Helen Codere described the changes brought by European influences and theorized that the potlatch was a form of competition that effectively replaced warfare within 20 years of European contact in her published Ph.D dissertation Fighting with Property: A Study of Kwakiutl Potlatching and Warfare, 1792-1930 (1950). A graduate of University of Minnesota and Columbia University, Codere continued publishing about Kwakiutl society and history in academic journals for another ten years, dividing the Kwakiutl realm into Pre-Contact (1770-1849), Potlatch (1849-1921) and Post-Potlatch (1921-1955) periods. Born in Winnipeg in 1917, Codere moved with her parents to the United States in 1919 and became a naturalized citizen in 1924. In 1959-1960 she conducted anthropological field work in British Columbia and Rwanda. In 1966 she edited an edition of Kwakiutl Ethnography by Franz Boas.

BOOKS:

Codere, Helen. Fighting with Property: A Study of Kwakiutl Potlatching and Warfare, 1792-1930 (American Ethnographical Society, Monograph 18, New York: J.J. Augustin, 1950).

Boas, Franz. Kwakiutl Ethnography (University of Chicago Press, 1966). Helen Codere, editor.

[BCBW 2005] "First Nations" "Anthropology" "Ethnology"