No description available.

Using an ethnohistorical method which combines archival material with ethnographic material collected mostly by anthropologists, this thesis provides a history of Tlingit women's interaction with the Presbyterian missions. The Presbyterians, who began their work among the Tlingit of southeastern Alaska in the 1870s, were particularly concerned with the introduction of "appropriate" gender roles. Although participating in the roles and activities defined by the Presbyterians as "women's work", Tlingit women incorporated Presbyterian forms of practice into their own cultural frames of reference. The end result, unintended by the missionaries, was that Tlingit women were provided with a new power base.

This thesis explores the changing meaning of wind dried salmon in contemporary constructions of the culture of the Stó:lō First Nation. Wind drying has been a method of preserving salmon for the Aboriginal peoples of the lower mainland of British Columbia since time immemorial, providing significant winter provisions. However, over the course of the last one hundred years, participation in this fishing activity has been drastically decreased and currently only a handful of Stó:lō families maintain dry racks in the Fraser canyon. As a result, wind dried salmon has gone from being a staple to a delicacy, and is now valued as a cultural tradition, rather than merely as a food product. This change in culturally inscribed meaning is a product of the relationship between Stó:lō fishing activities and fishery regulations imposed by the settler state. Increasing restrictions of Aboriginal fishing rights have resulted in decreased participation and success in the Stó:lō fisheries. Furthermore, regulation has artificially categorized and segregated Stó:lō fishing activities, dislocating the commercialized fresh catch from the "subsistence" dried fish harvest. The response to this regulatory pressure has been the traditionalization of the wind dry fishery, situating the activity as a cultural symbol and a point of resistance to external control. Wind dryers currently refuse to commercialize the wind dry fishery, thus resisting outside control of the management of the fishery and the distribution of the harvest. This situation is discussed in light of anthropological understandings of the construction of traditions, and the issues of Aboriginal rights surrounding contemporary Stó:lōfishing activities.

No abstract available / xi, 248 leaves : ill. (some col.) ; 29 cm.

40 p. : maps. "A paper submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for a Master of Science degree in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Oregon." A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries under the call number: KNIGHT E99.C8742 W37 1994

La société tutchone (Yukon) du XIXe siècle reposait sur une économie de chasse, pêche et cueillette des plus élémentaires. Pourtant, selon la tradition orale autochtone contemporaine, elle connaissait une fprme de stratification avec division de la population en gens riches; pauvres et esclaves; un fait très rare dans les sociétés de ce genre. Ces données conduisent à s'interroger sur deux plans. D'une part, les rapports de domination/subordination évoqués ont-ils vraiment existes? Peut-on reconstituer l'ensemble de l'organisation socio-culturelle d'alors? D'autre part,ssi oui, comment s'explique le fait que certaines familles parvenaient à s'enrichir et à prendre quelques Tutchone en esclavage? Les chapitres II à VII sont consacrés aux premières interrogations. Ils montrent que les oui-dire des Tutchone contemporains correspondent sans aucun doute possible à des faits réels et qu'il est possible de reconstituer l'organisation socio-culturelle en s'aidant des connaissances des Tutchone et des données fournies par les premiers explorateurs blancs. Le chapitre VIII est consacré à la deuxième question. L'explication proposée est la suivante. Le mariage entre cousins germains croisés bilatéraux répété génération après génération produisait des ensembles pourvus d'emblée d'une forte cohésion. Par contre, le mariage entre simples cousins classificatoires croisés bilatéraux produisait des ensembles hétérogènes peu capables d'agir en commun. La possibilité de rapports de domination/subordination entre Tutchone provenait de cette dichotomie. Les ensembles rendus fortement cohésifs par la pratique du mariage entre cousins germains croisés détenaient le pouvoir de contraindre par la force les membres des ensembles humains désintégrés, en tant que groupes, par des unions entre cousins croisés classificatoires. Les ensembles cohésifs se servaient de cette marge de manoeuvre pour mettre en esclavage les Tutchone les plus isolés sur le plan social, pour s'arroger le contrôle du commerce et des zones écologiques, les meilleures. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

