Page 36 - Who Ate What in the Maritimes

ISSUE : Issue 21

Published by Ronald Caplan on 1978/12/1

Who Ate What in the Maritimes A Diagram of Pre-Contact Faunal and Floral Ecology The two charts offered here are taken from Bernard Hoffman's thesis, "The Historical Ethnography of the Micmac of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries." Hopefully, this thesis will appear soon in book form, but we thought it was about time our read? ers had a chance to consider Hoffman's charts, especially the one above which in? dicates the extraordinary interconnected- ness of life forms in the Maritimes. The chart on page 39 gives an idea of where some of the life forms fit into the scheme of subsistence in the run of the Micmac year. It is to be remembered that Hoffman is trying to reconstruct for us the inter- connectedness that existed prior to the European invasion of North America. The following portion is from Father Biard's description of the Micmac annual food cy? cle. It is a brief seventeenth century ac? count. It is taken as well from Hoffman's thesis: Father Biard: ... In January they have the seal hunting: for this animal, although it is aquatic, nevertheless spawns upon cer- C & G MadEOD LIMITED Books on Caoe Breton Cape Breton, photographs by Owen Fitzgerald 9.95 Don't Slip on the Soap by Andy MacDonald 6.95 Poems of Rita Joe 5.00 Patterson's History of Victoria County 13.00 More Essays in Cape Breton History ed by Robert Morgan 2.50 Highland Community on the Bras d'Or by P.J. MacKenzie Campbell 5.50 Mail Orders 361 Charlotte StrMt - P. O. Box 658 SYDNEY, NOVA SCOTIA CANAM A Specialty

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