Encyclopedia of World CulturesVolume I - NORTH AMERICA - J ppsx

168 Jews Jews ETHNONYMS: Ashkenazim, Hebrews, Sephardim Orientation Identification. The Jews of North America are a relatively assimilated ethnic group in the United States and Canada. The name "Jew" is an Anglicized version of the Hebrew word yehudi, meaning "Hebrew, the language of the kingdom of Judah," and originally referred to the members of the tribe of Judah, one of twelve tribes of Israel in the Middle East about four thousand years ago. Jewish self-identity rests on a num- ber of factors including a unique set of religious beliefs and practices, ancestry from Jewish peoples, a shared understand- ing of the Holocaust, and a belief in Israel as the Jewish homeland. Location. Jews in North America live primarily in cities or adjacent suburbs. Although urban Jewish ghettos no longer exist, a pattern of residential isolation persists, with many city neighborhoods or suburban communities defined as "Jewish" because of the large number of Jews who reside there and the Jewish institutions such as synagogues, community centers, and kosher food stores located there. Sixty percent of Jews live on the East Coast of the United States and about 20 per- cent on the West Coast, with relatively few, save those in major cities, in the South and Midwest. In Canada, the same pattern holds, with two-thirds of the Jewish population living in or near Toronto or Montreal. Demography. In 1986 the Jewish population in North America was about 6.3 million, with 5.9 million in the United States and 305,000 in Canada. Thus, North American Jews constitute about 43 percent of the 14.5 million Jews in the world. By way of comparison, in Europe there are 4.1 million Jews, in Asia 3.3 million, in South America 600,000, in Af- rica 159,000, and in Oceania 72,000. The United States has the largest Jewish population in the world and Canada the seventh largest. In North America, the majority of Jews live in twelve large cities, with 1.9 million in the metropolitan New York City region (over 30 percent of U.S. Jews), 500,000 in Los Angeles, 300,000 in Philadelphia, 250,000 each in Miami and Chicago, over 100,000 each in Boston, Washing- ton, D.C., Montreal, and Toronto, and over 50,000 each in Baltimore and San Francisco. In Canada, the other Jewish population centers are Winnipeg, 15,000, and Vancouver, 14,000. The Jewish population has been relatively stable for the past decade, despite a relatively low birth rate, offset somewhat by recent emigrations of Jews from the Soviet Union and Israel to the United States and Canada. Linguistic Affiliation. The overwhelming majority of North American Jews use English as their primary or only do- mestic language, or French in the French-speaking provinces of Canada, with about 20 percent of Canadian Jews bilingual in the two languages. Recent immigrants from Europe and the Middle East often speak the language of their homeland, those from the Soviet Union speaking Russian, those from Syria speaking Arabic, and those from Israel speaking He- brew. Hasidic Jews use Yiddish, written with Hebrew charac- ters, and some Jews of central and eastern European ancestry speak Yiddish at home. Yiddish, the traditional language of Jews of Eastern Europe, shares common medieval roots with High German and contains Slavic loan-words, although it is usually written with Hebrew characters and from right to left as is Hebrew. A number of Yiddish words have become part of the U.S. English lexicon, including blintze, chutzpah, goy, kib- itz, landsman, mensh, nebbish, shlemiel, shock, shnook, and shmooz. Hebrew is the religious language for Orthodox and some Conservative Jews, with prayerbooks written in and prayers chanted in Hebrew. Hebrew is a branch of the Canaanite group of Semitic languages. Reform Jews use English in their religious services. History and Cultural Relations The immigration history of Jews to the U.S. and Canada dif- fers as does the nature of cultural relations between Jews and other groups in those nations. United States. The first Jews in North America-23 Se- phardic Jews from South America-arrived in New Am- sterdam (now New York City) in 1654. Since then Jews have continued to immigrate to North America, with the bulk ar- riving in three periods: 1830-1880, 1881-1924, and 1935- 1941. Prior to 1830 most Jews in North America were Se- phardic (see "Social Organization" below) and numbered about six thousand in 1830. From 1830 to 1880 the Jewish population increased to 250,000, most of whom were Ash- kenazi Jews who emigrated from Germany, as part of a larger movement of Germans to North America. Not only did these immigrants, largely young, rural or small-town peoples escap- ing religious persecution, swell the Jewish population, but they also spread across the continent establishing communi- ties in dozens of cities. The second period of migration from 1880-1924 closed with a Jewish population of over 4 million in the United States, mostly urban and mostly on the East Coast. This time the immigrants were mostly Ashkenazi Jews from eastern and central European countries such as Poland, Romania, Hungary, and especially western Russia. These im- migrants were the forebears of about 80 percent of Jews in North America today. Restrictive immigration laws in the United States and the depression slowed immigration, but beginning in the mid-1930s until the late 1940s, some 200,000 Jews fleeing Nazi-controlled Europe and extermina- tion in concentration camps arrived in the United States. The 1900-1950 period was also a time of upward (socially and economically) and outward (from the cities to the sub- urbs) mobility for the eastern European Jews. Since the estab- lishment of the state of Israel in 1948, Jews have arrived in the United States mainly from the Middle East, the Soviet Union, and most recently from Israel. One key feature of Jew- ish immigration is that most of the immigrants stayed, with only one in fourteen returning to their homelands as com- pared to about one in three returns for most other ethnic groups. Despite overt discrimination in education and employ. ment in the past and organized anti-Semitism in some sectors of American society, laws have generally guaranteed Jews reli- gious freedom and relations with other ethnic and religious groups have been generally peaceful if not friendly. Political ties to the African-American community are no longer as strong as they once were. Current tensions with the African- Jews 169 Americans reflect, in part, Jewish concerns over African- American support for the Palestinians in the Middle East and African-American concerns over Jewish ties to South Africa and lack of Jewish support for affirmative action programs. Jews generally distinguish themselves from all non-Jews who are classified and referred to as goyim, commonly understood to mean "non-Jew." Some scholars suggest that Jews in the United States today are more apt to stress the secular aspects of Jewishness, such as the use of Yiddish words, as opposed to the religious aspects such as following Jewish law regarding dietary restrictions. Canada. In contrast to the immigration history in the United States, the majority of Jewish immigrants to Canada arrived after 1945, with about 40 percent of the current Ca- nadian Jewish population composed of recent arrivals as com- pared to about 20 percent for the United States. In 1900 there were 15,000 Jews in Canada, but by 1915 the popula- tion had grown to 100,000 through mass emigrations from eastern Europe. Few Jews immigrated to Canada in the years before World War 11, and about 200,000 have arrived since then. These include Jews fleeing war-torn Europe, Hungarian Jews escaping from Hungary in 1956, French-speaking Jews coming from North Africa, and, most recently, about 22,000 arriving from Israel and 8,000 from the Soviet Union. Largely because Canada is a bicultural nation with dis- tinct French- and English-speaking populations and because of greater acceptance of cultural diversity, Jews in Canada, like other ethnic groups, are relatively less assimilated than their counterparts in the United States. While this has led to a more visible emphasis on religious elements of Jewishness and the survival of European customs, it has also placed Jews outside the two mainstream Canadian religious traditions of Catholicism and Protestantism. This position as a third reli- gion and other factors have sometimes subjected Jews to laws interfering with traditional religious practices. Laws intro- duced after World War 11 removed most of these restrictions. Today, Canadian Jews are slowly becoming more like U.S. Jews, with the use of European customs and languages dis- appearing. Economy Jews are now largely integrated into the U.S. and Canadian economic systems. Although they work in most trades and professions, they are overrepresented (as a percentage of the population) in several, including ownership of small and middle-sized businesses, the communication and entertain- ment industries, public service, and professions such as medi- cine, dentistry, law, accounting, teaching, and scientific re- search. Past and present discrimination has been cited by some as the cause of the relatively few Jews found in the upper echelons of the banking industry and large corporations in general. Civil rights legislation of the 1960s and 1970s has outlawed old laws and private covenants that restricted Jew- ish ownership of land or membership in private associations. The traditional Jewish division of labor with men working outside the home and women working in the home has given way to many women having professional employment. Kinship, Marriage and Family Marriage and Family. Jewish marriage and kinship prac- tices conform to those of mainstream North American cul- ture: monogamous marriage, nuclear families, bilateral de- scent, and Eskimo-type kinship terms. Surnames are patri- lineal, although there is a trend toward women keeping their own surnames at marriage or hyphenating their husbands' surnames and their own. The importance of family continuity is emphasized by the custom of naming children after de- ceased relatives. Although marriage with non-Jews (goyim) was proscribed and sanctioned by ostracism in the past, the intermarriage rate today is increasing as among North Ameri- cans in general. Though Jewish families have fewer children, they are often described as child-oriented, with family re- sources freely expended on education for both boys and girls. Jewish identity is traced matrilineally. That is, if one's mother is a Jew, then that person is Jewish according to Jewish law and entitled to all the rights and privileges that status brings, including the right to emigrate to and settle in Israel as citizens. Socialization. As with most Americans and Canadians, early socialization