Punishment in Pre-Colonial Indigenous Societies in North America [original paper]

A revised version of this paper was published in the "proceedings" volume for this conference: Conn, Stephen. (1991). "Punishment in Pre-Colonial Indigenous Societies in North America." La peine, Quatrième partie. Mondes non européens [Punishment – Fourth Part. Non-European worlds], pp. 97–107. Recueils de la Société Jean Bodin pour l'histoire comparative des institutions [Transactions of the Jean Bodin Society for Comparative Institutional History] #58. Brussels: De Boeck Université. (http://hdl.handle.net/11122/9753).Using northern Athabascan villages as examples, the author discusses how punishment in indigenous societies was traditionally interwoven with other societal functions. The influence of alcohol and the western legal process changed post-colonial societies and their methods of punishment because punishment decisions in indigenous societies were traditionally arrived at through group deliberation, whereas the western legal system works in a hierarchical fashion. The author concludes that imposition of western-style decision-making disrupted tradtional law ways in post-colonial society