Page 1. Aboriginal -- Slavery on the Northwest Coast of North America Page 2. Page 3. Page 4. ...... more Page 1. Aboriginal -- Slavery on the Northwest Coast of North America Page 2. Page 3. Page 4. ... 2. SlaveryNorthwest Coast of North AmericaHistory. 3. Indians of NorthAmericaNorthwest Coast of North America Economic conditions. ...
Franz Boas's 1897 report, The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl In... more Franz Boas's 1897 report, The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians, was a landmark in anthropology for its integrative approach to museum collections, photographs, and sound recordings as well as text. A result of participant observation and extensive collaboration with Indigenous partners—especially George Hunt—the book set a standard for both ethnography and museum practice. However, both Boas and Hunt remained dissatisfied with the published text, laboring for decades to correct and supplement a volume that would forever mediate global knowledge of the Kwakwaka'wakw people of British Columbia. They left behind a vast archive of unpublished materials relevant to the creation and afterlife of this groundbreaking text and its related museum collections. These materials are now widely distributed across institutional, disciplinary, and international borders. This paper will discuss an ongoing collaborative project to create a multimedia, web-ba...
Abstract: This dissertation examines the representational and performance histories of the Hamat&... more Abstract: This dissertation examines the representational and performance histories of the Hamat'sa---or'cannibal'dance---of the Kwakwa&barbelow; ka&barbelow;'wakw (Kwakiutl) people of British Columbia, Canada. The Hamat'sa has been widely depicted through ...
Page 1. Aboriginal -- Slavery on the Northwest Coast of North America Page 2. Page 3. Page 4. ...... more Page 1. Aboriginal -- Slavery on the Northwest Coast of North America Page 2. Page 3. Page 4. ... 2. SlaveryNorthwest Coast of North AmericaHistory. 3. Indians of NorthAmericaNorthwest Coast of North America Economic conditions. ...
Conserving Active Matter (website/digital publication), 2022
An introduction to the notion of, and recent literature on, Indigenous Ontologies as relevant to ... more An introduction to the notion of, and recent literature on, Indigenous Ontologies as relevant to questions of material culture and museum conservation.
This short essay introduces the Bard Graduate Center working group on Indigenous ontologies of ac... more This short essay introduces the Bard Graduate Center working group on Indigenous ontologies of active matter, defines its operative concepts, and frames the four contributing essays that follow. The so-called ontological turn in the humanities and social sciences has encouraged recognition of culturally specific theories of being that depart from those in the dominant Western tradition. These essays consider Indigenous conceptions of "objects" that privilege dynamic activity, multiple agencies, and relational networks and explore the implications of such notions for responsive museum conservation, care, and custodianship.
This set of letters to the editor supplement a review essay by Aaron Glass that appears elsewhere... more This set of letters to the editor supplement a review essay by Aaron Glass that appears elsewhere (p. 14-24) in this issue.
Franz Boas’s 1897 monograph The Social Organization and the Secret Societies
of the Kwakiutl Ind... more Franz Boas’s 1897 monograph The Social Organization and the Secret Societies
of the Kwakiutl Indians was a landmark in anthropology for its integrative approach to
ethnography, the use of multiple media, and the collaborative role of Boas’s Indigenous
partner, George Hunt. Not only did the volume draw on existing museum collections
from around the world, but the two men also left behind a vast and now widely distributed archive of unpublished materials relevant to the creation and afterlife of this
seminal text. This article discusses an international and intercultural project to create
a new, annotated critical edition of the book that reassembles the dispersed materials
and reembeds them within Kwakwaka’wakw ontologies of both persons and things.
The project mobilizes digital media to link together disparate collections, scholars, and
Indigenous communities in order to recuperate long-dormant ethnographic records for
use in current and future cultural revitalization.
Objects of Exchange Social and Material Transformation on the Late Nineteenth-Century Northwest Coast , 2011
Until recently the material heritage of Native North Americans was not a primary feature of the c... more Until recently the material heritage of Native North Americans was not a primary feature of the curriculum or exhibition program at the Bard Graduate Center (BGC). Although certain topics or objects may have appeared in courses and exhibits, they were not an integrated component. This is beginning to change, however, as the BGC expands its global purview and builds innovative institutional relationships to further the study of material culture as cultural history. Objects of Exchange initiates a partnership between the BGC and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) and helps inaugurate new curricular, exhibition, and digital-media programs at the BGC itself. The pedagogical aim of the new Focus Gallery and Digital Media Lab initiatives is to provide experimental spaces in which to explore the possibilities of exhibition practice in terms of material culture theory and methodology in the classroom, research in museum collections and archives, and the use of new media and public programming (see Commentaries in this volume). Background This exhibition and catalogue were developed under the auspices of the first cosponsored BGC/AMNH Fellowship in Museum Anthropology, which I held from 2008 to 2010. During the first year, I chose the theme for the exhibition (see Essay 1) and selected the objects from the AMNH collection. In the second year, the nine graduate students in my Fall 2009 course, "The Social Lives of Things: The Anthropology of Art and Material Culture," each chose four of the objects to research and write Introduction Aaron Glass OBJECTS OF EXCHANGE xii xiii INTRODUCTION OBJECTS OF EXCHANGE xiv xv OBJECTS OF EXCHANGE xviii xix INTRODUCTION
This review essay is supplemented by a pair of Letters to the Editor-one by George Rammell and on... more This review essay is supplemented by a pair of Letters to the Editor-one by George Rammell and one by the author-that appear elsewhere (p. 105-106) in this issue.