takes place in the home. Jewish parents are indulgent and permissive and rarely use physical punishment. Socialization as a Jew takes place in the home through story- telling and participation in Jewish rituals, and through atten- dance at Hebrew school in the afternoon or evening and par- ticipation in Jewish youth groups at the synagogue or community center. Orthodox Jews often run their own gram- mar and high schools, whereas most non-Orthodox Jews at- tend public or private secular schools. Acquisition of knowl- edge and the open discussion of ideas are important values and activities for Jews, and many attend college and profes- sional schools. The Bar Mitzvah ceremony for a boy at age thirteen is an important rite of passage as it marks him as an adult member of the community for religious purposes, and the Bat Mitzvah ceremony for a Reform or Conservative girl at age twelve or thirteen serves the same purpose. In the past the Bar Mitzvah ceremony was much more elaborate and spiritual in focus; today both ceremonies have become important social as well as religious events for many Jews. Sociopolitical Organization Social Organization. Today, Jews are highly integrated into the North American class system, with Jews found in the upper, middle, and working classes. Upward social mobility is an important value, and has been achieved for about three generations largely through education. Although Jews are often thought to be concentrated in the upper-middle and lower-upper classes, there is still a sizable number in the work- ing class and some elderly Jews live below the poverty line. Vestiges of discrimination remain and Jews are still excluded from some social organizations open to non-Jews. In commu- nities with large Jewish populations, exclusively or largely Jew- ish social organizations such as community centers, the Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Associations (YMHA, YwHA), B'nai B'rith, and Hadassah are important. And in some communities the synagogue shull) plays an impor- tant social and recreational role. Many Jews are also involved in or contribute to national or international organizations 1 70 Jews that support Jewish causes such as the Anti-Defamation League of the B'nai B'rith, the United Jewish Appeal, and the United Jewish Welfare Fund. Internally, Jews have no formal social or political organi- zation, although they can be and are often divided into sub- groups on the basis of three overlapping criteria: degree of re- ligiousness, place of one's own or one's ancestor's birth, and Ashkenazic or Sephardic ancestry. Degree of religiousness is reflected in the labels Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform Ju- daism. Orthodox Jews generally follow and resist changes in traditional religious beliefs and practices, which they base on the halakhah, the Jewish literature that covers ethical, reli- gious, civil, and criminal matters. Conservative Judaism com- prises a combination of thought reflecting different philo- sophical, ethical, and spiritual schools. In general, Conserva- tives stress change from within, Zionism, and an ingathering of all Jews. Because of the diversity of opinion, Conservative religious practices run a wide gamut, although most are less traditional than those of Orthodoxy. Reform Judaism, as the name suggests, reflects a modification of Orthodoxy in light of contemporary life and thought. Thus, Reform Jews do not believe that Jewish law is divinely revealed and eschew many practices central to Orthodoxy such as eating only kosher foods, wearing a skull-cap (yarmulke) when praying, and using Hebrew in prayer. The differences among Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Jews go well beyond religion and are manifested in many day-to-day activities and events and the degree to which members of each are assimilated into North American society. Other categories of Jews based on degree of religiousness include Hasidic (ultra-Orthodox) Jews, Reconstructionalists, and "Civil" Jews. As mentioned above, Jews arrived in North America in waves, largely from European nations and these places of an- cestry are used to delineate one Jew or group of Jews from an- other. Thus, for example, one speaks of German Jews, Rus- sian Jews, Polish Jews, Syrian Jews, and so on, or in a more general sense, eastern, central, or southern European Jews. These distinctions are no longer especially important, al- though German Jews are still looked upon as wealthier and of higher status than other Jews. The final major distinction is between Jews of Ashkenazic (Ashkenazim) or Sephardic (Sephardim, Sfar- dim) ancestry. Ashkenazim Jews are those descended from the Ashkenazic Jews of eastern and central Europe and cur- rently make up about 90 percent of North American Jews. Se- phardim are descended from the Sephardic Jews who lived in southern Europe from about the seventh to the fifteenth cen- tury when they were expelled from Spain by Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand. Most of the exiles settled in the Middle East and North Africa. Beyond a difference in place of ances- try, Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jews differed and in some ways continue to differ in language (Yiddish or European lan- guages versus Judeo-Spanish or Middle Eastern languages), the pronunciation and spelling of Hebrew, liturgy, and sur- names. But members of both groups freely acknowledge that members of the other group are Jews, although some Ashkenazim were less accepting of Sephardim in the past. Al- though North American Judaism is dominated by Ash- kenazim because of their large numbers, there are important Sephardic communities in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Atlanta, Chicago, Montreal, Rochester, and Indianapolis. These communities derive from a migration occurring from 1900 to 1925 when Sephardic Jews left areas that are now Turkey, Greece, Yugoslavia, Rhodes, and other territories of the Ottoman Empire. Finally, mention should be made of other Jewish groups such as Karaites (Qaraites), Israeli, and Russian Jews who have recently immigrated to North America from their re- spective countries, and Black Jews who have formed their own sects (though by Jewish-defined criteria most of these sects are not considered Jews). These groups, who sometimes follow an ultra-Orthodox life-style or a life-style different from that of assimilated Jews, also sometimes choose to live in relatively isolated urban communities and form their own synagogues. The recent emigrants from Israel are looked upon by some with puzzlement, as they seem to be rejecting the aliyyah, or ascent to the land of Israel, a marker of Jewish identity if not a goal for many Jews. Political Organization. Although North American Juda- ism has no overarching political structure similar to that of Roman Catholicism or the Church of the Latter-Day Saints (Mormons), the Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform syna- gogues are aligned with central organizations-the Union of Orthodox Congregations of America, the United Synagogue of America (Conservative), and the Union of American He- brew Congregations (Reform). Although in the past the syn- agogue played an important organizational and leadership role, it no longer does so for most Jews. Similarly, the rabbi, the spiritual and moral leader of the synagogue congregation, now rarely plays a leadership role in the community, based solely on his status as the rabbi. Jews have been seen (often by anti-Semitic commenta- tors) as aligned with liberal or radical political philosophies including socialism, communism, unionization, and the New Deal and tended to vote heavily in favor of candidates of the Democratic party in the United States; in the past decade or two, a marked trend toward conservatism and identification with the Republican party has been noted among a minority of Jews. Jews, despite being only about 2 percent of the popu- lation, are an important voting bloc because large numbers vote and because they make up a sizable percentage of the population in some large states such as New York and Florida and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Jews run for and have been elected to numerous local and state offices. Social Control and Conflict. Integrated as they are into U.S. and Canadian society, Jews generally resolve legal con- flicts with Jews or non-Jews through the legal system. Legal remedies available through Jewish agencies are rarely used. Among the Orthodox there is recourse to some religiously sanctioned social control such as Orthodox divorce. Al- though overt discrimination against Jews is waning in North America, there is a long tradition of anti-Semitism, reflected in limited access to certain professions and residential isola- tion. Within the Jewish communities in both nations, there are long traditions of supporting Jewish causes and institu- tions through charitable donations to and work for syna- gogues, schools, community centers, social welfare agencies, and the state of Israel. Jicarilla 171 Religion and Expressive Culture Religious Beliefs. Judaism is the oldest monotheistic reli- gion to survive to modem times. To Jews, God is the Supreme Being, the Creator of the Universe, and ultimate Judge of Human Affairs. Some importance is also given to particular prophets and angels. The Hebrew calendar is a lunar calendar (based on the movement of the moon around the earth) and has 354 days, 12 months of 29 or 30 days each with extra days added so that the lunar calendar conforms to the solar (Gre- gorian) calendar, and seven days in a week. The Hebrew cal- endar is based on the date 3761 B.C.E., the year traditional Jew- ish scholars believed the world began. Thus, the years 5748-5749 are the equivalent of 1989 in the Gregorian cal- endar. Jewish weekly synagogue attendance is relatively low at about 20 percent compared to other religions. Because of the wide divergence of religious belief and practice (Orthodox/ Conservative/Reform, Ashkenazic/Sephardic, and so on), no single all-encompassing system of Jewish belief and practice can be described. Religious Practitioners. There is no hierarchy of religious leaders. The rabbi (master, teacher) is the spiritual leader of the synagogue congregation. Today, the role and status of the rabbi is roughly the same as that of a Protestant minister or Catholic priest and involves pastoral, social, educational, and interfaith responsibilities. Reform Jews and Reconstruction- alists permit women to be ordained as rabbis. Cantors are also important, leading the congregation in the chanting of prayers (prayers are chanted, not recited) and in training boys for the Bar Mitzvah. Ceremonies. Rosh Hashanah (New Year) and Yom Kip- pur (the Day of Atonement), the High Holy Days, usually fall in September. Pesach (Passover), Shavout (Festival of Weeks), and Succot (Feast of the Ingathering) were originally harvest festivals involving pilgrimages to the Temple. Pass- over today marks the escape of the Hebrews from ancient Egypt about 3,500 years ago and is widely celebrated. Minor holy days or festivals include Hanukkah (dedication Feast of Lights), Purim (Festival of Lots), and Tisha B'Av (Ninth Day of Av). Although of less importance today, Rosh Hodesh (Beginning of a New Moon) is still noted and marked by spe- cial prayers. Shabbat (the Sabbath) is the only Holy Day mentioned in the Ten Commandments and is celebrated from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday each week of the year. The Sabbath is a day of rest and reflection. In addition to these Holy Days and festivals, all major life-cycle events- birth, age of religious majority, marriage, and death-are marked by prayer and ritual observances. Death and Afterlife. Jewish law requires that the deceased be buried within twenty-four hours of death. Some Reform Jews allow cremation. For close relatives there is a seven-day mourning period (shivah) involving prayer and restrictions on the activities of the moumer. Regular prayer in memory of the deceased follows at set intervals following the mourning period. Jewish beliefs concerning the soul and afterlife are vague and vary from one group to another. See also Hasidim, and entries on Jews in the Europe and Mid- dle East, Soviet Union and China, and South Asia volumes Bibliography Cohen, Steven (1983). American Modernity and Jewish Iden- tity. New York: Tavistock. Goren, Arthur A. (1980). "Jews." In Harvard Encycopedia of American Ethnic Groups, edited by Stephan Thernstrom, 571-598. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, Belknap Press. Gross, David C. (1981). The Jewish People's Almanac. Gar- den City, N.Y.: Doubleday. Rosenberg, Stuart E. (1970-1971). The Jewish Community in Canada. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart. Rosenberg, Stuart E. (1985). The New Jewish Identity in America. New York: Hippocrene Books. Tillem, Ivan L., comp. and ed. (1987). The 1987-88 Jewish Almanac. New York: Pacific Press. Weinfeld, M., W. Shaffir, and 1. Coder, eds. (1981). The Ca- nadian Jewish Mosaic. Toronto: John Wiley. DAVID LEVINSON Jicarilla ETHNONYM: Tinde Orientation Identification. The Jicarilla are an American Indian group whose names for themselves, 'Haisndayin" and "Dinde," have been translated as"people who came from below" and "people." The name "Jicarilla" was used first by the Spanish in 1700 in reference to a hill or peak associated with theloca- tion of the tribe at that time. Location. The homelands of the Jicarilla were located in the high country of present-day southern Colorado and north-central New Mexico. The Sangre de Cristo Mountains, ranging in height from two thousand to fourteen thousand feet, roughly bisect the former Jicarilla territory from north to south and are flanked on the east and west by high plains. The considerable variation in the topography of this region results in a varied climate, but one that is generally moderate with low annual precipitation. Summers are hot and dry and winters cold and snowy. The principal rivers in the region are the Rio Grande, the Arkansas, the Canadian, and the Chama. Spruce, fir, aspen, juniper, and pifion trees are found at the higher elevations, while short grasslands predominate on the high plains and in the intermontane basins. Demography. In 1860 the Jicarilla numbered 860. By 1900 their numbers had declined to 815 and continued to 172 Jicarilla decline to 588 in 1920. This decline in population was due most directly to tuberculosis, but the spread of the disease it- self was the result of poverty and poor nutrition associated with limited employment and insufficient rations on their New Mexico reservation. In the 1920s government programs to improve health and economic conditions on the reserva- tion helped reverse the population decline. By 1955 the num- ber of Jicarilla exceeded 1,000 and in 1981 stood at 2,308 on the Jicarilla Reservation in north-central New Mexico. Linguistic Affiliation. The Jicarilla language is a dialect of the Apachean group of Southern Athapaskan languages. History and Cultural Relations The Jicarilla are descendants of Southern Athapaskan hunt- ers who migrated from the subarctic region west of Hudson Bay to the Southwest between 1300 and 1500. The probable route of migration was through the plains along the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains. The Apacheans in general came into contact with the Spanish in the mid-sixteenth cen- tury, and until the beginning of the eighteenth century con- tacts with the Spanish were limited and generally friendly. During the 1700s Hispanic settlement of Jicarilla lands grad- ually increased through land grants by the Mexican govern- ment to its citizens. The Jicarilla never agreed to these land grants. After the Jicarilla territory passed to the jurisdiction of the United States in 1848, American settlement of Jicarilla lands also increased. The expansion of Hispanic and American settlement rendered the Jicarilla's traditional way of life impossible, and in response they began to raid White wagon trains and settle- ments. In 1854 the government of New Mexico declared war on the Jicarilla and the following year forced them to sign a peace treaty providing for their removal to a reservation. The plan for the Jicarilla reservation did not materialize until 1887. When it did, the system of individual land allotments intended to transform the people into farmers failed owing to the unfavorable climate and terrain of the reservation site, which led to social dislocation and dependence on govern- ment welfare. After the turn of the century the federal govern- ment added new lands to the reservation in an unsuccessful attempt to promote livestock raising. At this time living con- ditions on the reservation reached their low point, with wide- spread unemployment, poverty, malnutrition, and disease. Fi- nally, in the 1920s the federal government succeeded in introducing sheep raising, and conditions on the reservation improved. Culturally, the Jicarilla were heavily influenced by the Plains Indians to their east and the Pueblo Indians to their west, with the result that their own culture exhibited a combi- nation of nomadic hunting and settled farming characteris- tics. One of the Plains Indian traits prominent in Jicarilla cul- ture was an emphasis on raiding and warfare. After Spanish contact raiding increased in frequency and intensity with the use of and need for horses. At the beginning of the eighteenth century the Jicarilla commonly raided the Plains tribes to their east and used the fruits of their successes to trade with the Pueblo Indians and the Spanish. During the second dec- ade of the eighteenth century Comanches who had obtained guns from the French drove the Jicarilla out of Colorado and into the foothills and mountains of northern New Mexico. Subsequently, the Jicarilla sought help from the Spanish by offering allegiance to the king of Spain, but with little result. In 1779 a combined force of Jicarilla, Ute, Pueblo, and Span- ish soldiers defeated the Comanche, who, after another seven years and several more military campaigns, finally sued for peace. Thereafter the Jicarilla were able to reestablish them- selves in southern Colorado. Settlements The Jicarilla lived in local groups of 150 to 400 people who occupied semipermanent, dispersed settlements or camps usually situated along the banks of rivers and streams and from which they conducted their hunting and raiding activi- ties. Dwellings were low, dome-shaped structures, called wickiups, which consisted of a pole frame covered over with leaves and bark. Animal skins were laid over the structure for additional protection from the cold. Economy Subsistence and Commercial Activities. The Jicarilla economy was based on hunting and gathering, but agriculture was also practiced and increased in importance over time. Animals hunted included large game such as bison, moun- tain sheep, antelope, deer, elk, and small game such as bea- ver, rabbit, squirrel, porcupine, and prairie dog. Antelope were killed in communal drives, and bison (after Spanish contact) were hunted on horseback and dispatched with bows and arrows and lances. Turkey, grouse, and quail were also hunted, and fish were taken in shallow pools, with the use of baited nooses and bows and arrows. Gathered foods in- cluded juniper berries, mesquite beans, yucca fruit, choke- cherries, prickly pears, acorns, and pifion nuts. Cultivation was practiced by the Jicarilla after the late 1600s and resulted from contact with the Pueblo Indians. Crops included maize, beans, squash, pumpkins, peas, and melons, which were planted in plots along river and stream banks. Over time agri- culture increased in importance and became more sophisti- cated. By the time of the American occupation of the Jicarilla territory in the mid-1800s, irrigation dams and ditches were constructed and used to supplement the region's scanty rain- fall. Agricultural tools included crude wooden plows and im- plements for clearing irrigation ditches. Sheep raising became popular in the 1920s, but was eclipsed in importance in the 1950s by revenues from tribal-owned oil, gas, and timber re- sources. Since that time nonagricultural wage labor has in- creased with the development of small businesses and indus- tries subsidized by the tribe's natural resource revenues. Industrial Arts. A chief Jicarilla industry was basket mak- ing, the products of which were an important item of barter in trade with other native groups. Some baskets were sealed with pitch and used as water vessels. The Jicarilla also made pot- tery and ceremonial clay pipes. Trade. Baskets, meat, salt, and tanned bison hides were traded to Pueblo Indians for maize and other agricultural products. The Indians of San Juan Pueblo, from whom the Jicarilla also obtained songbird feathers, were special trading partners. Division of Labor. Men hunted and women gathered. In farming, men prepared the fields, worked the irrigation ditches, and helped with the harvest, and women were re. sponsible for planting, hoeing, weeding, and harvesting. Jicarilla 173 Land Tenure. Local groups of homesteads maintained somewhat ill-defined territories or camping grounds associ- ated with some familiar geographical landmark. In 1891 lands on the Jicarilla reservations were allotted on an individ- ual basis. In 1939 the allotted lands were returned to tribal ownership. Kinship Kin Groups and Descent. Local groups of extended fami- lies had a base in marriage and blood ties. However, kin groups with economic or political functions above the level of the local group did not exist. Kinship ties were reckoned