Aleuts - Kinship and Sociopolitical Organization



Prior to contact, Aleut society was based on shallow patrilineages linked by sister-exchange marriages and a local endogamous residential unit. Postmarital residence (usually following the birth of the first child) was patrilocal. Under this system, mother's brother was a man's potential father-in-law. A young man, apparently, was obliged to pay bride-price or perform bride-service. The marriages were polygynous, though polygyny coexisted with polyandry.

It is not known if ranking existed among the western Aleuts, but in the east ranking was well articulated, with classes of high notables, nobles, commoners, and slaves (mostly war captives). Judicial functions, war leadership, and trading roles were clearly defined. In the east social dialects (polite, everyday, and rude) existed and were used until relatively recent times. Today only the everyday language is in use, though older Aleuts are very well aware of the social dialects: the polite form ought to be used only by a socially inferior person addressing a socially superior person.

Today Aleuts recognize the nuclear family as the basic unit and reside in individual-family dwellings, though members of the older generation (grandparents, great-aunts and great-uncles) are often coresident. Sibling bonds remain strong. Adoption, frequent in precontact times, is also practiced frequently today. Ranking has been abandoned, and democratic principles are adhered to in the conduct of village affairs. Age, traditionally respected, is a factor in exercise of authority, although young, often college-educated men and women are assuming leadership within corporation and village-council structures.

Social control is exercised informally by public opinion and through the Orthodox church, but recourse to the formal judicial mechanisms of the larger society is frequently sought. In fact, the overarching institutions assume an ever-greater role in this area.


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