What do you think?
Rate this book
The Importance of Being Monogamous: Marriage and Nation Building in Western Canada to 1915
Sarah Carter provides a detailed description of marriage as a diverse social institution in nineteenth-century Western Canada, and the subsequent ascendancy of Christian, lifelong, heterosexual, monogamous marriage as an instrument to implement dominant British-Canadian values. It took work to impose the monogamous model of marriage as the region was home to a varied population of Aboriginal people and newcomers such as the Mormons, each of whom had their own definitions of marriage, including polygamy and flexible attitudes toward divorce. The work concludes with an explanation of the negative social consequences for women, particularly Aboriginal women, that arose as a result of the imposition of monogamous marriage. "Of an immense amount of new and pathbreaking research on Native people over the past 20 years, this work stands out." -Sidney L. Harring, Professor of Law at City University of New York and author of White Man's Native People in Nineteenth-Century Canadian Jurisprudence
400 pages, Paperback
First published April 8, 2004
4 people are currently reading
155 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
August 14, 2012
From back cover:
"Sarah Carter provides a detailed analysis of marriage as a diverse social institution in 19th c. Western Canada. She charts the ascendancy of Christian, lifelong, heterosexual, monogamous marriage as an instrument to shape and institutionalize the gender order as the foundation of this new region of the nation. It took great effort to impose the monogamous model of marriage on a varied population of Aboriginal people and newcomers such as the Mormons, each with their own definitions of marriage, including polygamy and flexible attitudes toward divorce. The work concludes with an explanation of the negative consequences for women, particularly Aboriginal women, that arose as a result of the imposition of monogamous marriage."
Sarah Carter's aim is to discuss the government of Canada’s attempts to impose monogamous marriages (one man/one woman) on both settlers and aboriginal peoples in the western provinces. While she discusses Doukhobors and Hutterites and (at greater length) Mormons, the primary focus in on the colonization of Aboriginal peoples (specifically Plains Indians), including Métis. She describes various means of resistance, particularly the use of marriage/betrothal to keep young girls out of residential schools - used by both Aboriginal Peoples and Ukrainians as a way of keeping control over their families.
Carter argues convincingly that the attempts (of varying success) to impose British ideas of monogamy on the Canadian west was part of the overall British Empire project - she not only demonstrates how this was important in "taming" the west, but also how similar tactics were used in other British colonies. Part of the colonization project included forcing Aboriginal peoples into approved Christian marriages because it enforced morality on white men (who could thus no longer have non-sanctioned relationships with Aboriginal women... in theory), and it limited the number of people the government became responsible for under various treaty obligations ("legitimate" children and "honorable" wives as defined by the British/Canadian state). As the West was seen as such an untamed, wild place that needed white women in order to tame it, the push for the patriarchal family structure became a way of keeping the west under control (particularly after the Riel Rebellions.) The marriage encouraged by political, legal, and religious leaders was that of one man/one woman for a lifetime, and was seen as vital to the future stability and prosperity of the new region. Carter argues that control of marriage is fundamental to the nation, as it designs the architecture of private life, facilitates the government grasp on the populace, and is a vehicle through which the apparatus of the state can shape the gender order.
James Snell argues that widespread anxiety about monogamous marriage, the nuclear family and the home (cornerstones of social order) were disintegrating in the wake of industrialization, rural depopulation, and urbanization. These issues were more prevalent in Eastern Canada than Western Canada; Western Canada was undergoing colonization, an uncertain & dubious exercise. While they were huge profits from natural resources, this lacked stability. Immigrant families were the building block of the economy and of social order. There were wide-spread fears about the First Nations people outnumbering Europeans. The proliferation of single men in the Canadian west constituted a challenge to the monogamous ideal and of family farms as the cornerstone of society
The arrival of white women led to the end of the undomesticated masculine era when white men experienced freedom, daring-do, and fun, but also social turmoil, chaos, and violence. Through the exclusion of most women from homestead rights, the abolition of dower rights, and the erosion by judicial interpretation of the dower laws that women fought to have introduced in the prairie provinces, the west was deliberately carved out as a "manly space". Carter argues that her study demonstrates that the imposition of the monogamous model of marriage should be understood as a critical component in this process.
