The Kiowa-Apache Defensive System

The Kiowa-Apache Defensive System --Gil Prost

Environmental Pressures are Real

Environmental pressures of living in the Great Plains compelled tribes like the Kiowa-Apache to create similar defensive systems against existential anxieties. These environmental pressures also compelled individual tribes moving west into the Great Plains to hunt the buffalo to create the same kind of defensive system against anxiety. To be effective, the defensive system had to provide the basic necessities of life in a harsh environment filled with herds of buffalo.

This meant when horticultural tribes in the East moved into the Great Plains, they all changed "family" types in order to be successful in hunting buffalo. SOCIAL EXISTENCE on the Great Plains compelled them to constructed a family type called a "band." The family type "fit" the environment.

The band, as a Kind of “family,” became the dominant social unit of the tribe. Members of tribes of the Plains, tribes like the Kiowa-Apache, Cheyenne, and Arapaho all believed that a super-family called a “band” which ascribed specific functions to their members could do a better job at reducing their existential anxieties than a group of independent nuclear families choosing to work together. In the words of existentialist Jean-Paul Sartre, "SOCIAL EXISTENCE PRECEDED AND RULED ESSENCE."

Supporting the position that SOCIAL EXISTENCE and environmental pressures did indeed shape the life-ways of the Plain's tribes was anthropologist Fred Eggan. He points out that "Tribes coming into the Plains with different backgrounds and social systems ended up with similar kinship systems ...this is in large measure an internal adjustment to the uncertain and unchanging conditions of the Plains environment -- ecological and social -- rather than a result of borrowing and diffusion."

It was a great insight, a perspective promoted by Marvin Harris but ignored by most social scientists, anthropologists, and missiologists. But if SOCIAL EXISTENCE PRECEDES AND RULES ESSENCE as proposed by Sartre, then why did it fail to change the life-way of the settlers who moved into the Plains and believed that the basic unit of society was the nuclear family and that its dominant dyad was that of husband-wife rather than some biological dyad selected by environmental fitness?

When the Puritans, who believed ESSENCE transcended the "material elements of the environment" (Col. 2:8), landed in New England, unknown them, they had entered a Continent in which SOCIAL EXISTENCE RULED ESSENCE from coast to coast.

But for the settlers moving west into the Plains, what it meant to be "created in the image of God" declared that ESSENCE PRECEDED and RULED EXISTENCE. SOCIAL EXISTENCE in a new environment, failed to shape their life-way and force them to rearrange the internal structure of the nuclear family. They refused to have their "traditions" shaped by the "elements of the environment" they were entering. Their behavior and Biblical worldview eventually made America Great.

A life-way Shaped Social Existence, the Kiowa-Apache

For tribes of the Plains, “kinship is [was] the idiom in which political interests are advanced and economic goals are maximized.” Economic goals were "maximized" by restructuring the nuclear family, followed by the creation of a new intimate group or type of "family" called the "band."

Now whatever kind of family structure these tribes from the East had before they entered the Plains, they were all replaced by a new kind of family structure, a construct that violated the Law of Identity by merging mutually exclusive statutes positions like maternal aunt and mother, father's brother and father, and siblings and cousins.

No longer anxious about planting crops, protecting land, or protecting and transmitting property, as in the case of the matrilineal Mikasuki living in the Everglades, they now became anxious about how they were going to survive hunting down the buffalo, collecting buffalo chips for fuel, tanning buffalo hides, and making teepees, leather clothing, and moccasins.

The larger one’s “family,” the more functions they could ascribe to "family" members. For these tribes of the Plains, the issue was not freedom and the sovereignty of the individual, but survival in a very harsh environment. Their key to survival depended on the creation of a super-large "family" protected by the Rule of Exogamy since the rule of "exogamy provides the only means of maintaining the group as a group."

Creating a Defensive Shield Against Anxiety: a Super-Family

The creation of a super-family, as mentioned previously, was done by merging mutually exclusive status positions. By classifying uncles as "fathers, aunts as "mothers," cousins as "siblings" and nephews and nieces as "brothers" and sisters," meant one could obligate uncles and aunts to behave like “fathers” and “mothers,” cousins to act like “brothers” and “sisters,” and nephews and nieces to act like “sons” and “daughters." In effect, the Kiowa-Apache rejected logic and declared that A (all cousins) = B (older and younger brothers and sisters), etc.

The kind of super-family the Kiowa-Apache constructed by merging mutually exclusive status positions is illustrated in the kinship chart below. Excluding grandparents and their offspring and grandchildren, the Kiowa-Apache “super-family” consisted of nineteen status position, thirteen more than the Biblical family of six consisting of, namely, father, mother brothers, sisters, and sons and daughters.

