Museum Pictures

[kel_aa]

I would like to share some pictures from the First Nations exhibit of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto,
having gone extensive renovations to provide new display area to showcase more of its collection. Some
of you may have varying impressions of museums in general. Mine goes like this:

It is most influenced by the growth of imperialism and ethnocentrism, especially British. Certain individuals
saw the need to collect artifacts from the lands they conqueored to preserve them and study them, or
else they would be "lost forever". In part, this is true.

The first priority of museums is not to display objects for visitors to see but to have them to keep and
study. The actual collections of museums tend to be much larger than what a visitor sees in showcases.
Thus it is often that you find find new old stuff, as a museum gathers more space to display its artifacts.

The pictures (20) can be found here:

http://www.picturehosting.org/gallery.php?u=kelaa&g=Royal-Ontario-Museum

I'll show some of them here revelant to survival/bushcraft.

A fish-spear:

Forget your $200 shades. Impress your friends with these:

An adze using a blade forged from a file:

Some very large fishhooks (3-4 inches across the narrow part). I haven't figured them out yet:

A knife with a club, an adze, and I think a chisel like tool. Note the tapered tang:

Snowknives used to be made of organic materials. When metal were available however,
they surpased the organic ones.

A gunstock club, like that seen in The Last of the Mohicans:

A club and piece pipe. I found it interesting that the club has a very similar head-forward design
as like that from the Middle East (Kingdom of Heaven Saracen Club):

 

[kel_aa]

A single bevel crook knife set in bone:

And finally, the Gap, Artic Circle Edition. All styles are availabe in dead animal skin, dead animal skin, and dead animal skin. The figures at the bottom are dolls, dressed exactly like themselves. I guess not much creativity there.

I hope some of these may illuminate the vastness of humanity and provide you ideas for your own designs, either for leisure or when necessary.

 

[Willard P]

Fantastic pics, very fasinating.

 

[coote]

Thanks. Beautiful objects.

Those fish hooks are a bit of a mystery to me. I reckon that instead of being used on a line, they would probably work quite nicely as a salmon gaff for pulling large fish from a river. They would need to be lashed to a pole.

 

[Bumppo]

Actually, the hook makes a lot of sense. Read the plaque next to the hooks. The fish cannot swallow the hook, so when the fish forcefully ejects the hook, it jams into the gill plate and acts like a spring, either wedging itself in the mouth or being passed through the gills. If it has a sharpened tip that would help to. The barb is just for holding bait.

 

[kel_aa]

Your description makes a lot sense. However, it contradicts the plaque which says "pushing the barb through its cheek." I think the plaque may have mistated the information.

 

[DOC-CANADA]

This may be of interest to you, on page 32 of Indian Fishing - Early Methods on the Northwest Coast, Hilary Stewart, Douglas & McIntyre Ltd., 1982, ISBN# 0-88894-332-6, it says, "The flaring, curved back tip of the hook ensured that the fish only took the baited part carrying the barb, since it could not open its mouth wide enough to include the curved tip."
___________________________
Hilary asked an old chief who had made and used bentwood hooks up until about 1950, or so, about them -

Of the curved back arm of the steam-bent hook, he told me that this prevented the fish from fighting. If the arm were straight, it would cause more discomfort by lying on the cheek of the fish, and "he'll fight all the way up to the top." He also said the curve prevented the hook from being swallowed by too small a fish; it could only be snagged by the lip, from which the hook could be removed and the fish returned to the water unharmed. (page 33)
__________________

On page 47, it says (of the Northern Halibut Hook, not the Bentwood Hook- although from the diagrams, they look like they would work the same way) "The native V-shaped hook owes its success to a design that accommodates the flat shape of the fish and responds to the fish's method of eating. The bait, wrapped around the barb, was taken into the mouth, but because it could not be swallowed it was rejected. The forceful exit of the angled barb cause it to penetrate the cheek on the underside, and the fish was hooked. It could not go forward to release itself because of the V-shape, and its attempts to withdraw only secured the barb more firmly." Almost verbatim from the museum's description.