Page 1. Aboriginal -- Slavery on the Northwest Coast of North America Page 2. Page 3. Page 4. ...... more Page 1. Aboriginal -- Slavery on the Northwest Coast of North America Page 2. Page 3. Page 4. ... 2. SlaveryNorthwest Coast of North AmericaHistory. 3. Indians of NorthAmericaNorthwest Coast of North America Economic conditions. ...
Franz Boas's 1897 report, The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl In... more Franz Boas's 1897 report, The Social Organization and the Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians, was a landmark in anthropology for its integrative approach to museum collections, photographs, and sound recordings as well as text. A result of participant observation and extensive collaboration with Indigenous partners—especially George Hunt—the book set a standard for both ethnography and museum practice. However, both Boas and Hunt remained dissatisfied with the published text, laboring for decades to correct and supplement a volume that would forever mediate global knowledge of the Kwakwaka'wakw people of British Columbia. They left behind a vast archive of unpublished materials relevant to the creation and afterlife of this groundbreaking text and its related museum collections. These materials are now widely distributed across institutional, disciplinary, and international borders. This paper will discuss an ongoing collaborative project to create a multimedia, web-ba...
Abstract: This dissertation examines the representational and performance histories of the Hamat&... more Abstract: This dissertation examines the representational and performance histories of the Hamat'sa---or'cannibal'dance---of the Kwakwa&barbelow; ka&barbelow;'wakw (Kwakiutl) people of British Columbia, Canada. The Hamat'sa has been widely depicted through ...
Page 1. Aboriginal -- Slavery on the Northwest Coast of North America Page 2. Page 3. Page 4. ...... more Page 1. Aboriginal -- Slavery on the Northwest Coast of North America Page 2. Page 3. Page 4. ... 2. SlaveryNorthwest Coast of North AmericaHistory. 3. Indians of NorthAmericaNorthwest Coast of North America Economic conditions. ...
Conserving Active Matter (website/digital publication), 2022
An introduction to the notion of, and recent literature on, Indigenous Ontologies as relevant to ... more An introduction to the notion of, and recent literature on, Indigenous Ontologies as relevant to questions of material culture and museum conservation.
This short essay introduces the Bard Graduate Center working group on Indigenous ontologies of ac... more This short essay introduces the Bard Graduate Center working group on Indigenous ontologies of active matter, defines its operative concepts, and frames the four contributing essays that follow. The so-called ontological turn in the humanities and social sciences has encouraged recognition of culturally specific theories of being that depart from those in the dominant Western tradition. These essays consider Indigenous conceptions of "objects" that privilege dynamic activity, multiple agencies, and relational networks and explore the implications of such notions for responsive museum conservation, care, and custodianship.
This set of letters to the editor supplement a review essay by Aaron Glass that appears elsewhere... more This set of letters to the editor supplement a review essay by Aaron Glass that appears elsewhere (p. 14-24) in this issue.
Franz Boas’s 1897 monograph The Social Organization and the Secret Societies
of the Kwakiutl Ind... more Franz Boas’s 1897 monograph The Social Organization and the Secret Societies
of the Kwakiutl Indians was a landmark in anthropology for its integrative approach to
ethnography, the use of multiple media, and the collaborative role of Boas’s Indigenous
partner, George Hunt. Not only did the volume draw on existing museum collections
from around the world, but the two men also left behind a vast and now widely distributed archive of unpublished materials relevant to the creation and afterlife of this
seminal text. This article discusses an international and intercultural project to create
a new, annotated critical edition of the book that reassembles the dispersed materials
and reembeds them within Kwakwaka’wakw ontologies of both persons and things.
The project mobilizes digital media to link together disparate collections, scholars, and
Indigenous communities in order to recuperate long-dormant ethnographic records for
use in current and future cultural revitalization.
