The middle ground

Abstract

In the Great Lakes region of North America from the mid-17th to the mid-18th century, Algonkin natives and French colonial agents interacted in the midst of the complex process of colonial contact. The conditions of existence in that space impelled Algonkins and French to reciprocal support to achieve specific goals. This happened in such a way that they produced common conceptions of adequate ways of acting, that is, what we call middle ground. The inevitable need for communication in terms of the other generated a process of opportune and creative mutual misunderstandings, which produced new cultural contents that, when they became conventions between the parties involved, became a new reference that guided the actions of historical subjects. The theoretical approach of this concept is discussed in this text through the analysis of the daily relationships in which Algonkins and French produced this zone of mutual intelligibility. Cultural congruencies, which formed the middle ground, were responses to problems and controversies that revolved around issues such as sex, violence and trade. The analysis of the measures taken in these relational fields exposes that the hybrid contents arose from repeated attempts to find connections between French normative references and Algonquin customs. The responses produced in these situations were not exclusively French or Algonkin notions, but rather improvisations and creations that emerged at points where cultures intersected and promoted an intermediate cultural zone in which the expectations of each side could find an acceptable degree of satisfaction.