Hybridization at the Neutral Iroquoian Walker Site (AgHa-9)

This article is written with the intention of exploring the types of approaches used to study Indigenous and European contact, using the Iroquoian Neutral culture as an example. The Neutral, a northern Iroquoian group, were similar overall culturally to other Northern Iroquoian groups in Ontario. Their settlement in the first half of the 17th century is believed to have been focused in what is now Southern Ontario, from the north of Lake Erie, to the west of LakeOntario (Noble 1984:4). Based on their placement in southern Ontario between other Indigenous groups, they were in an excellent position for trade. In an attempt to understand the ways in which Indigenous people incorporated European material culture, a new concept, hybridization, is proposed. Hybridization, like syncretism, is the incorporation of European materials into Indigenous society by creating what would be considered ‘traditional’ forms of artifacts. By utilizing this kind of analysis, it is possible to incorporate Indigenous agency, without using out-dated methods that assume acculturation as the ultimate end to culture contact.