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American Folklife Center CENTER NEWS FALL 1992 • VOLUME XIV, NUMBER 4 American Folklife Center • The Library ofCongress voyage to America in 1492 could not be Board ofTrustees a celebration in the sense that the Bicentenary of the Declaration of In­ William L. Kinney,Jr. , Chair, dependence had been a celebration in South Carolina 1976. Native American groups had John Penn Fix Ill, Vice Chair, staged protests of Columbus Day cel­ Washington ebrations long before 1992. A national Nina Archabal, Minnesota discussion of American multi­ Lindy Boggs, Louisiana; culturalism had brought about a new Washington, D.C. understanding that different ethnic Carolyn Hecker, Maine groups are affected by historical events Robert Malir, Jr., Kansas in different ways. For many, the ques­ Judith McCulloh, Illinois tion ofhistorical interpretation had be­ The American Folklife Center was Juris Ubans, Maine come one of point ofview. created in 1976 by the U.S. Congress to Although some plans for official "preserve and present American Ex Officio Members events honoring Columbus faltered folklife" through programs of research, 1 James H. Billington, for lack ofmoney and purpose, many documentation, archival preservation, reference service, live performance, Librarian ofCongress Columbus Quincentenary exhibits, exhibition, publication, and training. Robert McCormick Adams, films, and books appeared. Most of The Center incorporates the Archive of Secretary qfthe Smithsonian Institution these presented balanced, scholarly Folk Culture, which was established in Anne-Imelda Radice, Acting Chairman, accounts that placed Columbus in the Music Division of the Library of Congress in 1928, and is now one of National Endowment for the Al1s the context of his times and exam­ the largest collections of ethnographic Lynne V. Cheney, Chairman, National ined the immense consequences of material from the United States and r:ndowmentfor the Humanities his "discovery." For example, an ex­ around the world. Alan Jabbour, Director, hibit at the Smithsonian Institution, American Folklife Center Seeds of Change, described the ex­ change of foods among North and Administration FOLKLIFE CENTER NEWS South America, Europe, Africa, and Alan Jabbour, Director Asia, as trade developed. A series on Ray Dockstader, Depuzy Director James Hardin, Editor PBS, "Columbus and the Age of Dis­ Timothy Lloyd, Assistant to the Director Timothy Lloyd, Editorial Advisor David A. Taylor, EditorialAdvisor covery," recreated the 1492 voyage Doris Craig, Administrative Assistant John Biggs, Library ofCongress using both historical images a nd Hillary Glatt, Program Assistant Graphics Unit, Designer scenes from the present. The Library Camila Bryce-Laporte, of Congress exhibit and book, 1492: Program Coordinator Folklife Center News publishes ar­ An Ongoing Voyage, looked at the Jennifer A. Cutting, ticles on the programs andactivities of the American Folklife Center, as well period 1450 to 1600 and described Program Coordinator as other articles on traditional expres­ who was living in North and South Acquisitions sive culture. Itis available free ofcharge America, who came, and what hap ­ Joseph C. Hickerson, Head from the Library of Congress, Ameri­ pened as a result. And the Folklife can Folklife Center, Washington, D.C. Center's exhibit and book, Old Ties, Processing 20540-8100. Folklife Center News does Stephanie A. Hall, Archivist not publish announcements from New Attachments: Italian-American Elaine Bradtke, other institutions or reviews ofbooks Folklife in the West, focused on the American Memory Project from publishers other than the Library lives of one immigrant group. Thus, ofCongress. Readers who would like instead ofcalling forth a reiteration of Catherine Hiebert Kerst, to comment on Center activities or American Memory Project newsletter articles may address their schoolroom platitudes, 1992 became Programs remarks to the editor. the occasion for scholarly examina­ tion and public education. Peter T. Barris, Folklife Specialist One word that emerged to de­ Mary Hufford, Folkl!fe Specialist scribe the events offive hundred years David A. Taylor, Folklife Specialist Cover: Grand entry at the 1984 ago was encounter. In this issue of Publications Omaha Tribal Powwow in Macy, Ne­ Folklife Center News, Judith Gray, James Hardin, Editor braska. Whi le traditions differ from tribe e thnomusicologist and reference Public Events to tribe, the male fancy dancer, like specialist forAmerican Indian collec­ Thea Caemmerer, Coordinator those pictured here, has become one of tions at the Folklife Center, offers a Reference the representative images for American number of examples of what hap­ Indians generally. (227546-4-25-26) Gerald E. Parsons, Reference Librarian pens "Whe n Cultures