Identity came to be seen as a value in itself, setting in motion processes of cultural schismogenesis. As we saw in the case of Californian foragers and their aristocratic neighbours on the Northwest Coast, such acts of cultural refusal could also be self-conscious acts of political contestation, marking the boundary (in this case) between societies where inter-group warfare, competitive feasting and household bondage were rejected – as in those parts of Aboriginal California closest to the Northwest Coast – and where they were accepted, even celebrated, as quintessential features of social
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