Acadians

Acadians

ETHNONYM: Acadiens

Orientation

Identification. "Acadia" ("Acadie") was the name given to the first permanent French colony in North America. Historians disagree as to the origins of the name. One possibility is that it derives from "Arcadia," a name given to a land that was considered a sort of earthly paradise in ancient Greece. The Italian explorer Giovanni da Verrazzano gave the name "Arcadie" to an area he explored along the eastern seaboard of North America in 1524. The other, more likely, possibility is that "Acadie" was borrowed from the Micmac people of the present-day Maritime Provinces of Canada: it is found in many Micmac place names such as "Tracadie," "Shunenacadie," and "Tanacadie." Today, "Acadie" is used to refer to areas in the Maritime Provinces that are populated by

French-speaking descendants of the original inhabitants of the colony of Acadia.

Location. The Maritime Provinces include New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, and Nova Scotia. Being Canada's three smallest provinces, together they cover just over 1 percent of Canada's land surface. The territory predominantly inhabited by Acadians includes almost half of the province of New Brunswick, where French is the majority Language both in the three northern counties and on the east coast. Elsewhere, Acadians form a scattered population living in isolated pockets in western Prince Edward Island, southwestern Nova Scotia, and eastern Nova Scotia. The sea forms a natural boundary around the Maritime Provinces, except New Brunswick, which touches upon the province of Quebec to the north and the state of Maine to the west.

Given their position on Canada's Atlantic coast, the Maritimes have a cool, temperate climate: cold continental air masses from the northwest alternate with warmer, humid maritime air from the southwest. Winters are long and cold, and snowfalls abundant. The city of Moncton, in the geographical center of the region, has an average annual snowfall of ninety-two inches. Typically, spring and summer are short seasons, and the autumn is long and pleasant, with cool nights. Summers are very warm in inland areas and along the Gulf of St. Lawrence, but cooler on the Atlantic coast. The average temperature in Moncton is 18° F in January and 64° F in July, although high temperatures occasionally reach 86° F in July. Average annual precipitation is thirty-nine inches. The growing season lasts on the average 133 days, Beginning in early May and ending in September. Within the Acadian areas of the Maritime Provinces are two regions with distinctly different weather patterns. Northern New Brunswick has a colder, more continental climate, with a shorter growing season. In Campbellton, for example, the average growing season lasts only 110 days. Southwestern Nova Scotia, in contrast, has a humid, temperate climate with rainy winters and few extremes in temperature.

Demography. In 1986, the total population of the Maritime Provinces was 1,709,000. In census returns, the main indicator used to identify the Acadian population is the mother tongue. In 1986 the total population with French as the mother tongue was 295,000, or 17 percent of the population of the Maritimes. The vast majority of Acadians now live in New Brunswick. Those whose mother tongue in 1986 was French numbered 248,925 in New Brunswick, 39,630 in Nova Scotia, and 6,525 in Prince Edward Island.

There is no city where the Acadians form a majority of the population. The largest concentration of urban Acadians is in Moncton, where they form a third of the population of 80,000.

Linguistic Affiliation. Recent figures have shown that the French language is in sharp decline in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island, where Acadians form only 5 percent of the population. Though almost all New Brunswick Acadians used French as their first language in 1986, one-third of Nova Scotia Acadians and almost one-half of those living in Prince Edward Island indicated that English was the main language spoken at home. The rate of acculturation is highest in urban areas where Acadians form a small minority, such as Halifax, St. John, and Charlottetown, although the recent opening of French-language schools in these cities may influence the trend.

The French language, as spoken by Acadians, includes many archaic elements that originated in the seventeenth-century dialects spoken in western France. The strongest linguistic affiliations are found between Acadia and the Loudun area in the northern part of Poitou. There are several regional linguistic differences in Acadia itself. In northern New Brunswick, for example, the proximity of the province of Quebec has influenced the spoken language, whereas isolated areas such as Chéticamp, on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, have maintained a more archaic form of speech. In the Moncton area, constant intermingling between Acadians and English speakers has spawned a hybrid form of speech, known as Chiac. In French-language schools, modern standard French is taught, and students are strongly encouraged to avoid mixing French and English. Educational institutions also tend to condemn the use of archaic expressions no longer accepted in modern French usage, although in recent years many voices have been raised in the Acadian Community calling for the maintenance of the distinctive elements of the Acadian dialect.