Objects of Exchange Social and Material Transformation on the Late Nineteenth-Century Northwest Coast , 2011
Until recently the material heritage of Native North Americans was not a primary feature of the c... more Until recently the material heritage of Native North Americans was not a primary feature of the curriculum or exhibition program at the Bard Graduate Center (BGC). Although certain topics or objects may have appeared in courses and exhibits, they were not an integrated component. This is beginning to change, however, as the BGC expands its global purview and builds innovative institutional relationships to further the study of material culture as cultural history. Objects of Exchange initiates a partnership between the BGC and the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) and helps inaugurate new curricular, exhibition, and digital-media programs at the BGC itself. The pedagogical aim of the new Focus Gallery and Digital Media Lab initiatives is to provide experimental spaces in which to explore the possibilities of exhibition practice in terms of material culture theory and methodology in the classroom, research in museum collections and archives, and the use of new media and public programming (see Commentaries in this volume). Background This exhibition and catalogue were developed under the auspices of the first cosponsored BGC/AMNH Fellowship in Museum Anthropology, which I held from 2008 to 2010. During the first year, I chose the theme for the exhibition (see Essay 1) and selected the objects from the AMNH collection. In the second year, the nine graduate students in my Fall 2009 course, "The Social Lives of Things: The Anthropology of Art and Material Culture," each chose four of the objects to research and write Introduction Aaron Glass OBJECTS OF EXCHANGE xii xiii INTRODUCTION OBJECTS OF EXCHANGE xiv xv OBJECTS OF EXCHANGE xviii xix INTRODUCTION
This review essay is supplemented by a pair of Letters to the Editor-one by George Rammell and on... more This review essay is supplemented by a pair of Letters to the Editor-one by George Rammell and one by the author-that appear elsewhere (p. 105-106) in this issue.
Return to the Land of the Head Hunters: Edward S. Curtis, the Kwakwaka’wakw, and the Making of Modern Cinema, 2014
This essay provides an ethnographic perspective on a series of 2008 Kwakwaka'wakw dance presentat... more This essay provides an ethnographic perspective on a series of 2008 Kwakwaka'wakw dance presentations to accompany public screenings of a newly restored version of Edward Curtis's 1914 silent feature film, "In the Land of the Head Hunters," made with the ancestors of the dance troupe members. It discusses dance as embodied knowledge and the ways in which Kwakwaka’wakw visual art and expressive culture mediate colonial encounter, both in the past and the present.
Writing the Hamat'sa: Ethnography, Colonialism, and the Cannibal Dance, 2021
Long known as the Cannibal Dance, the Hamat̓sa is among the most important hereditary prerogative... more Long known as the Cannibal Dance, the Hamat̓sa is among the most important hereditary prerogatives of the Kwakwa̱ka̱’wakw of British Columbia. Drawing on published texts, extensive archival research, and fieldwork, Writing the Hamat̓sa offers a critical survey of attempts to record, interpret, and prohibit the ceremony. Such textual mediation and Indigenous response over four centuries helped transform the Hamat̓sa from a set of specific practices into a generalized cultural icon. This meticulous work illuminates how Indigenous people contribute to, contest, and repurpose texts in the process of fashioning modern identities under settler colonialism.
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Papers by Aaron Glass
of the Kwakiutl Indians was a landmark in anthropology for its integrative approach to
ethnography, the use of multiple media, and the collaborative role of Boas’s Indigenous
partner, George Hunt. Not only did the volume draw on existing museum collections
from around the world, but the two men also left behind a vast and now widely distributed archive of unpublished materials relevant to the creation and afterlife of this
seminal text. This article discusses an international and intercultural project to create
a new, annotated critical edition of the book that reassembles the dispersed materials
and reembeds them within Kwakwaka’wakw ontologies of both persons and things.
The project mobilizes digital media to link together disparate collections, scholars, and
Indigenous communities in order to recuperate long-dormant ethnographic records for
use in current and future cultural revitalization.
of the Kwakiutl Indians was a landmark in anthropology for its integrative approach to
ethnography, the use of multiple media, and the collaborative role of Boas’s Indigenous
partner, George Hunt. Not only did the volume draw on existing museum collections
from around the world, but the two men also left behind a vast and now widely distributed archive of unpublished materials relevant to the creation and afterlife of this
seminal text. This article discusses an international and intercultural project to create
a new, annotated critical edition of the book that reassembles the dispersed materials
and reembeds them within Kwakwaka’wakw ontologies of both persons and things.
The project mobilizes digital media to link together disparate collections, scholars, and
Indigenous communities in order to recuperate long-dormant ethnographic records for
use in current and future cultural revitalization.