Social stability, at the heart of which was gender roles, was critical to economic development. A region with two instances of organized rebellion and the children/descendants of mixed marriage was viewed as unstable. There were no funds for a military force to occupy the region, discourage resistance, and keep out Americans. Instead an army of family homesteaders were the main unit of social order. Part of the push to end interracial marriages included creating powerfully negative images of Aboriginal women as destructive towards the moral health of the non-Aboriginal community, women who thus needed to be controlled.
The monogamous model was not ancient, entrenched or widely accepted as the only option. It had to be methodically made the only option. A variety of methods were employed to make it the only model, all designed to reform, police, or undermine marital non-conformists. While the west seemed a place to go to escape the confined of marriage laws, this was not happening in practice. Government, churches, laws, and community pressure all worked for conformity. Those with the deepest investments in the creation of the new capitalist and agricultural order in the Canadian west were the most critical of the position of women and of marriage in Aboriginal societies.
The new reserve regime may have encouraged men to claim more wives than they actually had. It also created conditions that led to parents promising or betrothing their children in marriage at an early age, sometimes to men with wives already, in order to keep them out of residential and industrial schools. (which of course led to more moral panic about young girls being married so young.) The efforts to eradicate the evils of polygamy were part of a transnational agenda pursued by missionaries and colonial authorities.
The difficulties in administering marriages and divorces were characterized by voluminous correspondence and consternation, doubt over what constituted a legitimate marriage, and a confusing hodgepodge of legal decisions and departmental rules and regulations. While it was the case that government and legal officials recognized the validity of marriage according to Aboriginal laws, these marriages had to be permanent, exclusive, and voluntary, all of which resulted in a profound misunderstanding of the complexity and flexibility of Aboriginal marriage law. This policy resulted in significant upheaval and had some disastrous consequences. Indian agents found themselves embroiled in the most personal affairs of the families they administered. They dispensed advice on marriage, intervened to prevent couples from separating, brought back “runaway” wives, directed the annuities of husbands to deserted wives, broke up second marriages they considered illegitimate, and became embroiled in disputes with missionaries as to what were legitimate marriages. DIA officials and school principals gave and denied permission for couples to marry and they also indulged in matchmaking. They determined what did and did not constitute a family unit, which children were legitimate and which were not. They also determined if a widow was of good moral character, or whether or not she was indeed a bona fide widow in case of inheritance.
Yet despite this concerted intervention, they were limited in their ability to impose the monogamous model of marriage. Aboriginal laws persisted, people protested the intervention in their domestic affairs, and they continued to make their own choices for themselves and their children.
Some DIA authorities, missionaries, and members of the NWMP wondered if a means of separation or divorce could be devised, aside from the legal route widely acknowledged to be an impossibility. It was recognized by many of those who worked directly in these communities that the practice of not permitting or recognizing Aboriginal divorce was undermining the department’s own goal of established stable families. Under the pre-reserve regime there was no immorality attached to such marriages. Under the new regime couples regarded themselves as legally married but they were stigmatized as immoral and their children viewed as illegitimate.
Sources include newspapers, personal diaries, reports of Indian agents, fur traders, NWMP officers, oral interviews from the 1930s, law cases (particularly bigamy cases), and Parliamentary debates.
One thing I noticed throughout this book is that Carter clearly wants to be concentrating on the impact of the changing law on Aboriginal people, particularly women, but feels in some way obligated to include other religious and ethnic "minorities" in the discussion. While I acknowledge that this adds some important points to the work, I found myself frustrated at the tiny glimpses into these people compared to the more in depth discussion of Plains Indians. What we end up with is good and interesting, but in light of what I've read in other books about Doukhobors, Hutterites, and Ukrainians and their experiences of assimilation (or lack thereof) in the Canadian West, I was hoping for more points of comparison. As well, there was some side discussion on Mormons in Canada, but not nearly enough for my tastes. It's not the focus on Aboriginal peoples that bothers me, it's the feeling that she had to shoe-horn in these other groups for some reason.
It's been a while since I read this book, so I can't say one way or the other if it's a good layman's book. I *suspect* it is, but I'd have to re-read it to really say for sure. If nothing else, check it out for the continual fear of the evil influence of the US. I found this so amusing.
