The Two Worlds of the Washo, an Indian Tribe of California and Nevada by Downs (1966) presents a single tribal culture as a whole. Traditional patterns of subsistence techniques, rituals and religion, kinship, and social organization are portrayed. Changes brought about through interaction with the white man are also related. This book analysis focuses on the relationship between cultural social organization, and subsistence, economic, political, and belief systems for the Washo.
Social Organization & Group Systems
The Washo cultural social organization consisting of kinship patterns, marriage patterns, and /or forms of organization are described. Society functions in a manner such that its members are able to survive; social organization provides a framework in which children can be born and raised by parental traditions. The Washo social organization is examined in terms of a series of groups based on the family, a single unit (38).
Family is described as the social unit responsible for producing and raising children. Family was also an economic unit; it moved in search of food. Most families held at least five members, some a dozen, and relationships within the family varied. The family unit was identified by a single dwelling place; usual dwellers were a man, his wife, and their children. A widow or widower might be the head of the household. Brothers and sisters with spouses were also found in a single household. Washo's were at times polygynous; wives and families may live together or separately. Subsistence patterns did not permit fixed adherence to any particular rule of residence (38-39).
The family unit was determined by what was needed for all to survive. Marriages involved the entire family. A girl's dance (gumsaba) were times for couples to get acquainted. Families of both would consider the match and if it was agreeable, gifts would be exchanged. A man and wife were a partnership of skill...