6] Carlson writes:
“Harry Robinson’s account of literacy being stolen from Coyote by his white twin conform to all the standard criteria associated with a genre of Salish narratives commonly referred to by outsiders as legend or mythology with one exception – they appear to contain post-contact content” (Carlson 56).
Why is it, according to Carlson or/and Wickwire, that Aboriginal stories that are influenced or informed by post-contact European events and issues are “discarded to the dustbin of scholarly interest”? (56).
According to Keith Thor Carlson and Wendy Wickwire, it is authenticity that condemns Aboriginal stories that are shaped by post-contact European events and issues. However, I want to clarify that I want to point toward a falsified notion of authenticity. Here, I am speaking about the “authenticity” we cast upon a culture, assumptions that guide our perceptions to believe misleadingly how a certain group of people must behave, must live, and in further relevance to the topic at hand, how their narratives must be. For something to be “authentic” it needs to fit our criteria for authenticity, and our subjective perspectives can often fail to consider the possibility that our hardened expectations do not equal fact.
“A detail from Benjamin West’s heroic, neoclassical history painting, The Death of General Wolfe (1771), depicting an idealized Native American.”
An example of such a misstep can be read in Wickwire’s introduction to Living By Stories: A Journey of Landscape and Memory. She discusses the 1990s Boasian research project that aimed to collect and record numerous oral narratives of the Aboriginal people. The project was criticized by a number of anthropologists such as Michael Harkin. The selective mindset of the project was derived from what Harkin described as a desire to preserve “some overarching, static, ideal type of culture, detached from its pragmatic and socially positioned moorings among real people” (qtd. in Wickwire 22). Another apt mirror to this issue comes from the same Wickwire introduction, this time in regards to Claude Lévi-Strauss’ theories of mythic societies. Late anthropologist Terence Turner criticized the man’s analytical process as narrow-minded, saying that “to conclude that the culture as a whole is in the mythic phase, lacking a concept of history, may reflect a lack in the investigative procedure more than a lack in the culture” (qtd. in Wickwire 22). Both of these criticisms illustrate how we may be predisposed to believe in a certain ideal of a culture, and in the case of conjuring up an “ideal” Aboriginal culture, that imagination’s rosy-tinted appearance is easily believed in. To those outside looking in, that imagined Aboriginal culture is romantic, pervaded by pictures of Pocahontas, of singing trees and other spiritual “anomalies” that are charming from a potentially condescending perspective. Thoughts that run along this vein have stemmed from the 18th-century with Rousseau’s concept of the noble savage.
Therefore, the presence of post-contact European ideals, events and issues in Aboriginal stories break this illusion and thus render these narratives to some academic eyes as tainted. Carlson writes of the inability to reconcile both sides of Aboriginal narrative and post-contact European culture by writing that “we have grown so accustomed to associating Aboriginal culture with pre-contact temporal dimensions that we have dismissed Native stories that do not meet our historical purity” (56). Further, he writes that Indigenous cultures (in particular, the Salish) have different criteria for the importance of their stories, and while the authenticity of their narratives is a significant element of these narratives, the difference lies in the way that they are assessed. Salish orators have the authenticity of their stories based on the quality of their conveyance and their presence in the social memory of their people. On the other hand for Westerners “historical accuracy is measured in relation to verifiable evidence” (57), necessitating the existence of footnotes and works cited pages.
“CALM SUNSET — PALETTE KNIFE Oil Painting On Canvas By Leonid Afremov.”
However, this reminds me of the notion of contradictory truths as relayed by J. Edward Chamberlin. His analogy of the two painters, situated on either sides of a harbour painting a ship is an adept illustration for this particular issue of authenticity. One painter colors his or her canvas according to its objective and empirical statistics of the ship, knowing that the ship has twenty-seven portholes and is grey. However, “the other, working in an equally creditable tradition” (221) paints the ship with seven portholes because that’s what the painter can see in the twilight. “He knows it’s wrong, but he also knows it’s right,” (221) Chamberlin writes. If we can remove that academic arrogance of presupposition, perhaps we may be allowed a broader and more comprehensive understanding of Aboriginal cultures. We must remove the superiority complex of the settlers’ science and now, with careful and open ears, re-learn what we thought we used to know.
Works Cited:
Afremov, Leonid. Calm Sunset. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Mar. 2016. <https://afremov.com/CALM-SUNSET-PALETTE-KNIFE-Oil-Painting-On-Canvas-By-Leonid-Afremov-Size-30-X36.html>.
Carlson, Keith Thor. “Orality and Literacy: The ‘Black and White’ of Salish History.” Orality & Literacy: Reflections Across Disciplines. 43-72. Print.
Chamberlin, J. Edward. If This Is Your Land, Where Are Your Stories?: Finding Common Ground. Toronto: Vintage Canada, 2004. Print.
