Remember this image!

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)

Technology and knowledge

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

Oldest recorded story?

Plummets

Significance

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

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

Identification

“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

Worldview

Culture hero◦ Creator◦ Transformer

Nicolar/Wabanaki:

◦ The Man from Nothing◦ Created self out of void

Aquinnah: The First/The Great Whaleman (whale hunter)

Gluskap/Klose-kur-beh/Maushop

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

Gluskap’s role

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)

View of Art

Evidence for agency

Now?

March sky in Northeast

Polaris

Ursa Minor

Draco

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.

-Also means of marking the time of the ritual (and the story itself)

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)

Context

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

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

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

Manitou/Mntu/M’teoulin/Manidoo

Molly “Molasses” Nicola, M’etoulin

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 Squannit Avent, Deer/Attucks clan mother,