History and Cultural Relations

The first French colonists arrived in Acadia in 1604. After illfated attempts to establish colonies on Ile Sainte-Croix (Dotchet Island, Maine) and at Port-Royal (Nova Scotia), Acadia was abandoned and Britain seized control of the area, naming it Nova Scotia in 1621. In 1632, the Treaty of Saint-Germain-en-Laye returned Acadia to French jurisdiction and permanent colonization began. Between 1632 and 1654, when Acadia once again fell to the British, about fifty families of colonists arrived from France, and those few families formed the nucleus of the present-day Acadian population.

Politically, the next hundred years continued to be marked by instability. Because of the weak position it occupied on the margins of both the French and the British North American empires, Acadia changed hands several times. In 1713, the Treaty of Utrecht gave Britain permanent control of peninsular Nova Scotia, and with the Treaty of Paris in 1763, France lost the rest of what had been the colony of Acadia. During the tense period between these two treaties, the Acadians were referred to by the British as the "French neutrals" because of their desire to avoid all involvement in military conflicts. But despite the Acadians' avowed neutrality, the British began to deport them in 1755, with the goal of destroying their culture and placing settlers from New England on their lands. Among a total population of about thirteen thousand, at least ten thousand were deported between 1755 and 1763. The rest either fled to Quebec or were captured and detained in military camps.

Once a permanent peace had been established, a new Acadia was born, as prisoners being released from detention searched for lands on which to settle. They were joined by a number of Acadians returning from exile, although most of these were drawn toward Quebec, which remained a French-speaking territory, or Louisiana, where they settled in large numbers and became known as "Cajuns." For two centuries, the Acadian population in the Maritime Provinces increased both in numbers and in proportion of the total population, until the 1960s, when the Acadian percentage of the population leveled off in New Brunswick and began to decline in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. Today's Acadians have a whole range of social, educational, and cultural institutions and are active participants in the political process, both provincially and federally, although their political influence is significant only in New Brunswick.

Settlements

In Acadian rural communities long lines of houses stretch along both sides of a main road. Land is divided into parallel strips beginning at the road and continuing beyond the cleared area into the woods. Livestock used to be branded and left to roam free in the woods during grazing season, but now all pastureland is fenced in. The main outbuilding is a barn constructed of vertical wooden boards. The parish church is usually found at the center of the village, with local institutions such as the post office, credit union, and cooperative store nearby. Except in communities with a population of over a thousand, there is rarely a cluster of houses in the center of the village. Rather, the population is evenly spread out along the main road. This is true in both farming and fishing communities, as Acadians in coastal areas Traditionally practiced both activities. Rather than living in a clustered community around a harbor, fishing families lived on farms and often traveled several miles to reach the local harbor during fishing season.

The average rural house is quite small and made of wood. The kitchen, the largest room, is the center of activity for the household. Nineteenth-century houses usually included a small room beside the kitchen and two upstairs bedrooms. Acadians have always had a tendency to modify their houses as needed. Often, small houses were enlarged with the addition of a new wing as the family grew. For exterior wall covering, modern clapboard has now replaced cedar or spruce shingles, and asphalt shingles have replaced the original wooden ones on the roof.

Urban houses show various influences in style. Again, wood is the most important element used in construction. In urban areas occupied by Acadians, the main signs of their presence are the Catholic church, the French school, and the credit union.

Economy

Subsistence and Commercial Activities. Until the late nineteenth century, rural Acadian communities had a Subsistence economy based on a combination of mixed farming, fishing, and forestry. The development of the commercial fishery, and particularly the lobster industry, brought a modest revenue to rural Acadians beginning in the 1880s. Similarly, the development of the forest industry permitted Acadians to earn money cutting wood during the winter, when farming and fishing activities had ceased. In inland areas, where subsistence agriculture was the main activity, cutting wood in remote lumber camps during the winter provided the only source of cash income. After World War II, subsistence agriculture ceased and the more marginal inland Communities became depopulated. In some areas, successful commercial farming has been developed, the main crop being potatoes. An important dairy industry also now exists. The relative success of commercial fishing and farming has prevented massive depopulation in rural areas, although a tendency to move to industrial centers outside the region has existed since the late nineteenth century and still continues.