Excluding the second ascending generation, namely, FaFaBrSo, FaFaSiSo, FaMoSiSo, FaMoBrSo, and MoMoSiDa, MoMoBrDa, MoFaSiDa, MoFaBrDa which were not charted, anthropologist McAllister lists thirty-seven status positions which are classified as family members. The merged status positions results in --

Two members of the family being called "father," ace: Fr and FaBr.
Two members of the family being called "mother," nade: Mo and MoSi.
Five members, all male cousins, who are called either "older brother," daran: Ego's brother plus MoBrSo, MoSiSo, FaBrSo, FaSiSo, or "younger brother," tlaan.
Five members, all female cousins, who are called either "older sister," dadan: Ego's Daughter, plus MoBrDa, MoSiDa, FaBrDa, FaSiDa or "younger sister," detcan,
Six members who are called "sons," jaan: Ego's sons, plus BrSo, FaBrSoSo, FaSiSoSo, MoSiSoSo, and MoBrSoSo.
Five status position are called "sister's children," dayan: Ego's sister's children plus MoSiDaChild, MoBrDaChild, FaBrDaChild, and FaSiDaChild.

The above Kiowa-Apache “family” type represents a threefold increase in rights, duties, and obligations, all of which were ascribed and not natural because they defied the rules of logic. But it also meant a complementary decrease in freedom along with a restructuring of the nuclear family which meant replacing the covenantal dyad of husband-wife with that of brother-brother.

Ranking Dyads According to Degrees of Intimacy

When ranking dyadic intimacy patterns, anthropologist Gilbert McAllister ranked the brother-brother dyad as the most intimate, reporting that "A Kiowa-Apache says: 'A brother is his best friend;'" And "the most intimate behavior, the closest feelings of unity, is between siblings of the same sex. ...This loyalty on the part of brothers is cited as a reason for loving a brother more than a wife."

In rearranging the internal structure of the nuclear family, the Kiowa-Apache had replaced the covenantal dyad of husband-wife with the biological dyad of brother-brother, followed by classifying ego’s brother’s children as “sons” and “daughters” and by classifying the children of ego cross-cousin a.k.a. “brother” as sons and daughters. Finally, McAllister points out that a husband is more intimate with his wife's sister than he is with his own wife!

In fact, to prevent husband-wife intimacy from developing and the nuclear family from overthrowing the operating system, a man never used his wife's name and she never used his. One husband exclaimed: "Life would be short if I called my wife by her name.'"

The husband-wife relationship, rather than being intimate, was formal and detached. As along as the wife performed her ascribed functions which were many, the marriage would be described as being positive. "Just treat your wife right; don't whip her."

Convictions:

Whenever man and society replace God as Provider in order to relieve their existential anxieties, they must also replace God’s design for living with a man-made defensive system shaped by SOCIAL EXISTENCE in a particular environment.
Rejecting God as Provider, social existence in the Great Plains demanded a rejection of the nuclear family as the basic unit of society, the replacement of the covenantal dyad of husband-wife with a biological dyad, the creation of a new type of cultural life-way or "family" grounded in the merging of mutually exclusive status positions, the rejection of the rules of logic, and the rise in the use of magic.
The Kiowa-Apache family construct represents a deviant family form, a form in which membership is not "restricted to the parents and their offspring in the first degree."
Because Joseph married his cousin Mary, from a Kiowa-Apache perspective, Joseph committed incest by marrying his "sister" and Jesus was a bastard. This reality alone should convince contextualizing missiologists that the Kiowa-Apache need to restore the nuclear family to its rightful place.
Any missionary teaching converts that "older women must train the younger women to love their husbands and their children" (Titus 2:4) would be unconsciously destroying the Band "family" type that came into being when they permitted their life-way to be shaped by the "material elements" of the Great Plains.
Defensive systems against anxiety will impede, frustrate, and thwart all attempts by the missionary to evangelize and plant a self-propagating church.
Anthropologist Fred Eggan was correct when he observed that "Tribes coming into the Plains with different backgrounds and social systems ended up with similar kinship systems. ...this is in large measure an internal adjustment to the uncertain and unchanging conditions of the Plains environment -- ecological and social -- rather than a result of borrowing and diffusion." As a committed materialist, he was not only declaring that SOCIAL EXISTENCE RULES but also that a cousin could be a "sibling" and an uncle and aunt a "father" and "mother." As an academician, he ignored and set aside logic and the Law of Identity.
If the Kiowa-Apache defensive life-way was to survive, then the Kiowa-Apache had to create cultural forms that would prevent husband-wife intimacy from developing. A strong husband-wife bond would eventually destroy their defensive system against anxiety.