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revisiting the origins of northwest coast packstraps
Author(s) -
Johnson Leslie Main
Publication year - 2013
Publication title -
museum anthropology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.197
H-Index - 15
eISSN - 1548-1379
pISSN - 0892-8339
DOI - 10.1111/muan.12028
Subject(s) - craft , weaving , indigenous , history , archaeology , ethnography , economy , geography , ethnology , engineering , ecology , mechanical engineering , biology , economics
Long woolen burden straps are a distinctive carrying device used by Gitksan, Witsuwit'en, and other peoples of the northwestern part of British Columbia, Canada. They were used for many purposes, including carrying cargo, securing dog packs, supporting cradles, and carrying infants and small children, thus enabling the effective movement of people and goods over land and up and down the steep mountain slopes of the region. With 20th‐century changes in economy and transportation, strap weaving has become a heritage craft. The origins of this technology are obscure: Was it wholly indigenous, a European introduction, or a hybrid technology based on an undocumented 18th‐ or 19th‐century European introduction of rigid heddle weaving to the region? Early ethnologists, working in a “salvage ethnography” paradigm, dismissed this technology as a recent European introduction. However, re‐examination of historic and contemporary straps, spindles, and looms suggests a more complex analysis. [tumpline, Gitksan, Witsuwit'en, weaving, carrying, British Columbia, heddle]