The traditional diet of Acadians consisted of salt pork, salt fish, wild game (deer, moose, and rabbit), and a limited amount of vegetables such as potatoes, turnips, carrots, and string beans, as well as tea, bread, and molasses. Products such as tea, flour, sugar, and molasses were obtained from local stores and were often bartered for such farm products as butter and eggs.

Industrial Arts. Weaving and knitting are important craft activities for women. Colorful hooked rugs have been produced in large quantities since the early twentieth century, when traveling merchants began yearly trips to Acadian Communities in order to exchange manufactured goods for rugs. Today, rugs and hand-woven goods are sold primarily through craft outlets.

Trade. Since the Great Depression, when many Acadians found themselves indebted to local merchants, the Cooperative movement has had a strong following. Consumer coops are found throughout Acadia, and many people also belong to producer coops, marketing such diverse products as Children's clothing, potato chips, and frozen fish.

Division of Labor. Traditionally, men tended to leave their homes in order to engage in seasonal activities such as lumbering and fishing while the women carried out not only work activities in the home but also much of the farm work. Most women now seek salaried employment outside the home to contribute to the domestic economy, but in farm households women still tend to participate actively in agricultural work.

Land Tenure. Land is privately held, although large tracts of land in the wooded interior are government-owned Crown Lands that may be leased for forest exploitation. Most Acadians tend to be small landowners, and even in cities private ownership of dwellings, rather than renting, is the norm.

Kinship

Kin Groups and Descent. The nuclear family is at the center of the social structure of Acadians. Apart from identifying strongly with their immediate family, people also identify with their extended family, or parenté, including grandparents, cousins, aunts, and uncles, and even to a certain extent with distant relations with whom they share a common lineage. Because of the limited number of families that gave rise to the Acadian people in the seventeenth century, the community today can be considered a type of large, extended family, where multiple alliances have been formed among Individual kin groups over the years. The fact that they are a Minority group with no distinct territory has contributed to making Acadians aware of the importance of maintaining the bonds existing among families. In the past, knowledge of one's lineage was maintained orally by a family elder. Today, Acadians use archival sources to trace their family trees, often seeking to trace both their male and their female lineages.

Kinship Terminology. It is common practice to refer to an individual by his or her father's first name rather than by family name. For instance, in a village where there are several families sharing the name Bourgeois, the son of Georges Bourgeois may be known as Léandre à Georges, rather than Léandre Bourgeois.

Marriage and Family

Marriage. Acadian society long maintained, both through church and parental influences, a taboo regarding marriage outside the Acadian Catholic community. Pressure to marry within one's own cultural group has now diminished, but Acadians still tend to follow the established practice. Couples now usually marry in their midtwenties, whereas the norm used to be the early twenties, and even younger in the case of females. Although the Catholic church disapproves of divorce, Acadians have followed the national trend toward an increase in the divorce rate. The birthrate, which in the past was very high by Canadian standards, has decreased significantly since the 1960s.

Domestic Unit. The single-family household is the basic domestic unit. Aged parents often live with a son or daughter, although it is becoming a common practice to send elderly parents to nursing homes when their health deteriorates. In the past, young married couples often lived with the groom's parents until they had the means to build their own home.

Inheritance. Early Acadians divided their landholdings among their sons. When the land parcels became too small to sustain a family, the sons moved away to settle on new lands. In the twentieth century, the tendency is for one of the Children to inherit the land, while the rest of the estate is shared among all the children.

Socialization. In rural communities, an unwritten code of behavior exists, and those who transgress it meet with disapproval that may be expressed in different ways. Physical punishment has always been rare, and rejection, either temporary or permanent, from local society is the most common form of punishment.