Meet." While Photo by Dorothy Sara Lee Judith A. Gray, Folklife Specialist the consequences of "1492" for na­ Administrative Office tive peoples were overwhelming, Tel: 202 707-6590 Gray notes that those who came to be Reference Service known as American Indians were not Tel: 202 707-5510 EDITOR'S NOTES simply passive victims.The effects of Federal Cylinder Project Encounters with "the Other" encounterare more complicatedthan Tel: 202 707-1740 the conquest and domination of one group by the other. The Columbus As 1992 approached, it became clear that the commemoration ofColumbus's continued on page 15 2 Folklife Center News When Cultures Meet La Terra de Hochelaga nella Nova Francia. Impression of the fortified Indian town Hochelaga, published in Gian Battista Ramusio's Terzo volume de/le navigationi etviaggi ... [Venetia] 1556. The engraver attempts to render a 1535 description by Jacques Cartier: a populous village, "circular and . .. completely enclosed by a wooden palisade in three tiers like a pyramid." Within the wooden palisade, Cartier found "some fifty houses ... each of fifty or more paces in length, and twelve or fifteen in width, built completely of wood and covered in or bordered up with large pieces of the bark and rind of trees ... which are well and cunningly lashed after their manner." Within each of these large houses, many Indian families lived in common. The hill to the left, Monte Real, is now covered by the modern Canadian city of Montreal. Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress By Judith Gray cultural expression we commonly use cal and cultural conquest. Those who to mark significant occasions. negotiate the gap between such di­ October 12, 1492, was not the date of But apart from an understanding vergent positions often use the term first contact between peoples of the that 1492 was significant, evaluations encounteras a means of characteriz­ earth's two hemispheres; that much is of-and reactions to--the events of ing 1492 without immediately as­ clear. But it has become the emblem that year and of their consequences sessing its aftermath. for all that happens when societies have not been unanimous: at one end As symbols, the two years, 1492 first experience one another. Conse­ of the spectrum, there are celebra­ and 1992, are complicated. Neither quently, the Columbian Quincen­ tions ofthe spirit ofdiscovery and the can be explained entirely as a series of tenary has been marked by symposia, subsequent development of ideas events; both represent processes that religious observances, concerts, pa­ and ideals in the "New World"; on the can evoke the best or the worst, the rades, publications, exhibits, food other, there is anger and mourning most dogmatic or the most flexible, samplings, and many other forms of over the devastating realities ofpoliti­ the most straightforward or the most Fall 1992 3 convoluted responses from individu­ hunt small fur-bearing animals rather To be sure, trade created needs and als who come face to face with "the than larger animals that were more desires that were not present earlier. Other." When societies meet, mem­ practical sources offood), traders had Guns were clearly desirable for hunt­ bers of each group evaluate what the to determine what Indian people ing but made the new owners depen­ other has to offer. The items subject to wanted in exchange. They offered dent on traders for an ongoing supply such comparisons include material various European goods; tribal people of powder and bullets. The most per­ goods, but also ways of acting and evaluated and chose those that made nicious "need" was created by the speaking, techniques for doing things, sense to them. Initially the items cho­ traders' introduction of whiskey, with ideas and ideals-the whole gamut of sen were, by and large, practical sub­ disastrous consequences for the na­ human cultural expression. Both par­ stitutes for objects already available. tive people. ties have opportunities to affirm, For example, an iron cooking pot was change, or put aside items in their more efficient in most circumstances­ oth the French traders and own cultural repertory; and, con­ and clearly more durable-than a bark Jesuit missionaries chose to versely, to reject, adapt, or adopt items vessel in which food was cooked by B live among or in proximity to from the other. While the political means of heated rocks. Likewise, a their Indian clients. They realities of the encounter may deter­ metal knife held its edge, and trading learned Indian languages, and many mine-and enforce-certain changes, for one was certainly easier than la­ of the traders took Indian wives and the manner in which ideas, materials, boring to produce a stone implement. stayedon. Individua!Jesuits also stayed or techniques are transferred
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