Basketry Cordage From Hesquiat Harbour British Columbia

This book documents an archaeological collection of plant-fibre artifacts from Hesquiat Harbour, on the west coast of Vancouver Island, British Columbia. Detailed descriptions and illustrations of technological characteristics highlight the remarkable skill and artistic accomplishments of the Nuu-chah-nulth people during the 19th century. Kathryn Bernick examines cedar-bark baskets and mats, several types of cordage (ropes and cords), and fragmentary remains of rush mats and cedar-bark robes. Her in-depth analysis is an important new contribution to the study of traditional Northwest Coast material culture and will be of special interest to basket makers, anthropologists, archaeologists and museum curators.

Hidden Dimensions is a collection of essays drawn from papers presented at an international conference in Vancouver, British Columbia in April 1995. Scholars from around the globe examine several aspects of wetland archaeology in North America, Mexico, Europe, eastern Siberia, and New Zealand. Some of the essays in this volume explore environmental and historical contexts of wet-sites as well as past human adaptation to wetland environments. Others concentrate on the contributions of wetland archaeology to reconstructions of cultural history and the interpretation of unique perishable materials. In addition to discussions on the dynamic nature of wetlands and concern about the future of the cultural resources they contain, the authors look at practical issues of land management and object conservation. In Hidden Dimensions the authors seek to raise awareness of the significance of wetland archaeology issues at a time when wetlands around the globe are rapidly shrinking and their cultural contents are at risk of disappearing.

This book celebrates Dorothy Burnham’s many contributions to ongoing research on the Museum’s ethnographic collections from the Northern Athabaskan, Arctic, Plateau and Eastern Woodlands regions of North America. Eleven papers highlight the important role that comprehensive study of museum collections can play in material culture studies, as well as the value of detailed information for those seeking to revive traditional skills.

On the Northwest Coast in antiquity, an estimated 85 percent of objects were made entirely from materials that normally do not survive the ravages of time. Fortunately, the region’s wetlands, silt-laden rivers, high groundwater levels, and abundant rainfall provide ideal conditions for long-term preservation of waterlogged wood. Few archaeologists intentionally search for them, yet every Northwest Coast archaeologist may encounter waterlogged cultural remains--even inland, away from the coast. Those who investigate can uncover artifacts, structures, and environmental remains missing from the usual reconstructions of past lifeways. Currently, wet-site archaeology is not widely taught at North American universities. Waterlogged helps bridge that gap. Sixteen archaeologists who work on the Northwest Coast discuss their research in regional and global perspectives, share highlights of their findings, provide guidance on how to locate wet sites, and outline procedures for recovering and caring for perishable waterlogged artifacts. The volume offers practical information about logistics, equipment, and supplies, including a wet-site field kit list. Waterlogged presents previously unpublished original research spanning the past ten thousand years of human presence on the Northwest Coast. Examples include the first fish trap features in the region to be identified as longshore weirs, a complete 750-year-old basket cradle from the lower Fraser Valley, wooden self-armed fishhooks from the Salish Sea, and a paleoethnobotanical study at the 10,500-year-old Kilgii Gwaay wet site on Haida Gwaii. Contributors also discuss insider-vs.-outsider perceptions of wetlands in Cowichan traditional territory on Vancouver Island, a habitation site in a disappearing wetland in the Fraser Valley, a collaborative project on the Babine River in the Fraser Plateau, and Early and Middle Holocene waterlogged materials from British Columbia’s central coast.

Basketry Technology, first published in 1977, is the only comprehensive guide for archaeologists, anthropologists, art historians, and collectors for identifying and analyzing ancient baskets and basket fragments. Long out of print, this volume is again available with an extensive new introduction by the original author that summarizes the extensive work done in this area over the past 35 years. The volume describes proper field and lab techniques for recovery of specimens and offers a systematic methodology for identifying and interpreting twined, coiled, and plaited basket samples. It then uses Canyon de Chelly as an example of how to process a large basketry assemblage properly. In addition to 200 illustrations, the book includes a variety of sample forms to use in describing and analyzing ancient baskets.

Our understanding of the precontact nature of the Northwest Coast has changed dramatically over the last twenty years. This book brings together the most recent research on the culture history and archaeology of a region of longstanding anthropological importance, whose complex societies represent the most prominent examples of hunters and gatherers. Combining archaeology, ethnohistory, and ethnography, this collection investigates several aspects of this cultural complexity, carrying on the intellectual traditions of Donald H. Mitchell and Wayne Suttles.

Volume 1: The History and Practice of Indigenous Plant Knowledge Volume 2: The Place and Meaning of Plants in Indigenous Cultures and Worldviews Nancy Turner has studied Indigenous peoples' knowledge of plants and environments in northwestern North America for over forty years. In Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge, she integrates her research into a two-volume ethnobotanical tour-de-force. Drawing on information shared by Indigenous botanical experts and collaborators, the ethnographic and historical record, and from linguistics, palaeobotany, archaeology, phytogeography, and other fields, Turner weaves together a complex understanding of the traditions of use and management of plant resources in this vast region. She follows Indigenous inhabitants over time and through space, showing how they actively participated in their environments, managed and cultivated valued plant resources, and maintained key habitats that supported their dynamic cultures for thousands of years, as well as how knowledge was passed on from generation to generation and from one community to another. To understand the values and perspectives that have guided Indigenous ethnobotanical knowledge and practices, Turner looks beyond the details of individual plant species and their uses to determine the overall patterns and processes of their development, application, and adaptation. Volume 1 presents a historical overview of ethnobotanical knowledge in the region before and after European contact. The ways in which Indigenous peoples used and interacted with plants - for nutrition, technologies, and medicine - are examined. Drawing connections between similarities across languages, Turner compares the names of over 250 plant species in more than fifty Indigenous languages and dialects to demonstrate the prominence of certain plants in various cultures and the sharing of goods and ideas between peoples. She also examines the effects that introduced species and colonialism had on the region's Indigenous peoples and their ecologies. Volume 2 provides a sweeping account of how Indigenous organizational systems developed to facilitate the harvesting, use, and cultivation of plants, to establish economic connections across linguistic and cultural borders, and to preserve and manage resources and habitats. Turner describes the worldviews and philosophies that emerged from the interactions between peoples and plants, and how these understandings are expressed through cultures’ stories and narratives. Finally, she explores the ways in which botanical and ecological knowledge can be and are being maintained as living, adaptive systems that promote healthy cultures, environments, and indigenous plant populations. Ancient Pathways, Ancestral Knowledge both challenges and contributes to existing knowledge of Indigenous peoples' land stewardship while preserving information that might otherwise have been lost. Providing new and captivating insights into the anthropogenic systems of northwestern North America, it will stand as an authoritative reference work and contribute to a fuller understanding of the interactions between cultures and ecological systems.