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Remember this image!

Remember this image!. Technology and knowledge. American Indian technology is really knowledge , not the tools themselves. -one way of relating to “cosmic cycle” -reflect maintenance of harmony ( Ridington , in Dickason 1998). Oldest recorded story?.

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Remember this image!

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  1. Remember this image!

  2. Technology and knowledge American Indian technology is really knowledge, not the tools themselves. -one way of relating to “cosmic cycle” -reflect maintenance of harmony (Ridington, in Dickason 1998)

  3. Oldest recorded story? • Gilgamesh- written approx. 3-4,000 BP • Maushop/Gluskap stone : Late Archaic (5500-2700BP), Maritime Tradition • Stone was cover on a stone lined hole (cist) • red ochre • Grooved axe • Plummet • White quartz engraving tool Plummets

  4. Significance

  5. Variations among a number of Algonquin speaking groups (Mi’kmaq, Wabanaki, Wampanoag, Mohegan, Pequot, Nipmuc, Lenape, Powhaten, etc.) • Algonquin groups of NE have asserted that they have a long history of occupation in the region. • Archaeologists identify sites and “horizons” with tool styles • Effect: assumption that tool=culture • Therefore: change in tools= change in culture=change in people

  6. Identification • Stone w/recognizable motif corroborates oral history of the NE Algonquin people • Algonquin speakers definitely in NE during Archaic • Contradicts Snow (2010, 219-221) • Snow estimates 1000 CE/BP • Diagnostic artifacts+ Identifiable oral tradition suggest as long as 5000 BP to 2700 BP

  7. Worldview “Amerinds perceived the universe as an intricate meshing of personalized powers, great and small, beneficial and dangerous, whose equilibrium was based upon reciprocity” -Olive Patricia Dickason, 1998

  8. Gluskap/Klose-kur-beh/Maushop • Culture hero • Creator • Transformer • Nicolar/Wabanaki: • The Man from Nothing • Created self out of void • Aquinnah: The First/The Great Whaleman (whale hunter)

  9. Gluskap’s role • Intermediary between spirits and physical world • Learn the lessons important to live well in the world • These are passed on through stories • Gluskap also first “storyteller” • Witness to creation of people • (Mi’kmaq tradition) • from lightning sparks that created him • 7 women, 7 men • 7 bands of the Mi’kmaq • 7 recognized territories • Southern NE (Wampanoag/Mohegan) • People created from wood

  10. View of Art • Artwork as “active agent” • For a specific purpose, not passive enjoyment • Beauty of form = better chance fulfilling purpose • Intermediary between material and spiritual world • Art (music, dance, story, drawing, carving) has a life/spirit of its own • (Dickason, 1998)

  11. Evidence for agency

  12. Now?

  13. March sky in Northeast

  14. Draco Ursa Minor The image records the story and re-enacts the story - Becomes an actor through ritual use. - Connects its creator or user directly to the story. Polaris -Also means of marking the time of the ritual (and the story itself)

  15. Context • Story is told in Spring-Cycle of time • Creation cycle • Ritual of “First Foods” • Maushop/Gluskap often honored as one who showed people how to find food • Riverine site: Taunton River, Titicut MA • associations with fish-runs/spawning • Atlantic Salmon • Alewives • Eels* (lamprey) • From this image we know: who when (time pd/season) what (they were doing) why (it was important)

  16. Seven directions: North, South East West, Above, Below, Center

  17. Algonquin Universe • Diagram 7 levels of creation • 3 spirits of creation- • Creator (Keitan) • Sun • Earth • 4 anthropomorphic spirits • Gluskap/Maushop • Grandmother, Granny Squannit, Old Squant • Nephew (sometimes brother) • Mother • Imptce. of clan/lineage

  18. Manitou/Mntu/M’teoulin/Manidoo • Everything has its own spiritual power (manitou) • Power can be called on-have to be careful • Affinity for certain types power allows people to fill certain roles • M’teoulino/Pauwaus= shaman, magical practitioners • P’niese- war captain • ‘Owl’- history keeper, news reporter • Sachem, sagamore –chief, paramount chief *Women could be pauwaus, sachems, sagamores Molly “Molasses” Nicola, M’etoulin

  19. Dickason, Olive Patricia,   1998 “Art and Amerind Worldview.”Earth Water, Air and Fire: Studies in Canadian Ethnohistory . David T. McNabb, ed. University Press, Waterloo. Pp.21-31 • Snow, Dean R. 2010 Archaeology of Native North America. Prentice Hall, Upper Saddle River, N. J. Joan SquannitAvent, Deer/Attucks clan mother,

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