ABSTRACT

If fox social structure had been at work in a full range of community activity, Fox veterans would probably not have been building Legion halls—they would have felt themselves to be men already. One thing was consistently present in the first category and absent in the second. In the first, the Fox themselves had ultimate responsibility—events would occur only if the Fox as individuals and as a group caused them to occur. In the second, affairs were run by the United States Government or by state and county officials. In the areas of Fox life, the structural paralysis of the community became apparent. To be politically viable, any human community must array itself as a set of systems of influence and authority to meet particular needs as they arise. To reach community-wide decisions, Fox com-munity traditionally sorted itself out by patrilineal clan, with the several clans in turn joined in a council of older men, the heads of the clans.