Gardner, Helen. “Explainer: The Myth of the Noble Savage.” The Conversation. The Conversation, 24 Feb. 2016. Web. 28 Feb. 2016. <http://theconversation.com/explainer-the-myth-of-the-noble-savage-55316>.
Greenwood, Davydd J. “Cultural “Authenticity”” Cultural Survival Quarterly6.3 (1982): n. pag. Cultural Survival. 09 Feb. 2010. Web. 28 Feb. 2016. <https://www.culturalsurvival.org/ourpublications/csq/article/cultural-authenticity>.
Robinson, Harry. Living by Stories: A Journey of Landscape and Memory. Ed. Wendy Wickwire. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2005. Print.
West, Benjamin. The Death of General Wolfe. Digital image. N.p., n.d. Web. 8 Mar. 2016. <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noble_savage#/media/File:Benjamin_west_Death_wolfe_noble_savage.jpg>.
Hi Brendan,
I enjoyed reading your post. As I tackled the same topic I appreciate the additional ideas and information that you pulled in. I did not think of Levi-Strauss’ “static, ideal culture” in the context of Rousseau’s “noble savage”, so thank you for that. The link that you provided explains the “noble savage” concept in a way that explains why the “collectors” such as Boas removed reference to any messy modern issues or events. Similarly, the link identifies the fact that Rousseau was an Enlightenment philosopher and the popular racial evolutionary theories of the day. Boas removing Aboriginal concerns about interactions with white settlers reinforces the view of Aboriginal as simpler, gentler people.
The link that you provided on cultural authenticity was also very interesting and raised the issue of power and dominance in the relationship between the “collectors” judging stories as authentic or inauthentic. Interestingly, it speaks of cultures declining if authenticity is threatened. Boas and Teit were engaged to capture Aboriginal ethnography before Aboriginal disappearance. The linked article also speaks about cultural tourism. Although Boas and Teit were documenting Aboriginal stories because of concern of their disappearance, there was an element of the stories told by Aboriginals reflecting what their audience, the “collectors” wanted to hear. Do you believe that there was an element of cultural tourism in Boas and Teit’s documentation?
Andrea
Hello Andrea!
Thanks for coming by! I really appreciate your comments. I’m glad to hear that my hyperlinks were well-connected to the entry and that it helped to provide some further insight to the discussion! SCORE!
Oh yes, I found that article about cultural tourism interesting. There’s a line there that says: “we must come to understand when the staging of authenticity is a destructive force and when it is not.” And I believe that Boas and Teit’s documentation was destructive in its severe selectivity. Through their selections and subsequent discarding of certain narratives, they were creating a new image of the Aboriginal people, or at least striving to preserve an uneducated view of the Aboriginal culture as purely mythic.
They may have unwittingly done this as they wanted to preserve the Aboriginal ethnography before it slipped away from the social consciousness. However, through the Boasian Project, they’ve filtered the culture so much that it has become sterile. Fake. But attractive to common reader. Attractive because their selections have maintained that “Pocahontas magic.” Thus, I want to deem their project as having indeed, an element of cultural tourism.
Thanks so much Andrea! I had a great time reading your comment and bouncing off of it. (:
Hi Brendan
Thank you for such an insightful post! I really resonate with your point that viewing indigenous culture as mythic blinds us to the fact that First Peoples also have history. During my first year at UBC, I read a book that radically altered my understanding of pre-contact America. In “1491”–named for the year before Columbus’s arrival–Charles Mann argues that pre-Columbian Native Americans were not sparsely settled in a pristine wilderness; rather, huge numbers of Indians actively molded and influenced the land around them. And they were involved with politics. Sometimes a little too heavily. History books inform us that the Pilgrims were helped by a “friendly Indian” who taught them how to plant corn and survive long enough so that we could have Thanksgiving Day. But Tisquantum was no “friendly Indian” who graciously left his village to live with Pilgrims. In fact, he was an insurgent and political refugee who, to put it lightly, was not on best terms with the local chief. So he really appreciated that wooden palisade… As enticing as it is to paint or “Pocahontify” Aboriginal culture with the “colours of the wind,” doing so blurs out the presence of historical tensions and political undercurrents that have also moulded indigenous stories.
Thanks,
Bea
Hey Bea!
I’m definitely going to have to check that book out. For many and the social consciousness, there seems to be a black space before Colombus’ arrival, as if there was never really land before he ‘discovered’ it, ignoring effectively (but perhaps unwittingly) the Norse colonization that occurred around 10AD and the Indigenous peoples themselves.
The gritty truth of Tisquantum’s story is very enlightening and intriguing to me, especially because of its political contexts. Certainly, by painting with Disney magic, we brush over so much of the culture and perspectives of the Indigenous peoples, and thanks to your apt analogy to blurring, I realize that yes, the political element of Indigenous culture is smothered as well.
Thank you Bea!