Hilary went on to make a hook like this and with the cooperation of Pacific Environment Institute and their tank of halibut, proceeded to catch one. (pages 47 & 48)
______________________________-
On page 54, there are diagrams showing how a halibut takes the hook. I don't have a scanner, so I did the best I could. I hope you can figure it out. If not, let me know.

 

[Eyegor]

The halibut hook illustrations are great. Sums it up well.

 

[kel_aa]

Thanks Doc-Canada. I was misstakenly under the impression that the fish took in whole hook into its mouth. That's a big fish to shallow an >4 inch object! So I guess one of them has lost its shape and they are just using the extra twine to hold it in shape or prehaps after each time it gets wet.

 

[DOC-CANADA]

Thanks Doc-Canada. I was misstakenly under the impression that the fish took in whole hook into its mouth. That's a big fish to shallow an >4 inch object! So I guess one of them has lost its shape and they are just using the extra twine to hold it in shape or prehaps after each time it gets wet.

From page 40 -

Once again, please excuse the drawing attempt.

I just want to add, if anyone is interested in primitive fishing techniques, I strongly recommend Hilary's book

 

[kel_aa]

That is lovely. Thank you very much. I'm not interested in primitive fishing per say, but more in how people devise solutions to problems that they face. By the way, the halibut is one ugly fish, being an bottom feeder and all, "eating anything it can fit in its mouth". I don't think I'm eating a halibut fish and chips again.

 

[Bumppo]

Thanks for the clarification! Well done!

 

[ranger88]

Cool pics!!! It's amazing what you can make with simple materals. I like the ADZE. any body know what it might have been used for?

 

[mewolf1]

Cool pics!!! It's amazing what you can make with simple materals. I like the ADZE. any body know what it might have been used for?

From the northwest coast I would say making boats, planks, and anything else that needs flattening.

 

[ranger88]

From the northwest coast I would say making boats, planks, and anything else that needs flattening.

I see. I thought it might be a farming tool, but I guess they didn't do much farming in the artic.

 

[RokJok]

Kel-aa, thanks for the pics.

I thought it might be a farming tool, but I guess they didn't do much farming in the artic.

Correct... the abundance of salmon in the rivers, other fish in the surrounding saltwater, shellfish along the coast, and game/plant foods in the woods allowed the NW Coast Natives to be fisher-hunter-gatherers more than farmers.

The elbow adze was used all up & down the NW Coast for rough-shaping wood. Finer finish and detail would then sometimes be added with a D-adze or especially crooked knives. Painting parts or all of the surface of the carving then was up to the tradition and/or the individual carver. However, some totem poles and other carvings done by well-experienced carvers would have the marks of the adze left as the final finish. There is a bear totem pole by Stan Hunt IIRC that is mostly covered with the scalloped texture of adze chopping without further adornment. It is illustrated in another of Hilary Stewart's books or else possibly "Totem Poles of the Pacific Northwest Coast" by Edward Malin.

Their mastery of wood, especially cedar which is very common in the area, with what we might consider crude tooling was exceptional. IMHO their achievements make them one of the great wood-based cultures in the ancient (and not so ancient) world. They used cedar for so many aspects of their culture that they called it "Life Giver". Anecdotally, as babies they were birthed onto a woven cedar bark mat and eventually when they died were interred in a cedar bentwood box. Cedar was their constant companion from birth through death.

Pics of some more elbow adzes: http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/collections/ethnology/collections/browse.php?ID=213374

Some pics of D-adzes: http://www.washington.edu/burkemuseum/collections/ethnology/collections/browse.php?ID=213372

(Can you tell that NW Coast native art and culture is one of my obsessions?)

 

[kel_aa]

It's a tough life up north. It's not like if you are hungry you just go outside of your igloo and club a seal for snack. Allakariallak, the star hunter featured in the 1922 film Nanook of the North later starved to death on a hunt.