The Drum Beater By Karoo Ashevak

This collecting of folkloric data opened Barbeau’s eyes to the need to salvage the cultures of Native and French Canadians alike. « Fortement inspiré par l’ethnologie de la

The traditional Athabascan potlatch has not change much since it was celebrated by their ancestors in the past. In this essay we will explore what the significance of the Athabascan potlatch and why it is so important to the communities where it is celebrated. We will also explore similar “gift giving” ceremonies by other indigenous people around the world.

Indigenous literacies are used to communicate certain messages that are meaningful to the people in that individual community. These literacies are used to communicate stories, laws, maps, songs and dances to their own society. These forms of literacies are seen as being crucial to the cultural community as they are used to convey the social practices that should be handed down through the generations. Indigenous literacies may be interpreted in western cultures as art but they are actually narratives and recounts that Indigenous people generate. Indigenous literacies derive from different worldviews and connection to a range of components. They are then shaped and reiterated through knowledge systems that highlight knowing one’s stories of kinship. Indigenous Literacies are seen in forms such as on tress, bark, wood, sticks, rocks, carvings, in the soil and on bodies and

The sisawk Mask is dated “before 1919” by the Museum of Anthropology, although it was acquired through donation on March 26th, 1979. The donator is not provided on the Museum’s online catalogue, and no further information of the personal history of this mask is provided. However, the general information on the Nuxalk peoples and the purposes of their sisoak masks is provided for viewers, by the Museum of Anthropology. This type of mask was used for an initiation of the peoples, and the imagery of the eagle was only used by the Nuxalk peoples for initiations into the sisoak society. The event of the initiation would occur mostly during potlatches, where “a masked figure embodying” the initiate’s family totem (a symbol of the family’s history)

The drums are a vital aspect to the Native American culture; they understand the drum to be more than an instrument. In a web article written by Elisa Throp entitled, “The importance of drums to Native American culture”, Elisa says, “It is a Voice. It is a Heartbeat. It is a prayer to the Great Spirit. The Native American Drum is all of these things, and more.” The drums are what the

The idea that Prehistoric Aboriginal culture is averse to change or is static is a belief shared by the minority. Although it can be said that Indigenous culture and our ancestral peoples share many similar or unchanged basic behaviour patterns, each society or culture can be distinguished from others by the certain configurative patterns or directives for why the Prehistoric peoples did or did not achieve things and how they were or were not achieved. This willingness to change and not be opposed to innovation and holding traditional values all the time, suggests that Prehistoric Aboriginal Culture was constantly changing. This essay discusses the concept that Prehistoric Aboriginal culture adopted a willingness to learn, change and grow through forms of art and culture, for both aesthetic and useful purposes. Secondly, the developing cultural intricacies will be deliberated, how hunter gatherer societies affected Prehistoric Aboriginal culture and how these complexities are the source of change for many Indigenous peoples through time.

Inspired by my recent visit to Haida Gwaii, I found myself transfixed by the Chief Skedans Mortuary Pole. Carved by Bill Reid, this stunning pole is a replica of the Mortuary Pole initially raised in the village of Skidegate in the 1870’s. Honouring the Raven Chief of Skedans the pole depicts the hereditary crests of the chief. At the top of the original pole, a rectangle board covered a cavity that held the Chief’s remains in a burial box. Examining the pole in detail, I could see the moon, a Mountain Goat, Grizzly Bear and a Whale.

