TRANSCULTURATION

Sample Student Work:

Essay

Introduction

In this present essay I will deal with the issues, historical and present, involved around a pair of Eskimo snowshoes belonging to City Gallery, Weston Park in Sheffield. The pair of snowshoes was given to the museum together with a number of other items, which all came from a collection owned and collected by a Sheffield based woman, miss Ethel Garton, who went, as a Anglican missionary, to the area near the Mackenzie delta in Northern America and worked as a schoolteacher. My main aim, therefore, with this essay is to find out what this cultural process really means, from the history of the Eskimo snowshoe and possibly inter relationships between North American peoples, to the issues around the missionary’s position, and up until today when a museum somewhere in the Western world is dealing with the task of displaying this object.

My reason for choosing to concentrate my research on the snowshoes, was due to the fact that I was amazed over the, in all various forms, incredible construction of the shoe, designed for survival. And furthermore the snowshoe shows on great evidence, as Saradell Ard Frederick argues in the essay Roots in the Past[1], of the Eskimos ingenious use of materials and practical adaptations to the environment, since they live in one of the most difficult climates in the world, with limited raw materials available. I also found it fascinating that the term Eskimo meaning ‘eater of raw meat’ has been challenged lately (which is why I will continue through out the essay using the term Eskimo rather than Inuit) by several linguistics, Dammas[2] is one of them, who claims that the term might have a history from a different source, which would give the term a meaning similar with ‘she nets a snowshoe’. This could furthermore possibly mean that the Eskimos would have had an enormous reputation amongst other North American peoples for their skills in making snowshoes.

To deal with this essay sufficiently I will start with the history of the snowshoe, then move on to the role of the missionary and his/her aims in the beginning of the 20^th century, and finally deal with some of the many problems that arise when exhibiting the snowshoes in the City Gallery in Sheffield.

The snowshoe

The pair of snowshoes I am concerned with have three striking features about them, that I have not managed to find on any other snowshoes, neither in books nor in other collections. First of all the shape which is fairly fish shaped, and according to the Columbia Encyclopaedia, sixth edition 2001[3], the Eskimos use one shape which is triangular and about 46 cm in length and another that is nearly circular, like one that I found at the British Museum in the JP Morgan chase Gallery of North America, but none which is fish shaped.

Secondly the toe on City Gallery's pair of snowshoes is slightly turned up to prevent catching if there is a crust on the snow, this is something, according to the Columbia Encyclopaedia, sixth edition 2001[4], that one might find amongst the Cree, farther south, who use a long narrow hunting shoe, similar to the ski, with the toe slightly turned up, but normally this feature is something one would not expect to find on a Eskimo snowshoe. So presumably at some point a connection and exchange was made between these two cultures, but what is even more important to note is the notion of inter relationship between several North American peoples, not just the Cree and the Eskimos. Relationships not to forget when researching the cultural history of the Eskimos.

Thirdly the woollen red, round decorations on the sides, covering up the fix of the walrus hide, something I have not been able to find on any other Eskimo snowshoes and which furthermore would seem to be highly unpractical when walking in snow. However when visiting the JP Morgan chase Gallery of North America at the British Museum in London, I found one display text which said that some Eskimo snowshoes may be decorated with woven designs, relating to animals, for instance of ptarmigan feet, so in that case woollen red, round decorations would possibly not strike one as a surprise. The reason for putting them there though, and the use of that particular shape, would presumably be the schoolteacher, for whom the pair of snowshoes probably was especially made for.

The role of the missionary

By 1914 every village of more than hundred inhabitants had a school and a white schoolteacher, as Saradell Ard Frederick argues in the essay Roots in the Past[5]. World War II brought increased contact, military service, and a change from, a fishing and hunting economy, to a cash economy. Explorers, missionaries, sailors, teachers, gold miners, and ubiquitous tourists have all influenced Eskimos and their art. Also along side with all these arrivals a certain notion of superiority arose. Anglo missionaries were send out basically to help the North American peoples to gain 'knowledge' via institutions such as schools, and "the (Christian Missionaries) main goal, along with ensuring the well being of the Europeans, was to convert the natives to a life of Catholicism or Protestantism. Along with this change of belief came the forceful change of the Native's language, political structures, and the education of their children. Basically, the road to conversion was seen as a way to "civilize" the First Nations people." (Khan, Iram)[6].

I suppose to some extent when considering this quote one can talk about humiliation in terms of the situation of the North American peoples, but maybe also argue that many of the missionaries actually worked more as anthropologists, than as a missionary 'saving' souls. However, rather than to do either I would like to approach a more affirmative standpoint and consider the actual transculturation, seeing that is what our module is concerned with. The schoolteacher, Miss Ethel Garton, and her interaction with the school children had led to the influence of two different cultures operating together and presumably creating the City Gallery's pair of unique snowshoes. This process of transculturation, is what need to be stressed when researching the history of objects.

