Description
The Curtain Within explores the management of social roles
and symbols to achieve various goals by people living in a modern Haida
community. Moiety and lineage, social rank, the rules of entitlement to
inherited property, and the mode of thought encoded in mythology still
have force in Haida society. Political action did not and does not take
place within the context of formal political institutions; instead it
exists through the management of the symbols of social relationships
and of entitlement to tangible and intangible property.
Reviews
The various tables of kin terms, calendars, and names are excellent and the conclusions intriguing. Readers, moreover, will never be able to read or listen to a Haida story without questioning its meaning or the message it conveys.
- Anna de Aguayo
Presents some interesting information about the relevance of cultural categories of the past for today's Haida people.
- Paula Rubel