Harvard Peobody Museum of Ethnology and Archeology: Ethnography Essay

1. What is “Holism” and how does the exibit “Of the Contested West” demonstrate theideal of researching and writing from a holistic prespective. 

What is Holism?

The holistic approach in Anthropology involves the examination of a person, a particular identifiable situation or an activity, a subgroup, or a culture as a whole in an integrated context that considers all factors that make up the studied culture. Sociologist C Wright Mills expanded the concept further by emphicizing the study of the individual, and his “troubles,” and the culture, and its “problems” in a historical as well as in a present context. This intricate study includes how individuals and groups within a culture interact with each other and how they interact with other cultures they come into contact with.

Two examples othat demonstrate a holistic approach from the exibit: Of the Contested West.

A. Tokakreiyapi

The display entitled “Tokakreiyapi” or Enemies, demonstrates how various native tribes of the plains and the west had a long history of warfare against each other. Certain tribes, like the Lakota and Oglala Sioux, came to dominate and oppress weaker tribes, many of which would later form alliances with American settlers and with US and Canadian forces who provided protection. 

The native tribes generally had a long history of fragmentation which included the development of various separate militias, each with its own traditions, secret societies, and rituals of initiation. While they often formed alliances when confronting external emergencies such as American westward expansion, their history of fragmentation, their lack of a central authority, and other cultural elementsset them at a distinct disadvantage in their attempt to stem the western expansion and usurpation of their land. 

The United States, in contrast, maintained a unified and organized government, particularly after the defeat of the Confederacy in 1865, and was thus poised to weild a upper hand in the struggle for the west. From the beginning, the American Republic had unified around a political and philosophical principle which would be articulated at the time of the Mexican War and that was called  “Manifest Destiny.”

B. Wigohpiyatu

The display entitled “Wigohpiyatu” demonstrates the religion of the native tribes of the plains and the west. The religion of the tribes, with variations depending on the individual tribe, tended to view the human being as merged with and as such morally equivalent to all of  nature. This view tended to discourage the development of the strong and self-directed sovereign individual and such concepts common to western civilization as personal self interest.

This orientation toward a primitive form of collectivism and pantheism perhaps contributed to a lack of development of political infrastructure such as private property which retarded the development of settled communities, farms, small businesses, manufacturing, and local representative government. The native tribes were slow to develop a written language and independent cultural and educational institutions which made it difficult for them to preserve, maintain and advance their own culture. 

The United States, in contrast, adopted a religious belief that held that the human being was created in the image of God and, as such, was superior to nature and responsible for its responsible stewardship. Americans believed that they derived their individual sovereign rights from God and that the state served to protect those God given rights. This faith tended to foster the development of strong, creative, and innovative individual citizens and a society more prone to solving problems.

2. On the “Ethnographic Research Method.”

The Penobscot display shows how the Penobscot tribes of Maine, part of the Wabanaki Confederacy, created canoes that would be adapted by Americans and would become standard. Traditional Penobscot canoes were revived in the late 19th Century where construction began that combined traditional and modern methods and materials. The Penobscots formed loose alliances with Americans who were part of a late 19The Century back to nature movement that included summer camps, hiking and fishing clubs, summer resorts set in nature, boy scouts, and other naturalist oriented groups. 

The tribes of the Wabanaki Confederacy had a long history of interaction with Englih and Franch colonists, and later with the United States and Canada, that held both positive and negative elements. The negative elements included the introduction of alcohol and disease, both of which devastated the native population. Posative aspects included the development of trading relationships in furs, logging,  trapping and fishing, relationships which would re-emerge in the late 19th Century as Penobscots worked with westerners on canoe construction and they became nature guides serving the influx of nature tourists. Penibscots had preserved many of their traditional crafts which they marketed to tourists.

The loose alliance of Penobsots, whose government received compensation and State and Federal recognition in the 1970’s after a lengthy lawsuit, and environmental groups, working with State and Federal government agencies, were successful in removing the Vecie Dam, which blocked the Penobscot River. This significantly helped to restore the river to its natural condition which might encourage the spawning of salmon and other deep sea fish.