Native American music has many different musical styles and within every Native American tribe there is a variety of musical styles and instruments played. Most Native American music dancers and singers are characterized by their different ways of dancing and the different types of instruments they play interpret from the tribe they originate from. The instruments the Natives used were all hand made, that it self symbolizes creativity and hard work. Drums and flutes were the two most made and played by the Natives. They way the Natives pounded on the drums was a way they expressed how they felt. The drums are the oldest instruments in the world; it is used in a handful of oral traditions. While the different American Indian tribes create and use drums in the different ways, most construct them in way where it is all very similar to each other. These drums aren’t the typical drums we see in rock concerts, we are talking about ancient drums where elk skin is wrapped around a

The Kula is one of the most complicated aspects in Trobriand society. Throughout anthropological history, two anthropologists, namely Bronislaw Malinowski and Annette Wiener, have successfully given people a look into the intricate works of the Kula. While no anthropologist is more right than the other, one can see how two different ethnographers can give two very different analysis of one ceremonial gift giving ritual. Malinowski studies the Kula through the lens of an individualistic functionalist while Wiener studies through a structural functionalist lens. Malinowski studies the causes and affects of this Trobriand gifting on the individual, while Wiener gives the people a look into the overall cultural meaning behind the Kula.

Being There is a book that takes a deep dive into philosophical thought and touches on many of the branches of philosophy. The author, Jerzy Kosinski, tells the story in such a way that many parallels can be drawn between: epistemology, ethics, metaphysics, and politics and events or ideas that are addressed in the book. By looking at the idea that we don’t have to be known by others to exist as well as that knowledge is in all of us, it is easy to see how the book touches on the fact that we are all capable of making the right choices and that maybe the best government policies can come from natural things as well. This is important because Being There dives into the major philosophical ideas of existence and the decisions made throughout daily life.

Visual Anthropology provides visual documentation, either in the form of photographs, films, or videos, of early cultures to be “used for research, teaching, and cultural preservation” (Prins 2004: 2). What many people do not realize is that sometimes the documentation may not always explain the truth in the eyes of the people they are documenting. With the historical emergence of visual anthropology on the rise, this sometimes biased or untrue documentation, can lead to the dispossession and colonization of many Native peoples. One instance where this is the case is in Nanook of the North, directed by Robert J. Flaherty. This film, directed in 1932, focuses on the daily activities of a family of Quebec Inuit Indians. This society was portrayed

The brief for this assignment is as I see it to research more than 8 carving cultures and to explain the impact of social and cultural belief on art practice. To present research material in the correct form and record citations and bibliography correctly. This information is based on the question.

The chief concern of this paper is to explore the interconnectedness of cultural anthropology and folk literature. There are many essays that have already shown the interrelationship between folklore and anthropology1. Both these umbrella terms have many things in common but when it comes to folk literature and cultural anthropology, some distinctions become apparent. To say, hence, this paper is different in a sense that instead of dealing with the broad areas of folklore and anthropology, it looks at their branches and explores interconnectedness between them. Before moving further, one needs to understand the area of folklore and folk literature. American Folklore Society (AFS) defines folklore as “the traditional art, literature, knowledge, and practice that is disseminated largely through oral communication and behavioral example”. It clearly hints that folklore is a broad term which includes all the types of expressions whether oral, written, visual, or performative. This leads to an inference that folk literature is one of the branches of folklore which deals with verbal and written expressions. Similarly, anthropology is a jacket term which means a study of humanity including the prehistoric to contemporary, whereas the cultural anthropology is one of its four branches which aims to understand and define why a certain group behaves differently from the other group. These clarifications lead to another inference that though both anthropology and folklore study human

From baskets woven so tightly that the stitches look almost invisible, to beautifully crafted carvings and totem poles, all Northwestern indigenous art shows careful attention to detail, technique, and innovative ideas. A constant flowing line carries the viewer through contours, animals, the supernatural, myths, history, and family heritage. Every piece of art is used. Blankets,

Art is such an integral part of our lives that it is difficult to imagine culture without it. However there have been considerable disagreements as to whether indigenous cultures have a concept of art. My essay will first look at what it means to say another culture has a concept of art, and second see how that method of comparison can be used to help settle some of the disagreements.
In my discussion I will not be examining whether a particular culture has a concept of art, or exactly how we should be defining art. The focus will be on whether we could find the concept of art in non western cultures.