Colonial Encounters, European Kettles, and the Magic of Mimesis in the Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Century Indigenous Northeast and Great Lakes

Howey, Meghan

doi:10.1007/s10761-011-0145-y

Cited by 12 publications

(11 citation statements)

References 46 publications

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“…There is a deep history of Native American experience of colonialism and in light of innovations and intrusions brought about by entanglement with European mercantile networks, groups like the Ojibwa and the Six Nations were able to maintain adaptive processes that enabled them to incorporate European ideas but maintain a sense of self. An example of this process comes from research in northern Michigan (Howey 2011). Between 1470 and 1660 C.E., ceramic repertoires of an indigenous craftsperson began to incorporate a form similar to European‐made copper kettles in circulation during the time.…”

Section: Power: Culture Political Economy and Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

Messy Data, Ordered Questions

Hauser

2012

American Anthropologist

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A lively debate was witnessed in 2011 about the role of deductive and interpretive approaches in the production of anthropological knowledge, especially as it relates to archaeology. Scholarly output in archaeology thisyear reflects this concern. First, there is a trend toward furthering our archaeological imagination-finding new ways of asking questions that link the most empirical of research projects with innovative social theory. Second, there is an embracement of the messiness of archaeological data and the conclusions we can reach from it. By looking at the messiness of archaeological data and the limits of knowledge, archaeology asserts itself as an open frontier for anthropological inquiry. [anthropological archaeology, historical archaeology, environment, identity, power]

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Section: Power: Culture Political Economy and Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

Messy Data, Ordered Questions

Hauser

2012

American Anthropologist

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“…In some cases, people may need to use new materials to replicate familiar objects and skeuomorphs, or objects manufactured in one material that represent other forms, are created. For migrants, even if the copies are not perfect replicas of the originals, they nevertheless may invoke the same significance, power, and memory of the original objects (Howey, 2011; Knappett, 2002).…”

Section: Migrants and The Context Of Their Possessionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Further complicating archaeological understanding of migrant material culture is the fact that migrants often replicate the material culture of their former homes by using local material available in their new area. The ability to continue production of significant objects reinforces social practices, traditions, and knowledge, and hybrid objects symbolizing old and new homes often occur in mixed social settings (Howey, 2011). In some cases, people may need to use new materials to replicate familiar objects and skeuomorphs, or objects manufactured in one material that represent other forms, are created.…”

Section: Local Production Of Significant Objectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Understanding the significance of migrants’ material culture

Trabert

2019

Journal of Social Archaeology

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Archaeologists are increasingly moving past discussions of whether migration events occurred in the past to more nuanced discussions of the meaning surrounding the migrants’ belongings. Migrants used material culture as powerful memory objects, to create meaning and adapt to living in a new place and often with new people. There are relatively few archaeological examples of large-scale migration into the Great Plains in the wake of European invasion of North America. One exception to this is the migration of Puebloan peoples from northern New Mexico to the Central Great Plains during the Puebloan diaspora after 1600 CE. Sites attributed to this migration are discussed in context with recent work on meaning and materiality to reconsider the critical role that objects play in identity expression and cultural survival in new homelands.

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“…Although an object may be utilized and appropriated by different social groups throughout its life, an intercultural biography does not constitute hybridity in and of itself. So, for example, the unmodified copper kettles that Native Americans obtained through trade in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century New France (Howey, 2011; Turgeon, 1997) are not what I would label hybrids. But the copper shields (“Coppers”) famously potlatched among nineteenth-century tribes of the Pacific Northwest, which were transformed out of copper salvaged from the hulls of European and Asian ships, could be (Jopling, 1989).…”

Section: Defining Hybriditymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Mickey Mouse kachina and other “Double Objects”: Hybridity in the material culture of colonial encounters

Liebmann

2015

Journal of Social Archaeology

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Hybridity is a term used by anthropologists to characterize the amalgamation of influences from two (or more) different cultural groups. Hybridity has captivated archaeology in recent years, especially archaeologists investigating colonialism in Native American contexts. At the same time, a growing chorus of critics has begun to question anthropology’s devotion to hybridity and hybrid objects. These critics take issue with the term’s alleged Eurocentrism, implications of cultural purity, and evolutionary etymology. In this article, I address these critiques and advocate a more circumscribed use of hybridity in archaeology. I caution against the abandonment of the term entirely, because the archaeological identification of hybridity provides insights into both present-day (etic) and past (emic) perspectives on cultural amalgamation. Hybridity reveals the biases of contemporary researchers regarding the societies we study, as well as highlighting the ways in which power structures centered and marginalized colonial subjects in the past. To illustrate these points, I draw on case studies involving the Hopi Mickey Mouse kachina, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Indigenous-colonial whips from the American Plains and southeast Australia, and seventeenth-century Pueblo ceramics from the American Southwest.

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Colonial Encounters, European Kettles, and the Magic of Mimesis in the Late Sixteenth and Early Seventeenth Century Indigenous Northeast and Great Lakes

Abstract: Copper kettles, in high demand among indigenous communities of the Northeast/Great Lakes, became prominent items in the exchange repertoires of early

Cited by 12 publications

References 46 publications

Messy Data, Ordered Questions

Messy Data, Ordered Questions

Understanding the significance of migrants’ material culture

The Mickey Mouse kachina and other “Double Objects”: Hybridity in the material culture of colonial encounters

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