"Sarah Carter provides a detailed analysis of marriage as a diverse social institution in 19th c. Western Canada. She charts the ascendancy of Christian, lifelong, heterosexual, monogamous marriage as an instrument to shape and institutionalize the gender order as the foundation of this new region of the nation. It took great effort to impose the monogamous model of marriage on a varied population of Aboriginal people and newcomers such as the Mormons, each with their own definitions of marriage, including polygamy and flexible attitudes toward divorce. The work concludes with an explanation of the negative consequences for women, particularly Aboriginal women, that arose as a result of the imposition of monogamous marriage."
Sarah Carter's aim is to discuss the government of Canada’s attempts to impose monogamous marriages (one man/one woman) on both settlers and aboriginal peoples in the western provinces. While she discusses Doukhobors and Hutterites and (at greater length) Mormons, the primary focus in on the colonization of Aboriginal peoples (specifically Plains Indians), including Métis. She describes various means of resistance, particularly the use of marriage/betrothal to keep young girls out of residential schools - used by both Aboriginal Peoples and Ukrainians as a way of keeping control over their families.
Carter argues convincingly that the attempts (of varying success) to impose British ideas of monogamy on the Canadian west was part of the overall British Empire project - she not only demonstrates how this was important in "taming" the west, but also how similar tactics were used in other British colonies. Part of the colonization project included forcing Aboriginal peoples into approved Christian marriages because it enforced morality on white men (who could thus no longer have non-sanctioned relationships with Aboriginal women... in theory), and it limited the number of people the government became responsible for under various treaty obligations ("legitimate" children and "honorable" wives as defined by the British/Canadian state). As the West was seen as such an untamed, wild place that needed white women in order to tame it, the push for the patriarchal family structure became a way of keeping the west under control (particularly after the Riel Rebellions.) The marriage encouraged by political, legal, and religious leaders was that of one man/one woman for a lifetime, and was seen as vital to the future stability and prosperity of the new region. Carter argues that control of marriage is fundamental to the nation, as it designs the architecture of private life, facilitates the government grasp on the populace, and is a vehicle through which the apparatus of the state can shape the gender order.
James Snell argues that widespread anxiety about monogamous marriage, the nuclear family and the home (cornerstones of social order) were disintegrating in the wake of industrialization, rural depopulation, and urbanization. These issues were more prevalent in Eastern Canada than Western Canada; Western Canada was undergoing colonization, an uncertain & dubious exercise. While they were huge profits from natural resources, this lacked stability. Immigrant families were the building block of the economy and of social order. There were wide-spread fears about the First Nations people outnumbering Europeans. The proliferation of single men in the Canadian west constituted a challenge to the monogamous ideal and of family farms as the cornerstone of society
The arrival of white women led to the end of the undomesticated masculine era when white men experienced freedom, daring-do, and fun, but also social turmoil, chaos, and violence. Through the exclusion of most women from homestead rights, the abolition of dower rights, and the erosion by judicial interpretation of the dower laws that women fought to have introduced in the prairie provinces, the west was deliberately carved out as a "manly space". Carter argues that her study demonstrates that the imposition of the monogamous model of marriage should be understood as a critical component in this process.
Social stability, at the heart of which was gender roles, was critical to economic development. A region with two instances of organized rebellion and the children/descendants of mixed marriage was viewed as unstable. There were no funds for a military force to occupy the region, discourage resistance, and keep out Americans. Instead an army of family homesteaders were the main unit of social order. Part of the push to end interracial marriages included creating powerfully negative images of Aboriginal women as destructive towards the moral health of the non-Aboriginal community, women who thus needed to be controlled.
The monogamous model was not ancient, entrenched or widely accepted as the only option. It had to be methodically made the only option. A variety of methods were employed to make it the only model, all designed to reform, police, or undermine marital non-conformists. While the west seemed a place to go to escape the confined of marriage laws, this was not happening in practice. Government, churches, laws, and community pressure all worked for conformity. Those with the deepest investments in the creation of the new capitalist and agricultural order in the Canadian west were the most critical of the position of women and of marriage in Aboriginal societies.
