Variations on the Female Referent in Athabaskan Cultures

Abstract

Practices and beliefs involving a reference to femaleness occur widely among Athabaskan-speaking peoples. It is suggested here that these phenomena share a convergent structural relationship in a common ideological basis, and that culture-specific versions may be seen as alternative transformations of the same pattern. A comparison of Western Apache and Northern Athabaskan versions indicates that environmental circumstances affecting the role of women in subsistence have contributed to differences between the two.