bilaterally. Kinship Terminology. Jicarilla kinship terminology fol- lowed the Iroquoian system. The father and the father's brother were classed under a single term, as were the mother and the mother's sister. Parallel cousins were grouped with siblings and cross cousins were classed separately. No termi- nological distinction was made between maternal and pa- ternal grandparents nor between male and female grand- children. Marriage and Family Marriage. Young women were eligible for marriage after reaching puberty and young men when they proved them- selves capable of supporting a family. In arranging a marriage, the man was required to obtain the permission of the parents of his prospective bride, and it was completed when a dowry was offered and gifts were exchanged. Marriages were usually monogamous, though polygyny was practiced on a limited basis with the sister or cousin of the first wife as a preferred second mate. Postmarital residence was matrilocal. Divorce was common and second marriages were allowed. When a spouse died the survivor could marry again only after a period of mourning and after proper purification rituals were per- formed. In such cases, levirate and sororate marriages were preferred. A widower was considered unlucky and could re- marry only after a temporary union with a woman whom he was not permitted to wed. The temporary union lasted less than a year and was believed to bring the widower back from his state of ill fortune. Domestic Unit. The basic unit of Jicarilla society was the extended family consisting of parents, their unmarried chil- dren, and their married daughters and their husbands and children. Within the extended family each nuclear family unit occupied a separate household. Among modem Jicarilla the nuclear family has replaced the extended family as the basic social unit. Inheritance. Property was inherited, but not according to any specific rules. Socialization. Grandparents, especially on the maternal side, played an important role in the training of the young. Boys' training for hunting began in childhood when they were taught the use of the bow and arrow and the techniques of trapping, calling animals, and reading animal signs. At about age twelve they were taken on their first hunt and, if success- ful, were initiated into the fraternity of hunters and taught the rules and rituals of successful hunting. For girls, upon reaching puberty an adolescent rite was held in which the ori- gins of the Jicarilla and the traits each woman should person- ify were revealed to them in prayers and songs related by eld- erly men. The purpose of the rite was to ensure initiates a long and fruitful life. Sociopolitical Organization Social Organization. The Jicarilla were divided into two bands, the Olleros, or"potters," in the west, and the Llaneros or 'plains people," who ranged east of the Rio Grande. These two bands have been referred to by some authors as moieties. There were no important cultural differences between the bands, and their members intermarried freely. Each band was composed of several local groups, of which there were four- teen in the mid-nineteenth century, six belonging to the Olleros and eight to the Llaneros. Each local group, consist- ing of a geographical cluster of extended families associated by ties of blood, marriage, and strong friendship, formed a co- operative unit for economic and ceremonial activities for which the individual extended family was too small. Political Organization. Political authority was weakly de- veloped. Within each local group an influential elderly head of an extended family usually acted as a leader, but his au- thority was quite limited. Such leaders had no coercive power and their position was not inherited. Above the level of the local group there was no formal political hierarchy, although a few respected individuals such as religious leaders and warn- ors sometimes took responsibility for dealing with other na- tive groups, the Spanish, and the Americans. This system changed somewhat during the period of American occupa- tion when several inherited chieftainships existed within each of the two bands. During the period from 1888 to 1896 the Jicarilla were under the direct control of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which shared some authority with the native leaders. In 1937, under the provisions of the Indian Reorganization Act, the Jicarillas adopted a tribal government consisting of an elected tribal council. Social Control. Disputes over matters such as land and re- venge within and between local groups were usually negoti- ated by local group leaders. Conflict. In the late 1800s the Olleros and the Llaneros opposed each other over the location of the Jicarilla Reserva- tion. Once settled, they occupied separate areas of the reser- vation. The animosities stemming from this period have per- sisted into the twentieth century, with the Olleros usually identified as progressives and the Llaneros as conservatives. Religion and Expressive Culture Religious Beliefs. The Jicarilla held that a strong tie ex- isted between themselves and the land because all natural ob- jects and all living things were representations of the power of their chief deity, Hascin. Hascin was believed to have been born of the union of Black Sky and Earth Mother, two supernaturals who lived in the inner womb of the earth and who had existed since the beginning of time. In Jicarilla my- thology Hascin was responsible for the creation of Ancestral Man and Ancestral Woman and also for the creation of the animals and the sun and moon. Sun and Moon were consid- ered important supernaturals. According to their mythology the Jicarilla were the sole descendants of the first people to emerge from the underworld, the abode of Ancestral Man 174 Jicarilla and Ancestral Woman who produced the first people. Ani- mals were revered and entreated by the Jicarilla with special ceremonies prior to hunting because it was believed they were descended from the first animals who had used their powers to facilitate the emergence of the first people from the under- world. In the 1970s approximately 70 percent of Jicarillas continued to hold to their traditional religious beliefs. Religious Practitioners. The Jicarilla believed that at birth a child might receive a special power from an animal, a celestial body, or some natural phenomenon. In later years this power would appear to the select individual who then had to decide whether to accept the power and become a sha- man. If the person accepted it, he or she underwent a test of courage and then a period of training under the guidance of an experienced shaman during which prayers, songs, and ritu- als were learned. The shaman's power could be either good or evil and was believed to be a finite resource, the effectiveness of which diminished with too frequent use. Ceremonies. Jicarilla religious ceremonies were of two types, personal or shamanistic ceremonies and long-life cere- monies. Shamanistic ceremonies included curing and divin- ing rituals that required the shaman's special power. Long-life ceremonies did not require such special personal power. One of the most important long-life ceremonies was the annual autumn Relay Race that pitted the young men of the Ollero and Llanero bands against one another. The purpose of the race was to ensure an abundant food supply during the com- ing year. Participants were painted and decorated with feath- ers and yucca leaves according to their band affiliation and raced on an east-west-oriented course. If the Olleros won the race, it was believed that plant foods would be abundant; if the Llaneros, animal foods. In the 1930s long-life ceremonies enjoyed much popularity among the Jicarilla, and in the 1970s the Relay Race was still active and supported by the tri- bal council. Arts. Ground drawings were an integral part of the Relay Race ceremony. On the evening preceding the race each band selected a leader who, with his assistants,"painted" colorful drawings in the ground with pollen and colored materials. The drawings usually included the images of the sun and moon and two fast birds. The evening also included a good deal of singing, with the bands competing with one another and singing songs to the race participants. Medicine. The Jicarilla attributed a variety of sicknesses and ailments afflicting children to contact with birds and other animals. For example, the shadow of a turkey vulture flying overhead could make a child sick and die. Contact with eagles or the tracks of snakes and bears could give a child rheumatism. Contact with menstrual blood could also cause rheumatism. Some sicknesses were believed to be caused by ghosts. Ghost sickness was marked by nervousness, hysteria, and derangement. Curing ceremonies were of both the shamanistic and the long-life type. One of the most impor- tant long-life ceremonies, the Holiness Rite, was a curing cer- emony. Held three days prior to the appearance of a full moon, this ceremony was conducted inside a tipi within a brush enclosure. Patients were confined to the tipi and were the object of extended periods of singing by shamans for three successive nights. On the fourth night sacred clowns entered the tipi and participated in the cure with special prayers. On the morning of the fifth day the patients and participants re- ceived a blessing within the tipi and then exited the tipi and the brush enclosure to the east where they "deposited" their ailments on a tree especially prepared by a medicine man. At the conclusion of the ceremony all returned to the brush en- closure without looking back and had their faces painted by a shaman. Death and Afterlife. The Jicarilla believed that in the process of dying an individual's ghost or spirit was conducted northward to the edge of the earth where it was offered fruit. If the ghost refused the offer, it returned to its physical body and life, but if it accepted, it slid down into the afterworld and death occurred. Upon death close relatives of the deceased went into mourning and one or two relatives prepared the corpse. Burial took place during the daytime as soon after death as possible. Some personal possessions were buried with the deceased, and the person's horse was killed at grave side. The burial party returned from the grave site by a route different from that by which it had come, being careful not to look back and refraining from discussing the location of the grave with others when they returned. The burial party then discarded their clothes and washed themselves thoroughly. These elaborate precautions by the burial party were followed in order to avoid the vengeful, evil nature of the ghost of the deceased. The Jicarilla believed that the evil of ghosts was the result of the accumulation of its frustrations, conflicts, and disappointments while living and that ghosts could return to the living to avenge some past injury. Ghosts were believed to visit the living in the form of coyotes, which were considered an omen of one's own death or the death of a close relative. Bibliography Gunnerson, Dolores A. (1974). The Jicarilla Apaches: A Study in Survival. De Kalb: Northern Illinois University Press. Opler, Morris (1936). "A Summary of Jicarilla Apache Cul- ture." American Anthropologist, n.s. 38:202-223. Opler, Morris (1971)."Jicarilla Apache Territory, Economy, and Society in 1850." Southwestern Journal of Anthropology 27(4):309-329. Tiller, Veronica E. (1982) The Jicarilla Apache Tribe: A His- tory, 1846-1970. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. Tiller, Veronica E. (1983) "Jicarilla Apache." In Handbook of North American Indians. Vol. 10, Southwest, edited by Alfonso Ortiz, 440-461. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian In- stitution. GERALD F. REID . degree to which members of each are assimilated into North American society. Other categories of Jews based on degree of religiousness include Hasidic (ultra-Orthodox) Jews, Reconstructionalists, and "Civil" Jews. As mentioned above, Jews arrived in North America in waves, largely from European nations and these places of an- cestry are used to delineate one Jew or group of Jews from an- other. Thus, for example, one speaks of German Jews, Rus- sian Jews, Polish Jews, Syrian Jews, and so on, or in a more general sense, eastern, central, or southern European Jews. These distinctions are no longer especially important, al- though German Jews are still looked upon as wealthier and of higher status than other Jews. The final major distinction is between Jews of Ashkenazic (Ashkenazim) or Sephardic (Sephardim, Sfar- dim) ancestry. Ashkenazim Jews are those descended from the Ashkenazic Jews of eastern and central Europe and cur- rently make up about 90 percent of North American Jews. Se- phardim are descended from the Sephardic Jews who lived in southern Europe from about the seventh to the fifteenth cen- tury when they were expelled from Spain by Queen Isabella and King Ferdinand. Most of the exiles settled in the Middle East and North Africa. Beyond a difference in place of ances- try, Ashkenazic and Sephardic Jews differed and in some ways continue to differ in language (Yiddish or European lan- guages versus Judeo-Spanish or Middle Eastern languages), the pronunciation and spelling of Hebrew, liturgy, and sur- names. But members of both groups freely acknowledge that members of the other group are Jews, although some Ashkenazim were less accepting of Sephardim in the past. Al- though North American Judaism is dominated by Ash- kenazim because of their large numbers, there are important Sephardic communities in New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Atlanta, Chicago, Montreal, Rochester, and Indianapolis. These communities derive from a migration occurring from 1900 to 1925 when Sephardic Jews left areas that are now Turkey, Greece, Yugoslavia, Rhodes, and other territories of the Ottoman Empire. Finally, mention should be made of other Jewish groups such as Karaites (Qaraites), Israeli, and Russian Jews who have recently immigrated to North America from their re- spective countries, and Black Jews who have formed their own sects (though by Jewish-defined criteria most of these sects are not considered Jews). These groups, who sometimes follow an ultra-Orthodox life-style or a life-style different from that of assimilated Jews, also sometimes choose to live in relatively isolated urban communities and form their own synagogues. The recent emigrants from Israel are looked upon by some with puzzlement, as they seem to be rejecting the aliyyah, or ascent to the land of Israel, a marker of Jewish identity if not a goal for many Jews. Political Organization. Although North American Juda- ism has no overarching political structure similar to that of Roman Catholicism or the Church of the Latter-Day Saints (Mormons), the Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform syna- gogues are aligned with central organizations-the Union of Orthodox Congregations of America, the United Synagogue of America (Conservative), and the Union of American He- brew Congregations (Reform). Although in the past the syn- agogue played an important organizational and leadership role, it no longer does so for most Jews. Similarly, the rabbi, the spiritual and moral leader of the synagogue congregation, now rarely plays a leadership role in the community, based solely on his status as the rabbi. Jews have been seen (often by anti-Semitic commenta- tors) as aligned with liberal or radical political philosophies including socialism, communism, unionization, and the New Deal and tended to vote heavily in favor of candidates of the Democratic party in the United States; in the past decade or two, a marked trend toward conservatism and identification with the Republican party has been noted among a minority of Jews. Jews, despite being only about 2 percent of the popu- lation, are an important voting bloc because large numbers vote and because they make up a sizable percentage of the population in some large states such as New York and Florida and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec. Jews run for and have been elected to numerous local and state offices. Social Control and Conflict. Integrated as they are into U.S. and Canadian society, Jews generally resolve legal con- flicts with Jews or non-Jews through the legal system. Legal remedies available through Jewish agencies are rarely used. Among the Orthodox there is recourse to some religiously sanctioned social control such as Orthodox divorce. Al- though overt discrimination against Jews is waning in North America, there is a long tradition of anti-Semitism, reflected in limited access to certain professions and residential isola- tion. Within the Jewish communities in both nations, there are long traditions of supporting Jewish causes and institu- tions through charitable donations to and work for syna- gogues, schools, community centers, social welfare agencies, and the state of Israel. Jicarilla 171 Religion and Expressive Culture Religious Beliefs. Judaism is the oldest monotheistic reli- gion to survive to modem times. To Jews, God is the Supreme Being, the Creator of the Universe, and ultimate Judge of Human Affairs. Some importance is also given to particular prophets and angels. The Hebrew calendar is a lunar calendar (based on the movement of the moon around the earth) and has 354 days, 12 months of 29 or 30 days each with extra days added so that the lunar calendar conforms to the solar (Gre- gorian) calendar, and seven days in a week. The Hebrew cal- endar is based on the date 3761 B.C.E., the year traditional Jew- ish scholars believed the world began. Thus, the years 574 8-5 749 are the equivalent of 1989 in the Gregorian cal- endar. Jewish weekly synagogue attendance is relatively low at about 20 percent compared to other religions. Because of the wide divergence of religious belief and practice (Orthodox/ Conservative/Reform, Ashkenazic/Sephardic, and so on), no single all-encompassing system of Jewish belief and practice can be described. Religious Practitioners. There is no hierarchy of religious leaders. The rabbi (master, teacher) is the spiritual leader of the synagogue congregation. Today, the role and status of the rabbi is roughly the same as that of a Protestant minister or Catholic priest and involves pastoral, social, educational, and interfaith responsibilities. Reform Jews and Reconstruction- alists permit women to be ordained as rabbis. Cantors are also important, leading the congregation in the chanting of prayers (prayers are chanted, not recited) and in training boys for the Bar Mitzvah. Ceremonies. Rosh Hashanah (New Year) and Yom Kip- pur (the Day of Atonement), the High Holy Days, usually fall in September. Pesach (Passover), Shavout (Festival of Weeks), and Succot (Feast of the Ingathering) were originally harvest festivals involving pilgrimages to the Temple. Pass- over today marks the escape of the Hebrews from ancient Egypt about 3,500 years ago and is widely celebrated. Minor holy days or festivals include Hanukkah (dedication Feast of Lights), Purim (Festival of Lots), and Tisha B'Av (Ninth Day of Av). Although of less importance today, Rosh Hodesh (Beginning of a New Moon) is still noted and marked by spe- cial prayers. Shabbat (the Sabbath) is the only Holy Day mentioned in the Ten Commandments and is celebrated from sundown Friday to sundown Saturday each week of the year. The Sabbath is a day of rest and reflection. In addition to these Holy Days and festivals, all major life-cycle events- birth, age of religious majority, marriage, and death-are marked by prayer and ritual observances. Death and Afterlife. Jewish law requires that the deceased be buried within twenty-four hours of death. Some Reform Jews allow cremation. For close relatives there is a seven-day mourning period (shivah) involving prayer and restrictions on the activities of the moumer. Regular prayer in memory of the deceased follows at set intervals following the mourning period. Jewish beliefs concerning the soul and afterlife are vague and vary from one group to another. See also Hasidim, and entries on Jews in the Europe and Mid- dle East, Soviet Union and China, and South Asia volumes Bibliography Cohen, Steven (1983). American Modernity and Jewish Iden- tity. New York: Tavistock. Goren, Arthur A. (1980). "Jews." In Harvard Encycopedia of American Ethnic Groups, edited by Stephan Thernstrom, 57 1-5 98. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, Belknap Press. Gross, David C. (1981). The Jewish People's Almanac. Gar- den City, N.Y.: Doubleday. Rosenberg, Stuart E. (197 0-1 971). The Jewish Community in Canada. Toronto: McClelland & Stewart. Rosenberg, Stuart E. (1985). The New Jewish Identity in America. New York: Hippocrene Books. Tillem, Ivan L., comp. and ed. (1987). The 198 7-8 8 Jewish Almanac. New York: Pacific. Press. Weinfeld, M., W. Shaffir, and 1. Coder, eds. (1981). The Ca- nadian Jewish Mosaic. Toronto: John Wiley. DAVID LEVINSON Jicarilla ETHNONYM: Tinde Orientation Identification. The Jicarilla are an American Indian group whose names for themselves, 'Haisndayin" and "Dinde," have been translated as"people who came from below" and "people." The name "Jicarilla" was used first by the Spanish in 1700 in reference to a hill or peak associated with theloca- tion of the tribe at that time. Location. The homelands of the Jicarilla were located in the high country of present-day southern Colorado and north- central New Mexico. The Sangre de Cristo Mountains, ranging in height from two thousand to fourteen thousand feet, roughly bisect the former Jicarilla territory from north to south and are flanked on the east and west by high plains. The considerable variation in the topography of this region results in a varied climate, but one that is generally moderate with low annual precipitation. Summers are hot and dry and winters cold and snowy. The principal rivers in the region are the Rio Grande, the Arkansas, the Canadian, and the Chama. Spruce, fir, aspen, juniper, and pifion trees are found at the higher elevations, while short grasslands predominate on the high plains and in the intermontane basins. Demography. In 1860 the Jicarilla numbered 860. By 1900 their numbers had declined to 815 and continued to 172 Jicarilla decline to 588 in 1920. This decline in population was due most directly to tuberculosis, but the spread of the disease it- self was the result of poverty and poor nutrition associated with limited employment and insufficient rations on their New Mexico reservation. In the 1920s government programs to improve health and economic conditions on the reserva- tion helped reverse the population decline. By 1955 the num- ber of Jicarilla exceeded 1,000 and in 1981 stood at 2,308 on the Jicarilla Reservation in north- central New Mexico. Linguistic Affiliation. The Jicarilla language is a dialect of the Apachean group of Southern Athapaskan languages. History and Cultural Relations The Jicarilla are descendants of Southern Athapaskan hunt- ers who migrated from the subarctic region west of Hudson Bay to the Southwest between 1300 and 1500. The probable route of migration was through the plains along the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains. The Apacheans in general came into contact with the Spanish in the mid-sixteenth cen- tury, and until the beginning of the eighteenth century con- tacts with the Spanish were limited and generally friendly. During the 1700s Hispanic settlement of Jicarilla lands grad- ually increased through land grants by the Mexican govern- ment to its citizens. The Jicarilla never agreed to these land grants. After the Jicarilla territory passed to the jurisdiction of the United States in 1848, American settlement of Jicarilla lands also increased. The expansion of Hispanic and American settlement rendered the Jicarilla's traditional way of life impossible, and in response they began to raid White wagon trains and settle- ments. In 1854 the government of New Mexico declared war on the Jicarilla and the following year forced them to sign a peace treaty providing for their removal to a reservation. The plan for the Jicarilla reservation did not materialize until 1887. When it did, the system of individual land allotments intended to transform the people into farmers failed owing to the unfavorable climate and terrain of the reservation site, which led to social dislocation and dependence on govern- ment welfare. After the turn of the century the federal govern- ment added new lands to the reservation in an unsuccessful attempt to promote livestock raising. At this time living con- ditions on the reservation reached their low point, with wide- spread unemployment, poverty, malnutrition, and disease. Fi- nally, in the 1920s the federal government succeeded in introducing sheep raising, and conditions on the reservation improved. Culturally, the Jicarilla were heavily influenced by the Plains Indians to their east and the Pueblo Indians to their west, with the result that their own culture exhibited a combi- nation of nomadic hunting and settled farming characteris- tics. One of the Plains Indian traits prominent in Jicarilla cul- ture was an emphasis on raiding and warfare. After Spanish contact raiding increased in frequency and intensity with the use of and need for horses. At the beginning of the eighteenth century the Jicarilla commonly raided the Plains tribes to their east and used the fruits of their successes to trade with the Pueblo Indians and the Spanish. During the second dec- ade of the eighteenth century Comanches who had obtained guns from the French drove the Jicarilla out of Colorado and into the foothills and mountains of northern New Mexico. Subsequently, the Jicarilla sought help from the Spanish by offering allegiance to the king of Spain, but with little result. In 1779 a combined force of Jicarilla, Ute, Pueblo, and Span- ish soldiers defeated the Comanche, who, after another seven years and several more military campaigns, finally sued for peace. Thereafter the Jicarilla were able to reestablish them- selves in southern Colorado. Settlements The Jicarilla lived in local groups of 150 to 400 people who occupied semipermanent, dispersed settlements or camps usually situated along the banks of rivers and streams and from which they conducted their hunting and raiding activi- ties. Dwellings were low, dome-shaped structures, called wickiups, which consisted of a pole frame covered over with leaves and bark. Animal skins were laid over the structure for additional protection from the cold. Economy Subsistence and Commercial Activities. The Jicarilla economy was based on hunting and gathering, but agriculture was also practiced and increased in importance over time. Animals hunted included large game such as bison, moun- tain sheep, antelope, deer, elk, and small game such as bea- ver, rabbit, squirrel, porcupine, and prairie dog. Antelope were killed in communal drives, and bison (after Spanish contact) were hunted on horseback and dispatched with bows and arrows and lances. Turkey, grouse, and quail were also hunted, and fish were taken in shallow pools, with the use of baited nooses and bows and arrows. Gathered foods in- cluded juniper berries, mesquite beans, yucca fruit, choke- cherries, prickly pears, acorns, and pifion nuts. Cultivation was practiced by the Jicarilla after the late 1600s and resulted from contact with the Pueblo Indians. Crops included maize, beans, squash, pumpkins, peas, and melons, which were planted in plots along river and stream banks. Over time agri- culture increased in importance and became more sophisti- cated. By the time of the American occupation of the Jicarilla territory in the mid-1800s, irrigation dams and ditches were constructed and used to supplement the region's scanty rain- fall. Agricultural tools included crude wooden plows and im- plements for clearing irrigation ditches. Sheep raising became popular in the 1920s, but was eclipsed in importance in the 1950s by revenues from tribal-owned oil, gas, and timber re- sources. Since that time nonagricultural wage labor has in- creased with the development of small businesses and indus- tries subsidized by the tribe's natural resource revenues. Industrial Arts. A chief Jicarilla industry was basket mak- ing, the products of which were an important item of barter in trade with other native groups. Some baskets were sealed with pitch and used as water vessels. The Jicarilla also made pot- tery and ceremonial clay pipes. Trade. Baskets, meat, salt, and tanned bison hides were traded to Pueblo Indians for maize and other agricultural products. The Indians of San Juan Pueblo, from whom the Jicarilla also obtained songbird feathers, were special trading partners. Division of Labor. Men hunted and women gathered. In farming, men prepared the fields, worked the irrigation ditches, and helped with the harvest, and women were re. sponsible for planting, hoeing, weeding, and harvesting. Jicarilla 173 Land Tenure. Local groups of homesteads maintained somewhat ill-defined territories or camping grounds associ- ated with some familiar geographical landmark. In 1891 lands on the Jicarilla reservations were allotted on an individ- ual basis. In 1939 the allotted lands were returned to tribal ownership. Kinship Kin Groups and Descent. Local groups of extended fami- lies had a base in marriage and blood ties. However, kin groups with economic or political functions above the level of the local group did not exist. Kinship ties were reckoned bilaterally. Kinship Terminology. Jicarilla kinship terminology fol- lowed the Iroquoian system. The father and the father's brother were classed under a single term, as were the mother and the mother's sister. Parallel cousins were grouped with siblings and cross cousins were classed separately. No termi- nological distinction was made between maternal and pa- ternal grandparents nor between male and female grand- children. Marriage and Family Marriage. Young women were eligible for marriage after reaching puberty and young men when they proved them- selves capable of supporting a family. In arranging a marriage, the man was required to obtain the permission of the parents of his prospective bride, and it was completed when a dowry was offered and gifts were exchanged. Marriages were usually monogamous, though polygyny was practiced on a limited basis with the sister or cousin of the first wife as a preferred second mate. Postmarital residence was matrilocal. Divorce was common and second marriages were allowed. When a spouse died the survivor could marry again only after a period of mourning and after proper purification rituals were per- formed. In such cases, levirate and sororate marriages were preferred. A widower was considered unlucky and could re- marry only after a temporary union with a woman whom he was not permitted to wed. The temporary union lasted less than a year and was believed to bring the widower back from his state of ill fortune. Domestic Unit. The basic unit of Jicarilla society was the extended family consisting of parents, their unmarried chil- dren, and their married daughters and their husbands and children. Within the extended family each nuclear family unit occupied a separate household. Among modem Jicarilla the nuclear family has replaced the extended family as the basic social unit. Inheritance. Property was inherited, but not according to any specific rules. Socialization. Grandparents, especially on the maternal side, played an important role in the training of the young. Boys' training for hunting began in childhood when they were taught the use of the bow and arrow and the techniques of trapping, calling animals, and reading animal signs. At about age twelve they were taken on their first hunt and, if success- ful, were initiated into the fraternity of hunters and taught the rules and rituals of successful hunting. For girls, upon reaching puberty an adolescent rite was held in which the ori- gins of the Jicarilla and the traits each woman should person- ify were revealed to them in prayers and songs related by eld- erly men. The purpose of the rite was to ensure initiates a long and fruitful life. Sociopolitical Organization Social Organization. The Jicarilla were divided into two bands, the Olleros, or"potters," in the west, and the Llaneros or 'plains people," who ranged east of the Rio Grande. These two bands have been referred to by some authors as moieties. There