520
BERNARD L. FONTANA
nected either by blood or marriage, and when a village became too large
to be supported by its local resources, a group of its residents would leave
to found a related village in another location. The result was that throughout central Pimeria Alta there were groups of geographically separated,
but related winter villages whose members would usually farm the same
valley drainages during the summer. There were about a dozen such related
village groups in aboriginal times, and their members spoke about a halfdozen different dialects of the Piman language. Each major or parent village had its recognized headman and its council of village elders. Governing was strictly by consent of all the governed; no one had autocratic
powers. Above all, there was no central or binding authority among members of all these village clusters, no "chief of all the Papagos. Kinsmen
attended their own affairs.
3. Relations with Neighbors
The two-village people seem to have gotten along with one another
rather well. People from unrelated villages often met on ceremonial occasions, as at great intervillage games and contests whose sanctions were
chiefly religious. During those times of year when farming was not being
done or when hunting and gathering might be slack, the central Papagos
traveled far and wide, especially visiting among riverine-dwelling Pimans.
It appears, in fact, that in some years Papagos forsook their own fields
to labor for Pimans living on the Gila and Santa Cruz. They got along
well with Arenefios, but seem to have had little intercourse with Yumans
or Sand Papagos. Their most deadly enemies were the nomadic and
marauding Apaches.
D. RIVERINE PIMANS
The largest villages of Piman Indians were situated in the fertile valleys
of the riverine system forming three-fourths of the perimeter of Pimeria
Alta. The people living here were called "Pimas" and "Sobaipuris" by the
early Spaniards. The villages were fairly permanently fixed in their locations—discounting the fact that people might move from one side of a
river to the other should a flood or death of an important person occasion
it—and village residents were permanent. Sometimes people would sleep
next to their fields for convenience, but the fields of a village were seldom
much more than 1 km from one's house. It was, in short, along the perennial streams that Piman life assumed its most anchored form.
Crops, except for the addition of cotton (Gossypium spp.), were the
same as those grown in central Pimeria Alta. The planting and cultivation
of crops, relying more on ditches and irrigated fields than the flash-flood
BERNARD L. FONTANA
nected either by blood or marriage, and when a village became too large
to be supported by its local resources, a group of its residents would leave
to found a related village in another location. The result was that throughout central Pimeria Alta there were groups of geographically separated,
but related winter villages whose members would usually farm the same
valley drainages during the summer. There were about a dozen such related
village groups in aboriginal times, and their members spoke about a halfdozen different dialects of the Piman language. Each major or parent village had its recognized headman and its council of village elders. Governing was strictly by consent of all the governed; no one had autocratic
powers. Above all, there was no central or binding authority among members of all these village clusters, no "chief of all the Papagos. Kinsmen
attended their own affairs.
3. Relations with Neighbors
The two-village people seem to have gotten along with one another
rather well. People from unrelated villages often met on ceremonial occasions, as at great intervillage games and contests whose sanctions were
chiefly religious. During those times of year when farming was not being
done or when hunting and gathering might be slack, the central Papagos
traveled far and wide, especially visiting among riverine-dwelling Pimans.
It appears, in fact, that in some years Papagos forsook their own fields
to labor for Pimans living on the Gila and Santa Cruz. They got along
well with Arenefios, but seem to have had little intercourse with Yumans
or Sand Papagos. Their most deadly enemies were the nomadic and
marauding Apaches.
D. RIVERINE PIMANS
The largest villages of Piman Indians were situated in the fertile valleys
of the riverine system forming three-fourths of the perimeter of Pimeria
Alta. The people living here were called "Pimas" and "Sobaipuris" by the
early Spaniards. The villages were fairly permanently fixed in their locations—discounting the fact that people might move from one side of a
river to the other should a flood or death of an important person occasion
it—and village residents were permanent. Sometimes people would sleep
next to their fields for convenience, but the fields of a village were seldom
much more than 1 km from one's house. It was, in short, along the perennial streams that Piman life assumed its most anchored form.
Crops, except for the addition of cotton (Gossypium spp.), were the
same as those grown in central Pimeria Alta. The planting and cultivation
of crops, relying more on ditches and irrigated fields than the flash-flood