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Abstract
The thesis concerns the kinship, social and symbolic organization of the Kanestake Mohawk of the Lake of Two Mountains in Quebec Canada. Other cultural elements such as mythology, and arts and crafts symbolism are integral to the work. A fresh approach is taken with the data to suggest, based on Mohawk kinship terminology and marriage and residence patterns, that the Mohawk organize themselves into nuclear family households, and primary and secondary co-production groups. This analysis appears to agree with Speck's (1923) understanding of this village's social patterns. To facilitate the investigation, David H. Turner's (1978a; 1985c) model of two interrelated types of kinship organization, locality-incorporation and kinline-confederation, have been applied to the data.
The preliminary conclusion of the thesis suggests a locality-incorporative foundation for Mohawk society, based on an analysis of Mohawk kin terms, kinship and residence patterns, and socio-political organization. This conclusion is also corroborated by analyses of both the mythologic of contemporary Mohawk mythology and the symbolic representations of various arts and crafts. It is intimated that the use of the kinline-confederational logic is applied at the level of relations between the Mohawk Nation and non-Native Nations such as Canada and the United States.