were no important cultural differences between the bands, and their members intermarried freely. Each band was composed of several local groups, of which there were four- teen in the mid-nineteenth century, six belonging to the Olleros and eight to the Llaneros. Each local group, consist- ing of a geographical cluster of extended families associated by ties of blood, marriage, and strong friendship, formed a co- operative unit for economic and ceremonial activities for which the individual extended family was too small. Political Organization. Political authority was weakly de- veloped. Within each local group an influential elderly head of an extended family usually acted as a leader, but his au- thority was quite limited. Such leaders had no coercive power and their position was not inherited. Above the level of the local group there was no formal political hierarchy, although a few respected individuals such as religious leaders and warn- ors sometimes took responsibility for dealing with other na- tive groups, the Spanish, and the Americans. This system changed somewhat during the period of American occupa- tion when several inherited chieftainships existed within each of the two bands. During the period from 1888 to 1896 the Jicarilla were under the direct control of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, which shared some authority with the native leaders. In 1937, under the provisions of the Indian Reorganization Act, the Jicarillas adopted a tribal government consisting of an elected tribal council. Social Control. Disputes over matters such as land and re- venge within and between local groups were usually negoti- ated by local group leaders. Conflict. In the late 1800s the Olleros and the Llaneros opposed each other over the location of the Jicarilla Reserva- tion. Once settled, they occupied separate areas of the reser- vation. The animosities stemming from this period have per- sisted into the twentieth century, with the Olleros usually identified as progressives and the Llaneros as conservatives. Religion and Expressive Culture Religious Beliefs. The Jicarilla held that a strong tie ex- isted between themselves and the land because all natural ob- jects and all living things were representations of the power of their chief deity, Hascin. Hascin was believed to have been born of the union of Black Sky and Earth Mother, two supernaturals who lived in the inner womb of the earth and who had existed since the beginning of time. In Jicarilla my- thology Hascin was responsible for the creation of Ancestral Man and Ancestral Woman and also for the creation of the animals and the sun and moon. Sun and Moon were consid- ered important supernaturals. According to their mythology the Jicarilla were the sole descendants of the first people to emerge from the underworld, the abode of Ancestral Man 174 Jicarilla and Ancestral Woman who produced the first people. Ani- mals were revered and entreated by the Jicarilla with special ceremonies prior to hunting because it was believed they were descended from the first animals who had used their powers to facilitate the emergence of the first people from the under- world. In the 1970s approximately 70 percent of Jicarillas continued to hold to their traditional religious beliefs. Religious Practitioners. The Jicarilla believed that at birth a child might receive a special power from an animal, a celestial body, or some natural phenomenon. In later years this power would appear to the select individual who then had to decide whether to accept the power and become a sha- man. If the person accepted it, he or she underwent a test of courage and then a period of training under the guidance of an experienced shaman during which prayers, songs, and ritu- als were learned. The shaman's power could be either good or evil and was believed to be a finite resource, the effectiveness of which diminished with too frequent use. Ceremonies. Jicarilla religious ceremonies were of two types, personal or shamanistic ceremonies and long-life cere- monies. Shamanistic ceremonies included curing and divin- ing rituals that required the shaman's special power. Long-life ceremonies did not require such special personal power. One of the most important long-life ceremonies was the annual autumn Relay Race that pitted the young men of the Ollero and Llanero bands against one another. The purpose of the race was to ensure an abundant food supply during the com- ing year. Participants were painted and decorated with feath- ers and yucca leaves according to their band affiliation and raced on an east-west-oriented course. If the Olleros won the race, it was believed that plant foods would be abundant; if the Llaneros, animal foods. In the 1930s long-life ceremonies enjoyed much popularity among the Jicarilla, and in the 1970s the Relay Race was still active and supported by the tri- bal council. Arts. Ground drawings were an integral part of the Relay Race ceremony. On the evening preceding the race each band selected a leader who, with his assistants,"painted" colorful drawings in the ground with pollen and colored materials. The drawings usually included the images of the sun and moon and two fast birds. The evening also included a good deal of singing, with the bands competing with one another and singing songs to the race participants. Medicine. The Jicarilla attributed a variety of sicknesses and ailments afflicting children to contact with birds and other animals. For example, the shadow of a turkey vulture flying overhead could make a child sick and die. Contact with eagles or the tracks of snakes and bears could give a child rheumatism. Contact with menstrual blood could also cause rheumatism. Some sicknesses were believed to be caused by ghosts. Ghost sickness was marked by nervousness, hysteria, and derangement. Curing ceremonies were of both the shamanistic and the long-life type. One of the most impor- tant long-life ceremonies, the Holiness Rite, was a curing cer- emony. Held three days prior to the appearance of a full moon, this ceremony was conducted inside a tipi within a brush enclosure. Patients were confined to the tipi and were the object of extended periods of singing by shamans for three successive nights. On the fourth night sacred clowns entered the tipi and participated in the cure with special prayers. On the morning of the fifth day the patients and participants re- ceived a blessing within the tipi and then exited the tipi and the brush enclosure to the east where they "deposited" their ailments on a tree especially prepared by a medicine man. At the conclusion of the ceremony all returned to the brush en- closure without looking back and had their faces painted by a shaman. Death and Afterlife. The Jicarilla believed that in the process of dying an individual's ghost or spirit was conducted northward to the edge of the earth where it was offered fruit. If the ghost refused the offer, it returned to its physical body and life, but if it accepted, it slid down into the afterworld and death occurred. Upon death close relatives of the deceased went into mourning and. 168 Jews Jews ETHNONYMS: Ashkenazim, Hebrews, Sephardim Orientation Identification. The Jews of North America are a relatively assimilated ethnic group in the United States and Canada. The name "Jew" is an Anglicized version of the Hebrew word yehudi, meaning "Hebrew, the language of the kingdom of Judah," and originally referred to the members of the tribe of Judah, one of twelve tribes of Israel in the Middle East about four thousand years ago. Jewish self-identity rests on a num- ber of factors including a unique set of religious beliefs and practices, ancestry from Jewish peoples, a shared understand- ing of the Holocaust, and a belief in Israel as the Jewish homeland. Location. Jews in North America live primarily in cities or adjacent suburbs. Although urban Jewish ghettos no longer exist, a pattern of residential isolation persists, with many city neighborhoods or suburban communities defined as "Jewish" because of the large number of Jews who reside there and the Jewish institutions such as synagogues, community centers, and kosher food stores located there. Sixty percent of Jews live on the East Coast of the United States and about 20 per- cent on the West Coast, with relatively few, save those in major cities, in the South and Midwest. In Canada, the same pattern holds, with two-thirds of the Jewish population living in or near Toronto or Montreal. Demography. In 1986 the Jewish population in North America was about 6.3 million, with 5.9 million in the United States and 305,000 in Canada. Thus, North American Jews constitute about 43 percent of the 14.5 million Jews in the world. By way of comparison, in Europe there are 4.1 million Jews, in Asia 3.3 million, in South America 600,000, in Af- rica 159,000, and in Oceania 72,000. The United States has the largest Jewish population in the world and Canada the seventh largest. In North America, the majority of Jews live in twelve large cities, with 1.9 million in the metropolitan New York City region (over 30 percent of U.S. Jews), 500,000 in Los Angeles, 300,000 in Philadelphia, 250,000 each in Miami and Chicago, over 100,000 each in Boston, Washing- ton, D.C., Montreal, and Toronto, and over 50,000 each in Baltimore and San Francisco. In Canada, the other Jewish population centers are Winnipeg, 15,000, and Vancouver, 14,000. The Jewish population has been relatively stable for the past decade, despite a relatively low birth rate, offset somewhat by recent emigrations of Jews from the Soviet Union and Israel to the United States and Canada. Linguistic Affiliation. The overwhelming majority of North American Jews use English as their primary or only do- mestic language, or French in the French-speaking provinces of Canada, with about 20 percent of Canadian Jews bilingual in the two languages. Recent immigrants from Europe and the Middle East often speak the language of their homeland, those from the Soviet Union speaking Russian, those from Syria speaking Arabic, and those from Israel speaking He- brew. Hasidic Jews use Yiddish, written with Hebrew charac- ters, and some Jews of central and eastern European ancestry speak Yiddish at home. Yiddish, the traditional language of Jews of Eastern Europe, shares common medieval roots with High German and contains Slavic loan-words, although it is usually written with Hebrew characters and from right to left as is Hebrew. A number of Yiddish words have become part of the U.S. English lexicon, including blintze, chutzpah, goy, kib- itz, landsman, mensh, nebbish, shlemiel, shock, shnook, and shmooz. Hebrew is the religious language for Orthodox and some Conservative Jews, with prayerbooks written in and prayers chanted in Hebrew. Hebrew is a branch of the Canaanite group of Semitic