The snowshoe in a glass case

Transculturation, according to Wikipedia the Free Encyclopaedia, is a term 'that describes the phenomenon of merging and converging cultures. In a modern context, this reflects communication and transportation technology's effects in countering cultural divergence: The tendencies of societies to drift apart, is being replaced by forces bringing them together. The process of this convergence is incredibly complex, politicized, and very often hostile'. [7] We have now found ourselvesd, according to Stuart Hall, in 'the in-between of different cultures'[8], the process of culturation have brought us here and now we face a very different kind of hostility, than the one that processed the convergence. So how can we take it from here in terms of giving justice to an object, such as the pair of snowshoes, when exhibiting them in a museum in the Western world? This is a difficult question which I do not claim to have an answere to. However, I find it difficult to believe that any artefact can be given justice when put in a glass case and labelled, seeing this process will completely change the meaning of the object found in its natural habitat. So then one might wonder what the role of the museum really is? Several museums are definitely playing on the idea of memory and history, something Ludmilla Jordanova adresses in her essay Objects of Knowledge: A Historical Perspecitve on Museums, by creating a narrative not always truthful, but based on peoples expectations about for example another culture. The museum’s aim could be argued to be preservation, however museums are always going to be Institutions of memory[9], no matter which approach they use.

‘There is...a danger...which is to treat culture as an object, a 'thing' which exists separately from the social space in which various social actors interrelate’ (Stevenhagen 1998)[10]. So with this 'danger' in mind, curators, viewers and archeologists have to work together when, visiting, curating, preserving the City Gallery in Weston Park after the reorganisation. And only with this joint critical effort can the pair of Eskimo snowshoes be given some kind of justice when shown in the in museum. Not to forget that it is as much the audience as the curator who create a narrative around an object, based on his/her assumtions and expectations.

Conclusion

By way of conclusion I hope to have shown some useful information and thoughts regarding the history and present situation of City Gallery's pair of snowshoes. I am rather disappointed that I did not manage to get in contact with the curator, for the JP Morgan chase Gallery of North America at the British Museum in London, by the name Jonathan King, but do highly suggest that the curators at Sheffield City Gallery try to get in contact with him, seeing he seams to be rather engaged in current ideas concerning the peoples of North America.

I found my research on the pair of snowshoes very useful in terms of my understanding of the term transculturation. The snowshoes are a perfect example of this cultural process seeing they today have found their way into the Western world, completely adopted and even used for competitions in ski villages and furthermore available in new materials, such as aluminium. This process of transculturation is rather important to be aware of and have an understanding of, both in terms of our own history and as well our relationship to different cultures.

Bibliography

Dammas, D (1984), Handbook of North American Eskimo and Indian Art

Indiana University press

Fitzhugh, WW (ed) & Kaplan, S.A. (ed) (1982) Inua: Spirit World of the Bering Sea Eskimo

Smithsonian Institution Press

Graburn, NHH (1976) Ethnic and Tourist Arts: Cultural Expressions from the Fourth World

University of California Press

Mirzoeff, N (2000) Diaspora and Visual Culture: Representing African and Jews

Routledge

UNESCA (2000) World Culture Report 2000 - Cultural Diversity Conflict & Pluralism UNESCO publications

Vergo, P (ed) (1989) The New Museology

Reaction Books Ltd

www.bartleby.com/65/sn/snowshoe.html (28-05-03)

www.carleton.ca/~mflynnbu/iqaluit_sociology/lena_ellsworth.htm (28-05-03)

www.wikipedia.org/wiki/Transculturation (26-05-03)

[1] Frederick, S. (1982) Roots in the Past, cited in Inua: Spirit World of the Bering Sea Eskimo, Fitzhugh, W.W. (ed) & Kaplan, S.A. (ed) p.269, Smithsonian Institution Press

[2] Dammas, D. (1984), Handbook of North American Eskimo and Indian Art, p. 7, Indiana University press

[5] Frederick, S. (1982) Roots in the Past, cited in Inua: Spirit World of the Bering Sea Eskimo, Fitzhugh, W.W. (ed) & Kaplan, S.A. (ed) p.269, Smithsonian Institution Press

[6] Khan, Iram. n.d. "A Brief History of First Nations Children: What Should They Learn and How Should They Learn it?" Canadian Journal of Natives: Canadian Content. from website: www.carleton.ca/~mflynnbu/iqaluit_sociology/lena_ellsworth.htm

[8] Mirzoeff, N (2000) Diaspora and Visual Culture: Representing African and Jews, p.2, Routledge

[9] UNESCA (2000) World Culture Report 2000-Cultural Diversity Conflict & Pluralism, p.187, UNESCO publ.

[10] UNESCA (2000) World Culture Report 2000-Cultural Diversity Conflict & Pluralism, p.187, UNESCO publ.