3. On Archeology

The essential difference between Archeology and Anthropology is that while Archeology is the study of past societies and civilizations based on physical evidence, Anthropology tens to emphacize a study of the customs, behavior, social norms, religion, and philosophy of the society studied. The locus of Archeology is the past and the effort involves a look backward. The locus of Anthropology is the present, how a society evolved, how a society became extinct from the prespective of its final stage, what are the remnantal societal influences of the studied society on the present.

4. On Economic Anthropology

The Sub-Arctic Display illustrates how the natives of the Arctic and sub-Arctic had developed long established trading routes. Tribes held summer fairs along the western coast of Alaska, annual fairs that were visited by tribal members across the nortt as well as Siberia. These events resulted in a great deal of cultural cross polinization, social interaction and economic trade. The various northern tribes were nomadic as they established temporary villages fgeared toward the summer and winter seasons. The northern tribeal members were accomplished hunters and fishermen as the artifacts in the museum indicate. These tribes primarily subsisted on meat and fish as vegetation was sparce due to the perma-frost.

5. Redistribution and connecting to Language and Culture (Lingustic Anthropology)

Potlatch

The tradition of Potlatch, which took place amongst the people of the native tribes primarily on the Pacific coast of Canada, seemed to involve a combination of annual trading, cultural activity, religious ritual, and tribal governance possibly including treaties between tribes. Museum artifacts seem to indicate that there was some cannibalism involved and, one might speculate, perhaps other practices that would clash with western societal values. The Potlatch ritual involved a fairly regimented caste system by which certain families, based upon their heridatary status, would receive certain goods that might have been attained through craftmanship, trade, or plunder resulting from war.

Artifacts at the museum exibit include a Speakers Staff, which was used by the chief to direct proceedings, and singers batons which were used to conduct the music associated with a ceremony. The museum has a Hamatza rattle, shaped in the form of a skull that is made of wood and that is filled with pebbles that rattle when shaken, and this is described as an instrument that was used to prevent cannibalism. The museum has Hamatza whistles which were described as instruments to control cannibalism. Other artifacts include beaded blankets and pieces of copper which were given as trinkets to members of upper casts.

The White settlers brought disease which decimated the native population of the region in the mid to late 19th Century. The natives responded by moving to White forts and trading posts. This adversely effected the structure of the Potlatch as the cast status of the natives became confused by the intermingling of the decimated tribe and, thus, the ritual aspect of the Potlatch was disrupted.

Canada outlawed the Potlatch in 1884. The official reason for this action was that the Canadian government sould to end what they deemed to be immoral practices. It is unlikely that cannibalism and perhaps other practices were going on at that point which raises some other motives such as a desire to assimilate the native peoples by depriving them of their central tradition. As a matter of public policy, Canada, which was known to be more harsh than the United States in native policies, wanted to reduce and end any form of national identity on the part of the native peoples.

As a result, the Potlatch went underground and was thus often conducted in secret. The Potlatch ban was repealed in 1951, over a half a century later, and the result has been a revival of Potlatch in British Columbia, a ritual that is going strong, sans the cannibalism and other practices, to this day.

National Geographic Enduring Voices Project

The mission of the Enduring Voices Project is to identify the dying and nearly extinct languages of the world, determine how the endangered language is connected to the boi-diversity of the region where it exists, and to draw attention to the endangered language. The Enduring Voices Project seeks to help indigenous people to revitalize and maintain their own language. 

Languages die out for a variety of reasons. The result is the absorption of the language into the dominant language of the region with some remnants remaining such as certain words, expressions or accents remaining in the region and sometimes being adopted by the speakers of the dominant language. The absorption of a dying language into a dominant language includes the absorption of various aspects of a culture, a religion, or a national or potentially national identity. This can happen either organically over periods of time or by political or military force over shorter periods of time. Old or even ancient languages have been discovered in isolated regions such as a Latin like language spoken in certain remote Alpine valleys of Italy and Switzerland, or Aramaic spoken in parts of Syria and Iraq.