until the wound had healed. After healing the hole is stretched from time to time until it reached about half an inch in diameter and about an inch in length…. These labrets are increased in size according to the rank of the person wearing them, and according to the number of children she had become the mother of. [Harrison, May 20, 1912]
A visible marker of both female status and high rank, the labret was evidently also symbolic of the emphasis the Haida placed upon female fecundity.
No formal restrictions seem to have been placed on the association of the sexes during childhood. Swanton (1909:60) mentions two games that were played together by boys and girls, but otherwise there are no ethnographic data on childhood play activities. Children’s activities seemed to be generally sex segregated by Florence’s time, as she noted that “boys played together and girls played together.” Work activities during childhood were definitely sex differentiated and became more marked when a boy at age ten or eleven left his mother’s household to reside with one of his mother’s brothers. Under the tutelage of his mother’s brother a boy received formal instruction in ceremonial roles and assisted his uncle in various economic activities. He was toughened by harsh discipline and rigorous physical activity.
Rigid and ritually maintained differences between the sexes began with a girl’s puberty ceremony. The təgwəná, or first menstruation seclusion, marked a very real change of life for a girl because, upon her emergence from this ritual seclusion, she was acknowledged to be a woman and was now marriageable. Charles Harrison described the ritual as follows:
In the olden days when a girl reached maturity she had to pay strict attention to the order of the medicine man and pass through certain trying ordeals and ceremonies. A small tent was generally erected for her accommodation at the back of her father’s house and in this tent she had to exist for fourteen days and sometimes longer.1 Her face was generally painted and she had very little food given her. Should she during this period be compelled to go outside of her tent and accidentally meet a man, her face had to immediately be covered with her blanket. During this trying time she also wore a peculiar cloak made out of the inner bark of a cedar tree which covered her head and reached down to her knees, leaving only a small aperture for her eyes so that she could see where she was going. This cloak was only worn on this peculiar occasion so that when seen wearing this garb all the people looked upon her as about to pass from girlhood to womanhood. During the time she lived alone in the tent she was supposed to wear the robe both day and night…. When her time had expired and the doctor had given his consent the parents of the girl were accustomed to make a great feast and all the people in the village were invited to attend. When all were assembled the screen or the door of the tent was raised and the girl was seen sitting with her back to the guests dressed in the garb above referred to. This was removed by a woman authorized by the doctor to do this work and as soon as this sign of her degradation had disappeared the girl commenced to sing and dance before all the people present the songs and dances that she had been previously taught for this occasion…. After the feasting and congratulatory speeches were ended the rest of the night was spent in dancing. This custom has completely died away with the death of the last Sa-ag-ga [shaman].2 [Charles Harrison, November 25, 1912]
During her seclusion a girl was visited exclusively by her female relatives—older sisters, mother, grandmother, and, perhaps most important, father’s sisters (sqa?anləng). From the latter she received formal instruction in womanly behavior: how to behave toward one’s husband, how to rear children properly, standards of etiquette. Appropriate female behavior included submission, contentment, and industry (Dawson 1880:130B), endurance, modesty, a retiring disposition, and moderation in eating and drinking (Curtis 1916:126). Instruction and the various taboos enjoined upon the girl were designed to elicit these qualities.3
Childhood was both actually and symbolically terminated by the surrender of childhood toys and trinkets to the father’s sisters during the period of seclusion (Murdock 1934b:250). At the end of her seclusion the girl’s transition to womanhood was given public acknowledgment, as noted by Harrison above. Florence Davidson reported only that a small potlatch was given by the young woman’s mother to women of the opposite moiety, particularly, and sometimes exclusively, to the young woman’s father’s sisters.
With menarche, the Haida female acquired a significant, if negative, power. Menstrual blood was considered extremely polluting. It could detrimentally affect shamanic powers, hunting and fishing equipment, the abundance of certain food resources, and a man’s economic powers or his luck at gambling. Hunting, fishing, and gambling paraphernalia were kept outside a house in which a menstruating woman dwelled, and during her periods a woman was forbidden to walk in front of a man or step over salmon spawning creeks. Florence Davidson summed up Haida conceptions of this female power by remarking, “Once women change their life, they [men] are scared of them.” She added, however, that a woman would not consider purposefully using this power against a man, though such uses of polluting power have been reported from a few other cultures (for example, see Strathern 1972: 255 for New Guinea).
Marriage usually followed shortly after the təgwəná seclusion. Murdock (1934a:359), Swanton (1909:50), and Harrison (November 25, 1912) credited a girl’s mother with playing a decisive role in her marriage; according to Murdock, she arranged the marriage. Harrison contends that a young man took the initiative in selecting a prospective bride, but adds that the girl’s mother had to approve. Though Murdock (1934b: 251) notes that the wishes of the young couple received consideration in marriage arrangements, Florence Davidson’s personal experience suggests that a young girl could not override the wishes of her elders. Also in Florence Davidson’s case, somewhat contrary to the ethnographic accounts, marriage negotiations were between her husband-to-be (and his group) on the one hand, and her father and, ultimately, her maternal uncle, on the other.4 According to Florence, traditionally as well as more recently, “the girl’s uncle decided who she married. As long as your uncle thinks it’s all right, they all agree with him.” The traditional marriage ritual that followed the negotiations is described in some detail by Swanton (1909:50–51).
Beyond the prescriptions of moiety and lineage exogamy, bilateral cross-cousin marriage was preferred: a girl would marry a real or classificatory father’s sister’s son or mother’s brother’s son.5 Some pairs of Haida lineages reveal long histories of these preferred intermarriages. Several examples can be seen in Florence’s genealogy. Residence after marriage was initially with the bride’s parents because of the requirement of bride service; following that, residence was avunculocal, that is, with the husband’s maternal uncle. In the event that the preferred pattern of cross-cousin marriage was followed, a girl would likely