languages. Reform Jews use English in their religious services. History and Cultural Relations The immigration history of Jews to the U.S. and Canada dif- fers as does the nature of cultural relations between Jews and other groups in those nations. United States. The first Jews in North America- 23 Se- phardic Jews from South America- arrived in New Am- sterdam (now New York City) in 1654. Since then Jews have continued to immigrate to North America, with the bulk ar- riving in three periods: 183 0-1 880, 188 1-1 924, and 193 5- 1941. Prior to 1830 most Jews in North America were Se- phardic (see "Social Organization" below) and numbered about six thousand in 1830. From 1830 to 1880 the Jewish population increased to 250,000, most of whom were Ash- kenazi Jews who emigrated from Germany, as part of a larger movement of Germans to North America. Not only did these immigrants, largely young, rural or small-town peoples escap- ing religious persecution, swell the Jewish population, but they also spread across the continent establishing communi- ties in dozens of cities. The second period of migration from 188 0-1 924 closed with a Jewish population of over 4 million in the United States, mostly urban and mostly on the East Coast. This time the immigrants were mostly Ashkenazi Jews from eastern and central European countries such as Poland, Romania, Hungary, and especially western Russia. These im- migrants were the forebears of about 80 percent of Jews in North America today. Restrictive immigration laws in the United States and the depression slowed immigration, but beginning in the mid-1930s until the late 1940s, some 200,000 Jews fleeing Nazi-controlled Europe and extermina- tion in concentration camps arrived in the United States. The 190 0-1 950 period was also a time of upward (socially and economically) and outward (from the cities to the sub- urbs) mobility for the eastern European Jews. Since the estab- lishment of the state of Israel in 1948, Jews have arrived in the United States mainly from the Middle East, the Soviet Union, and most recently from Israel. One key feature of Jew- ish immigration is that most of the immigrants stayed, with only one in fourteen returning to their homelands as com- pared to about one in three returns for most other ethnic groups. Despite overt discrimination in education and employ. ment in the past and organized anti-Semitism in some sectors of American society, laws have generally guaranteed Jews reli- gious freedom and relations with other ethnic and religious groups have been generally peaceful if not friendly. Political ties to the African-American community are no longer as strong as they once were. Current tensions with the African- Jews 169 Americans reflect, in part, Jewish concerns over African- American support for the Palestinians in the Middle East and African-American concerns over Jewish ties to South Africa and lack of Jewish support for affirmative action programs. Jews generally distinguish themselves from all non-Jews who are classified and referred to as goyim, commonly understood to mean "non-Jew." Some scholars suggest that Jews in the United States today are more apt to stress the secular aspects of Jewishness, such as the use of Yiddish words, as opposed to the religious aspects such as following Jewish law regarding dietary restrictions. Canada. In contrast to the immigration history in the United States, the majority of Jewish immigrants to Canada arrived after 1945, with about 40 percent of the current Ca- nadian Jewish population composed of recent arrivals as com- pared to about 20 percent for the United States. In 1900 there were 15,000 Jews in Canada, but by 1915 the popula- tion had grown to 100,000 through mass emigrations from eastern Europe. Few Jews immigrated to Canada in the years before World War 11, and about 200,000 have arrived since then. These include Jews fleeing war-torn Europe, Hungarian Jews escaping from Hungary in 1956, French-speaking Jews coming from North Africa, and, most recently, about 22,000 arriving from Israel and 8,000 from the Soviet Union. Largely because Canada is a bicultural nation with dis- tinct French- and English-speaking populations and because of greater acceptance of cultural diversity, Jews in Canada, like other ethnic groups, are relatively less assimilated than their counterparts in the United States. While this has led to a more visible emphasis on religious elements of Jewishness and the survival of European customs, it has also placed Jews outside the two mainstream Canadian religious traditions of Catholicism and Protestantism. This position as a third reli- gion and other factors have sometimes subjected Jews to laws interfering with traditional religious practices. Laws intro- duced after World War 11 removed most of these restrictions. Today, Canadian Jews are slowly becoming more like U.S. Jews, with the use of European customs and languages dis- appearing. Economy Jews are now largely integrated into the U.S. and Canadian economic systems. Although they work in most trades and professions, they are overrepresented (as a percentage of the population) in several, including ownership of small and middle-sized businesses, the communication and entertain- ment industries, public service, and professions such as medi- cine, dentistry, law, accounting, teaching, and scientific re- search. Past and present discrimination has been cited by some as the cause of the relatively few Jews found in the upper echelons of the banking industry and large corporations in general. Civil rights legislation of the 1960s and 1970s has outlawed old laws and private covenants that restricted Jew- ish ownership of land or membership in private associations. The traditional Jewish division of labor with men working outside the home and women working in the home has given way to many women having professional employment. Kinship, Marriage and Family Marriage and Family. Jewish marriage and kinship prac- tices conform to those of mainstream North American cul- ture: monogamous marriage, nuclear families, bilateral de- scent, and Eskimo-type kinship terms. Surnames are patri- lineal, although there is a trend toward women keeping their own surnames at marriage or hyphenating their husbands' surnames and their own. The importance of family continuity is emphasized by the custom of naming children after de- ceased relatives. Although marriage with non-Jews (goyim) was proscribed and sanctioned by ostracism in the past, the intermarriage rate today is increasing as among North Ameri- cans in general. Though Jewish families have fewer children, they are often described as child-oriented, with family re- sources freely expended on education for both boys and girls. Jewish identity is traced matrilineally. That is, if one's mother is a Jew, then that person is Jewish according to Jewish law and entitled to all the rights and privileges that status brings, including the right to emigrate to and settle in Israel as citizens. Socialization. As with most Americans and Canadians, early socialization takes place in the home. Jewish parents are indulgent and permissive and rarely use physical punishment. Socialization as a Jew takes place in the home through story- telling and participation in Jewish rituals, and through atten- dance at Hebrew school in the afternoon or evening and par- ticipation in Jewish youth groups at the synagogue or community center. Orthodox Jews often run their own gram- mar and high schools, whereas most non-Orthodox Jews at- tend public or private secular schools. Acquisition of knowl- edge and the open discussion of ideas are important values and activities for Jews, and many attend college and profes- sional schools. The Bar Mitzvah ceremony for a boy at age thirteen is an important rite of passage as it marks him as an adult member of the community for religious purposes, and the Bat Mitzvah ceremony for a Reform or Conservative girl at age twelve or thirteen serves the same purpose. In the past the Bar Mitzvah ceremony was much more elaborate and spiritual in focus; today both ceremonies have become important social as well as religious events for many Jews. Sociopolitical Organization Social Organization. Today, Jews are highly integrated into the North American class system, with Jews found in the upper, middle, and working classes. Upward social mobility is an important value, and has been achieved for about three generations largely through education. Although Jews are often thought to be concentrated in the upper-middle and lower-upper classes, there is still a sizable number in the work- ing class and some elderly Jews live below the poverty line. Vestiges of discrimination remain and Jews are still excluded from some social organizations open to non-Jews. In commu- nities with large Jewish populations, exclusively or largely Jew- ish social organizations such as community centers, the Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Associations (YMHA, YwHA), B'nai B'rith, and Hadassah are important. And in some communities the synagogue shull) plays an impor- tant social and recreational role. Many Jews are also involved in or contribute to national or international organizations 1 70 Jews that support Jewish causes such as the Anti-Defamation League of the B'nai B'rith, the United Jewish Appeal, and the United Jewish Welfare Fund. Internally, Jews have no formal social or political organi- zation, although they can be and are often divided into sub- groups on the basis of three overlapping criteria: degree of re- ligiousness, place of one's own or one's ancestor's birth, and Ashkenazic or Sephardic ancestry. Degree of religiousness is reflected in the labels Orthodox, Conservative, or Reform Ju- daism. Orthodox Jews generally follow and resist changes in traditional religious beliefs and practices, which they base on the halakhah, the Jewish literature that covers ethical, reli- gious, civil, and criminal matters. Conservative Judaism com- prises a combination of thought reflecting different philo- sophical, ethical, and spiritual schools. In general, Conserva- tives stress change from within, Zionism, and an ingathering of all Jews. Because of the diversity of opinion, Conservative religious practices run a wide gamut, although most are less traditional than those of Orthodoxy. Reform Judaism, as the name suggests, reflects a modification of Orthodoxy in light of contemporary life and thought. Thus, Reform Jews do not believe that Jewish law is divinely revealed and eschew many practices central to Orthodoxy such as eating only kosher foods, wearing a skull-cap (yarmulke) when praying, and using Hebrew in prayer. The differences among Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Jews go well beyond religion and are manifested in many day-to-day activities and events and the