Horses and the Economy and Culture of the Choctaw Indians, 1690-1840

Title: Horses and the Economy and Culture of the Choctaw Indians, 1690-1840
Creator: James T. Carson See all items with this value
Date: 1995
uri: Download Copy
Bibliographic Citation: Carson, James Taylor. 1995. Horses and the Economy and Culture of the Choctaw Indians, 1690-1840. Ethnohistory 42(3):495-513.
annotates: Carson’s article examines the adoption and cultural significance of horses in the Choctaw nation from contact through to the removal era. Carson (1995:495) argues that horses were “agents of both cultural continuity and economic change” for the Choctaw. Using contemporary European accounts and linguistic analysis, Carson traces the gradual integration of horses into hunting, warfare, rituals, and funerary practices. As he shows, the use and significance of horses was gendered, with horse raids giving Choctaw men a way to assert their masculinity in lieu of declining hunting and warfare while women owned horses and sold provisions to settlers. Thus, Carson shows that the Choctaw’s use of horses reinforced certain cultural constructions while also drawing them deeper into the emerging market economy.
Subject: Ceremonies See all items with this value; Commerce See all items with this value; Cultural Accommodation See all items with this value; Chahta (Choctaw) See all items with this value; Alabama See all items with this value; Mississippi See all items with this value; Louisiana See all items with this value; Oklahoma See all items with this value; Arkansas See all items with this value; Chahta Culture See all items with this value; Hunting See all items with this value; Conflict See all items with this value
Temporal Coverage: Postcontact See all items with this value; Post-Removal See all items with this value; 18th Century See all items with this value; 19th Century See all items with this value

Item sets: Anthropological Sources