Social Science Questions

(focusing on the parts, applying empirical analytical tests of validity, i.e., correspondence to something, and reliability, i.e., can be replicated by someone else, using formal styles of presentation, in order to generate new knowledge, often related to function of something, i.e., what it does)

Does the story function to help teach practical knowledge of how and when to fish for salmon and white fish via dip-net and scaffold making and use of the three-pronged spear?

Question: what is the correlation of the practice of re-telling of the Salmon story, with of actual salmon and white fish fishermen?

And is there a correlation to the hearing of doves' songs with the spring and fall salmon runs?

As illustrated in the story, is there a social function, given the relational differences between how Salmon relates to Spider, to Mouse and to Dove, compared to how Salmon relates to the Chief of the Doves, to White Fish, to Rattlesnake, and to the Wolf Brothers?

Could there be a social demarcation between compassionate relationships within one's extended family and competitive relationships outside one's family with potential adversaries?

Interestingly, Salmon's behavior toward his relatives and toward his adversaries mirrors the types of "trickster" behavior of Coyote.

Thus the story might function to help teach norms of relationship between family members and adversaries.

Question: what is the correlation of the practice of re-telling the Salmon story, with the actual social dynamics and nature of the relationships, within the extended family and with potential adversaries?