In April 1982, Nishga carver Norman Tait hosted the raising of a fifty-five foot totem pole named Big Beaver at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, Illinois. Over the winter of 1981-82 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Tait and five apprentices had carved the pole with images inspired by a story given to Tait by his maternal uncle, Rufus Watts, a man Tait calls grandfather. In the early spring of 1962, Watts had taught dances and songs to Tait, Tait's apprentices and other family members and the dancers created costumes and ceremonial paraphernalia for the pole raising ceremony in Chicago. In Chicago in April, members of the Northwest Coast artistic community and staff and patrons of the Field Museum participated in the contemporary Nishga cultural performance. This thesis is an ethnography of the events leading up to and including the pole raising ceremony. It is a case study of the revival of native Indian traditions, a revival that has been occurring on the Northwest Coast since the 1950's. The work addresses four questions. 1. How are native Indian visual and performance forms created from orally transmitted tradition? It describes how the contemporary native carver and his grandfather brought forward their traditions. It discusses the role of museums, anthropology, media, marketplace and other artists. 2. What is the nature of the communities generated by the artistic activity of a contemporary native carver? Included are descriptions of the Nishga and Northwest Coast artistic communities' participation in an expanded native Indian cultural project. 3. How does a museum contextualize a native Indian cultural performance and what meta-messages are communicated? The Field Museum refers back to the Native American participation in the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago to contextualize their events in 1982. Were the messages that were overtly expressed in 1893 covertly communicated in 1982? 4. What changes occur in traditions that are brought forward in a contemporary cultural performance? There is a simplification of the traditional Nishga system of cultural messages and a shift in emphasis. There are also changes in the types of alliances for the production of the contemporary totem pole and an adaption of the traditional ritual system for the modern pole raising. The thesis concludes with some questions and discussion on how to assess contemporary native Indian cultural performance in non-traditional settings. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

Using an ethnohistorical method which combines archival material with ethnographic material collected mostly by anthropologists, this thesis provides a history of Tlingit women's interaction with the Presbyterian missions. The Presbyterians, who began their work among the Tlingit of southeastern Alaska in the 1870s, were particularly concerned with the introduction of "appropriate" gender roles. Although participating in the roles and activities defined by the Presbyterians as "women's work", Tlingit women incorporated Presbyterian forms of practice into their own cultural frames of reference. The end result, unintended by the missionaries, was that Tlingit women were provided with a new power base. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

This thesis explores the changing meaning of wind dried salmon in contemporary constructions of the culture of the Stó:lō First Nation. Wind drying has been a method of preserving salmon for the Aboriginal peoples of the lower mainland of British Columbia since time immemorial, providing significant winter provisions. However, over the course of the last one hundred years, participation in this fishing activity has been drastically decreased and currently only a handful of Stó:lō families maintain dry racks in the Fraser canyon. As a result, wind dried salmon has gone from being a staple to a delicacy, and is now valued as a cultural tradition, rather than merely as a food product. This change in culturally inscribed meaning is a product of the relationship between Stó:lō fishing activities and fishery regulations imposed by the settler state. Increasing restrictions of Aboriginal fishing rights have resulted in decreased participation and success in the Stó:lō fisheries. Furthermore, regulation has artificially categorized and segregated Stó:lō fishing activities, dislocating the commercialized fresh catch from the "subsistence" dried fish harvest. The response to this regulatory pressure has been the traditionalization of the wind dry fishery, situating the activity as a cultural symbol and a point of resistance to external control. Wind dryers currently refuse to commercialize the wind dry fishery, thus resisting outside control of the management of the fishery and the distribution of the harvest. This situation is discussed in light of anthropological understandings of the construction of traditions, and the issues of Aboriginal rights surrounding contemporary Stó:lōfishing activities. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

Why does the Good News of the Gospel find greater response in some areas of the world than it does in other areas - even where there is a fairly close relationship geographically and culturally? This is one of the problems that the evangelical church is facing in some areas of Ecuador today. After many years of labor in some areas there has been little fruit, while in others there has been an abundant harvest - even to the amazement of some of the missionaries involved. It is the purpose of this project and report to investigate this paradox to see if any light may be thrown upon the problem. Thus it is hoped to further the understanding of those who are so deeply concerned after so many years of toil.