Sociopolitical Organization

Social Organization. In the past, immediate authority in each community was held by the parish priest. Since the early 1960s, the church has relinquished its authority in temporal matters, and a new educated elite has filled the void. Acadian nationalist organizations such as La Société Nationale des Acadiens attempt to represent and influence public opinion, with varying success.

Political Organization. Each Canadian province has a democratically elected legislature, with each member representing a riding (district) in his or her province. The Provincial legislatures share power with the federal government. Voters elect members to both their provincial legislature and the federal parliament in separate elections.

Social Control. With the modernization of Acadian Society, it is difficult to maintain social control through Community-imposed sanctions, and there is a greater dependence on the Canadian legal system.

Conflict. Since the end of the conflict between the British and the French in 1763, Acadia has been a peaceful land. By establishing themselves in separate areas, Acadians and English-speaking citizens in the Maritimes largely avoided conflict. A strong element of anti-French prejudice persists, however, and this is most evident in towns, such as Moncton, where the two groups now interact on a regular basis.

Religion and Expressive Culture

Religious Beliefs. Acadians have always been Roman Catholics. Their attachment to the church endured even during the difficult years of resettlement in the late eighteenth century, when church services were held only during rare visits by missionaries from Quebec. In the absence of a priest, it was customary for villagers to gather for Sunday prayers led by an elder of the community. Though adhering strictly to Roman Catholic practices, Acadians traditionally had a strong belief in sorcery, associating sorcerers with the power of the devil. There was also a strong belief that the souls of the deceased in purgatory could manifest themselves to the living. To protect themselves from evil influences, Acadians used the power of prayer, as well as holy objects and holy water, and occasionally requested a priest to perform an exorcism. With the changes in dogma the church has undergone since the 1960s, religious beliefs have tended to become more rationalized.

Religious Practitioners. Parish priests, though still highly respected figures in the community, no longer have the absolute authority they once held in Acadian society. Until the middle of the twentieth century, it was not uncommon for people to believe a priest could heal a sick person or stop a forest fire by reciting certain prayers.

Ceremonies. Christmas and Easter are the most Important religious holidays, but traditional feast days have tended to coincide with less important dates on the religious calendar. For example, a festive celebration marking the middle of the winter was held on Candlemas Day, February 2, and the third Thursday in Lent was known as Mi-Careme (Mid-Lent), with people excused from their Lenten obligations for the day. The patron saint of Acadia is Our Lady of Assumption, and August 15, Assumption Day, is the Acadian national holiday.

Arts. Acadians possess a rich oral literature consisting of songs, folktales, and legends. Ballads and tales brought from France by the original settlers have been preserved to a remarkable extent. The Acadians' propensity for music is a distinctive cultural trait, and in almost every family there are singers and musicians who play folk or country music.

Medicine. Before the middle of the twentieth century, Acadians rarely consulted professional medical practitioners. The midwife had an important role in the community, and traditional herbal medicinal cures were widely used. Regional medical clinics have now replaced the village midwife, but herbal medicine is still used in rural areas, and people considered to have the gift of stopping bleeding or curing specific ailments are commonly consulted.

Death and Afterlife. It was once customary for Acadians to hold all-night wakes in their homes, but the establishment of funeral parlors, with their set hours, has now changed the form of the wake. Acadians like to keep mementos of the dead—for example, photographs of the deceased at the Funeral parlor. The month of November used to be referred to as le mois des morts, and religious ceremonies would then take place in cemeteries. There has been a recent decline in Religious observances regarding the dead, but it is still common to celebrate a mass in memory of a deceased person on the anniversary of the death.

See also Cajuns, French Canadians

Bibliography

"Acadians." (1988). In The Canadian Encyclopedia. 2nd ed. Edmonton: Hurtig Publishers.

Daigle, Jean, ed. (1982). The Acadians of the Maritimes. Moncton: Centre d'etudes acadiennes.

Lapierre, Jean-William, and Muriel Roy (1983). Les Acadiens. Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.

Tremblay, Marc-Adelard, and Marc Laplante (1971). Famille et parente en Acadie. Ottawa: National Museum of Man.

Vernex, Jean Claude (1978). Les Francophones du Nouveau-Brunswick. Paris: Librairie Honore Champion.

RONALD LABELLE