The new reserve regime may have encouraged men to claim more wives than they actually had. It also created conditions that led to parents promising or betrothing their children in marriage at an early age, sometimes to men with wives already, in order to keep them out of residential and industrial schools. (which of course led to more moral panic about young girls being married so young.) The efforts to eradicate the evils of polygamy were part of a transnational agenda pursued by missionaries and colonial authorities.
The difficulties in administering marriages and divorces were characterized by voluminous correspondence and consternation, doubt over what constituted a legitimate marriage, and a confusing hodgepodge of legal decisions and departmental rules and regulations. While it was the case that government and legal officials recognized the validity of marriage according to Aboriginal laws, these marriages had to be permanent, exclusive, and voluntary, all of which resulted in a profound misunderstanding of the complexity and flexibility of Aboriginal marriage law. This policy resulted in significant upheaval and had some disastrous consequences. Indian agents found themselves embroiled in the most personal affairs of the families they administered. They dispensed advice on marriage, intervened to prevent couples from separating, brought back “runaway” wives, directed the annuities of husbands to deserted wives, broke up second marriages they considered illegitimate, and became embroiled in disputes with missionaries as to what were legitimate marriages. DIA officials and school principals gave and denied permission for couples to marry and they also indulged in matchmaking. They determined what did and did not constitute a family unit, which children were legitimate and which were not. They also determined if a widow was of good moral character, or whether or not she was indeed a bona fide widow in case of inheritance.
Yet despite this concerted intervention, they were limited in their ability to impose the monogamous model of marriage. Aboriginal laws persisted, people protested the intervention in their domestic affairs, and they continued to make their own choices for themselves and their children.
Some DIA authorities, missionaries, and members of the NWMP wondered if a means of separation or divorce could be devised, aside from the legal route widely acknowledged to be an impossibility. It was recognized by many of those who worked directly in these communities that the practice of not permitting or recognizing Aboriginal divorce was undermining the department’s own goal of established stable families. Under the pre-reserve regime there was no immorality attached to such marriages. Under the new regime couples regarded themselves as legally married but they were stigmatized as immoral and their children viewed as illegitimate.
Sources include newspapers, personal diaries, reports of Indian agents, fur traders, NWMP officers, oral interviews from the 1930s, law cases (particularly bigamy cases), and Parliamentary debates.
One thing I noticed throughout this book is that Carter clearly wants to be concentrating on the impact of the changing law on Aboriginal people, particularly women, but feels in some way obligated to include other religious and ethnic "minorities" in the discussion. While I acknowledge that this adds some important points to the work, I found myself frustrated at the tiny glimpses into these people compared to the more in depth discussion of Plains Indians. What we end up with is good and interesting, but in light of what I've read in other books about Doukhobors, Hutterites, and Ukrainians and their experiences of assimilation (or lack thereof) in the Canadian West, I was hoping for more points of comparison. As well, there was some side discussion on Mormons in Canada, but not nearly enough for my tastes. It's not the focus on Aboriginal peoples that bothers me, it's the feeling that she had to shoe-horn in these other groups for some reason.
It's been a while since I read this book, so I can't say one way or the other if it's a good layman's book. I *suspect* it is, but I'd have to re-read it to really say for sure. If nothing else, check it out for the continual fear of the evil influence of the US. I found this so amusing.
January 11, 2022
An interesting look into Canada's Western history of marriage and relationships and how the movement of settlers into the West changed how people were expected to practice and view marriage, with a particular emphasis on the impact such Anglo-Saxon ideals of marriage had on Indigenous populations.
January 20, 2020
One of the more interesting reads I have come across in regards to Western Canadian history. It was a part of a course I took but I enjoyed it on a personal level as well. It was so good, I didnt mind having to write a paper about it.
May 13, 2021
Read for HIST 2108
March 19, 2025
Lost me a bit toward the end but overall a great book.
July 6, 2012
Like all of Carter's books, this is worth reading: a fascinating look at Canadian colonialism and the imposition of "social and spatial" segregation on indigenous peoples, including but not limited to the imposition of monogamy itself -- and how this, contrary to colonizer mythologies, actually lowered the status and power and autonomy of Aboriginal women.
July 22, 2014
I read this as part of my History/Women's Gender Studies class at Athabasca University. It completely surpassed my expectations and was far more interesting to read than the average textbook.
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews