Dashing Dishes Author(s): Yvonne Marshall and Alexandra Maas Source: World Archaeology, Vol. 28, No. 3, Culture Contact and Colonialism (Feb., 1997), pp. 275-290 Published by: Taylor & Francis, Ltd. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/125019 Accessed: 15-08-2017 05:03 UTC

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This content downloaded from 128.227.133.130 on Tue, 15 Aug 2017 05:03:15 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Dashing dishes

Yvonne Marshall and Alexandra Maas

Abstract

This paper explores the way European pottery was adopted by non-agricultural groups. It reports two case studies from the Northwest Coast of Canada: Bella Bella and , then com- pares them with two further examples: the Southwestern Alaska Eskimo and the Canadian Metis. In all four cases, European pottery was first adopted to enhance the display of food consumed during ritual and ceremonial social gatherings. Three main conclusions are reached. First, that the contact period in the New World has enormous untapped potential for enriching our understanding of how material culture participates in processes of cultural change. Second, it argues that adoption of pottery in general may have been spurred as much by its potential for use in social mediation as by its practical functions as a container. Third, the paper suggests that in some circumstance ceremo- nial contexts may be more open to change than everyday practice.

Keywords

Northwest Coast; European ceramics; contact period; adoption of pottery; potlatch; cultural change.

Introduction

In 1778 Captain James Cook anchored his ships in Nootka Sound on . He stayed for a month, making repairs and taking on food and water obtained in trade. At first the sailors offered the local Mowachaht mirrors, beads and other trinkets, but these were disdainfully refused. Only metal, preferably iron could purchase the necessary pro- visions (Beaglehole 1967; Fisher 1979). As Cook's men quickly learned, adoption of new items of material culture obtained from newcomers is never a simple case of once seen instantly desired. Any decision to incorporate a new item into an existing repertoire of material culture is socially mediated and no matter how unequal the relative power of two contacting groups, each will select and reject items according to their own logic. This point is explored through an examination of the adoption of European ceramics during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries in two places on the Canadian North- west Coast; Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island and Old Bella Bella on the central coast (Fig. 1). The Coast holds a special place in anthropology because it so commonly serves as the definitive exception to general anthropological models. In

World Archaeology Vol. 28(3): 275-290 Culture Contact and Colonialism ? Routledge 1997 0043-8243

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Figure 1 Locations of the four case study areas.

keeping with this reputation, Northwest Coast people resisted the adoption of pottery despite their sedentary lifestyles and extensive repertoires of elaborate material culture. Along with the East Polynesians, who gave up bothering with pottery after a long and dis- tinguished heritage of ceramic production, the recalcitrant Northwest Coast peoples did not take up ceramics in a manner consistent with anthropological models of the adoption of pottery (Brown 1989:204; Longarce 1995: 279). Why they eventually began to use Euro- pean ceramics is therefore of considerable interest. When European ceramics first became available in Nootka Sound they were of little interest. Only later were they adopted as dishes for serving food on ceremonial occasions such as potlatches. In Bella Bella, however, hand wash basins were purchased as early as 1789, probably for use as communal food serving dishes (Maas 1994: 51). In both Nootka Sound and Bella Bella the use of European ceramics for everyday food storage,

This content downloaded from 128.227.133.130 on Tue, 15 Aug 2017 05:03:15 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Dashing dishes 277 preparation and consumption seems to have followed from their ceremonial use in pot- latches. A similar sort of pattern was identified in two earlier studies, one among Eskimo groups in Southwestern Alaska (Jackson 1991), and the other among the Canadian Metis (Burley 1989; Burley et al. 1992). In these two cases initial adoption of European ceram- ics was primarily for the ceremonial serving of food, particularly tea. Conventional wisdom has held that material culture used in everyday tasks is open to change because it needs to remain responsive to functional practicalities. In comparison, ceremonial and ritual contexts are more divorced from the practicalities of everyday sur- vival and can therefore afford to be resistant to change (e.g. Arnold 1985; Rogers 1990: 222). However, functionality and practical usefulness are not intrinsic to an artefact. They are culturally defined, and this study establishes that the reverse pattern can prevail. On the Northwest Coast, change, in the form of the adoption of pottery, occurs first in ritual contexts for reasons only tangentially concerned with practical function. As Hoopes and Barnett (1995: 3) comment in relation to a similar pattern of ceramic change among the Barra in Mesoamerica, adoption was of 'a new type of valued prestige item that also happened to be a container'. On the Northwest Coast this change paved the way for the incorporation of ceramics into the more conservative context of everyday life.

The Northwest Coast potlatch

Potlatch ceremonies were a feature of all Northwest Coast societies but their content and frequency varied greatly from one place to another. Within this diversity some features were universal. Potlatches took place in conjunction with ritual ceremonies performed to mark changes in the social status of the host or the host's family. Guests witnessed these rituals and thereby validated the host's new status. They were thanked for this service through a distribution of gifts which always included the display and consumption of large amounts of food. Commonly, even the dishes and ladles used to serve and eat the food were later included among the gifts distributed to guests (Rosman and Rubel 1971:179). During the nineteenth century the potlatch expanded. Population decline increased both the number of occasions on which there was no clear successor to a name or posi- tion and the number of potential contenders for such titles. At the same time, new sources of wealth such as waged labour placed potlatching within the means of a wider range of people. In addition, the influx of mass produced European goods expanded the repertoire of items both available and suitable for distribution as gifts at potlatches. As a result, the potlatch flourished. However, by the late nineteenth century missionary pressure, com- bined with the passing of the potlatch prohibition law in 1884, was bringing gradual but widespread decline, although the Kwakwaka'wakw transformed their potlatch into a highly articulate site of resistance to colonial power (Cole and Chaikin 1990). The consumption of large quantities of food and the distribution of wealth were central to a potlatch. But to have the desired effect, these activities had to be conducted in a manner which created a visual impression. Displays of food and wealth needed to have aesthetic impact. In this respect, goods which were 'easily countable, storable, trans- portable and relatively undifferentiated' (Blackman 1976: 407) had immediate appeal. Nineteenth-century photographs of goods laid out for distribution at potlatches show

This content downloaded from 128.227.133.130 on Tue, 15 Aug 2017 05:03:15 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 278 Yvonne Marshall and Alexandra Maas items such as blankets, sacks of flour, and silver bracelets displayed in visually quantifi- able piles, stacks and rows. Potlatches were above all about making power visible through performance and display (Wilson 1988:132). Ceramics were therefore doubly suited for incorporation into the potlatch because they had all the characteristics desired in potlatch wealth and could also serve to enhance the sumptuous appearance of food displayed for feasting at a potlatch.

Bella Bella

The site of Old Bella Bella-Fort McLoughlin was occupied during the nineteenth century. In 1833, Fort McLoughlin, a Hudson's Bay trading post was established at the site and a Heiltsuk native settlement known as Old Bella Bella grew up around it. The fort was aban- doned ten years later but the Heiltsuk community stayed on. A small trading post was re- established on the fort site in 1866 and a mission followed in 1880 precipitating numerous changes within the Heiltsuk community. One was a move from large traditional houses occupied by several families to single family, frame dwellings. By the late 1890s the com- munity had outgrown the site and a new settlement with more room for housing was estab- lished at nearby Waglisla. In 1982 excavations were carried out at Old Bella Bella (Hobler et al. 1983). Each of the main settlement components were tested: the fort site, an area where the traditional houses were located, and an area where the later single family frame houses stood. Euro- pean ceramics were recovered from all three areas. They totalled 522 sherds, representing a minimum of 99 vessels (Maas 1994). Analyses of these vessels by decoration and vessel type are summarized in Tables 1 and 2. The assemblage from the earlier traditional house is dominated by cups, saucers and small bowls. These are all multi-purpose vessels, useful as serving dishes, ladles or spoons for eating the traditional liquid, stew style foods. The less versatile plate was by compari- son poorly regarded. Crocks are well represented and were presumably used for storing foods. There is also a strong preference for brightly coloured wares decorated with trans- fer printed, sponge stamped or banded designs. At this time then, the key requirements of a ceramic vessel were that it could hold liquids and was of striking, colourful

Table 1 Decoration types on vessels recovered from Bella Bella

Decoration Fort Trad. house Frame house

Plain white 11 (27%) 8 (27%) 14 (47%) Plain coloured 4 (10%) 5 (16%) 3 (10%) Transfer print 20 (50%) 9 (30%) 9 (31%) Sponge stamped 1 (3%) 3 (10%) Multi-banded 2 (5 %) 2 (7%) Hand painted 1 (4%) Moulded 2 (5%) 3 (10%) 1 (4%) Decal printed 1 (4%) TOTAL 40 30 29

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Table 2 Vessel types recovered from Bella Bella

Vessel type Fort Trad. house Frame house

Basin 4 (10%) 2 (7%) Bowl 6(15%) 6(20%) 2(7%) Soup plate 1 (2.5%) 1 (3%) Cup 4 (10%) 7 (23%) 8 (28%) Saucer 5 (12.5%) 8 (27%) 7 (24%) Plate 5(12.5%) 2(7%) 4(14%) Crock 4 (10%) 4 (13%) 1(3%) Other 3 (7.5%) 2 (7%) 1 (3%) Unidentified 8 (20%) 1 (3%) 3 (11%) TOTAL 40 30 29

appearance. These selected vessels would have complemented existing utensils which con- sisted primarily of large to small wooden communal eating dishes and horn or wooden spoons, all of which were commonly decorated. By the 1880s when the frame house was occupied several changes had taken place. Cups and saucers continued to make up at least 50 per cent of the assemblage but the versatile little bowl preferred earlier declined in favour of plates. This change is indicative of a more general trend towards greater variety in vessel form suggesting a rising demand for special function rather than multi-purpose pots. In addition, plain white wares became more common than decorated wares, suggesting expense began to outweigh visual impact as a definitive selection criterion. All these changes are consistent with a shift in food con- sumption patterns attendant upon a shift from multiple family to nuclear family domes- tic groups. Unlike the Heiltsuk assemblages all vessel types recovered from the fort occur in approximately equal numbers suggesting each was used for its intended specialized func- tion. Included here are washbasins which remain curiously absent from the Heiltsuk assemblages. Cups and saucers make up only 22.5 per cent of the fort assemblage com- pared to at least half of both Heiltsuk assemblages. These differences reflect the Euro- pean use of cups and saucers as special purpose drinking vessels in contrast to the Heiltsuk use of them for a variety of purposes. Historic documents provide further insights. Ceramic inventories for the Bella Bella store during the years 1876-1882 are summarized in Table 3. As expected from the archae- ology they show bowls of various kinds to be popular in the early years and a general trend towards an increasing variety in the vessels purchased following the establishment of the mission in 1880. But prior to this, the most numerous stock item was always washbasins. Furthermore, in 1877 instructions for winter stock orders received by the storekeeper at Bella Bella from his superior in Bella Coola included the advice that'wash hand bowls of different sizes sell well' (quoted in Maas 1994: 46). A steady stream of washbasins were clearly coming into and going out of the store yet they did not become incorporated into the archaeological record of the Heiltsuk houses. The most likely explanation is curation. Washbasins were probably bought as dishes to display food served at potlatches, a func- tion unlikely to result in high breakage rates. In contrast, the small bowls and cups used

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Table 3 Hudson's Bay Company, Bella Bella, ceramic inventories

Vessel type 1876 1877 1878 1879 1880 1881 1882

Washbasins L 27 22 12 28 2 3 Washbasins M 25 1 Washbasins S 5 2 Bowls L (4 pints) 4 13 Bowls M (3 pints) 4 5 6 2 Bowls S (2 pints) 27 10 4 2 Mess bowls L 8 Mess bowls M 24 Mess bowls S 20 Glass bowls S 72 Chamber pots 6 5 2 2 Cup & saucer sets 24 30 22 4 Mess jugs L (3 pints) 2 1 Mess jugs M (2 pints) 2 Mess jugs S (1 pint) 2 2 2 Soup plates 6 6 6 Dinner plates 8 8

by guests to eat from these communal serving basins could not expect to lead such shel- tered lives and would have frequently ended up broken and under foot. The inventories show that cups and saucers were initially ordered in large numbers but were not required again in any quantity until 1880, perhaps because they sold in small but steady quantities, a pattern of acquisition consistent with the regular use and breakage indicated by the archaeological assemblages. Around 1880 when the mission was established these patterns change abruptly. Wash- basins disappear from the stock list while cups and saucers and other small tableware items appear in large numbers. As people moved from multi-family to nuclear-family dwellings their eating habits changed to suit. Communal basins of food gave way to indi- vidual serving dishes such as plates and glass bowls. At the same time cups and saucers acquired a special place in the distribution of gifts to thank guests for their attendance which marked the end of any potlatch. In 1897, Mrs Caroline Tate, wife of the local Methodist missionary, wrote in her diary 'We are told that in some houses there are as many as two hundred cups and saucers that they have received at potlatches' (quoted in Maas 1994: 48). These items would then have been placed aside until needed at another potlatch. They would not have been used as everyday dishes. The sequence of pottery adoption in nineteenth-century Bella Bella began with the acquisition of washbasins for displaying and serving food, and cups, saucers and bowls as eating utensils. While these vessels must have been used to some extent in everyday activi- ties their main purpose seems to have been to enhance the visual impact of food displayed prior to consumption at potlatches. Only after European ceramics had become an estab- lished component of food display at potlatches did they became an integral part of domes- tic life. This second step occurred following the establishment of a mission and the subsequent move to nuclear family housing. Thus the entry of European ceramics into the

This content downloaded from 128.227.133.130 on Tue, 15 Aug 2017 05:03:15 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Dashing dishes 281 everyday domestic life in Heiltsuk households was part of a general process of European style domestication (Grover 1987), epitomized by the way cups and saucers came to be regarded as desirable, appropriate potlatch gifts for women guests.

Nootka Sound

A great deal is known about the early contact period in Nootka Sound. The first new- comers arrived in 1774 and sustained contact occurred throughout the period 1778 to 1805 when Nootka Sound was a central location for the and the site of a political dispute between Spain and England (Fisher 1977). Many accounts of this contact survive and they make it abundantly clear that the local Mowachaht people wanted to trade for metal and were not interested in purchasing ceramics (Fisher 1977; Marshall 1993a). With the end of the maritime fur trade in 1805 contact virtually ceased and did not resume until the late nineteenth century when European sealing schooners began employing local crews and missions were established. A store opened in Nootka Sound in 1894 and by the turn of the century the shift from traditional multi-family dwellings to nuclear family housing was all but complete. Despite the loss of their occupants, large tra- ditional houses remained at some sites until the 1920s now serving as special purpose housing for large social gatherings (Marshall 1993b: 293). During this second period of intense contact the Mowachaht became interested in European ceramics. Three archaeological projects have been carried out in Nootka Sound. Excavations were conducted at the villages of (Dewhirst 1980) and Kupti (McMillan 1969) and an archaeological survey of the Sound was recently completed (Marshall 1992, 1993b). During each of these projects European ceramics were recovered. During the survey surface collections were carried out at seventeen sites, but only three are large enough to warrant detailed analysis. The other fourteen each include less than 100 sherds, and most are twentieth century (Marshall 1992). The ceramics from four sites are discussed here (Fig. 2). The Yuquot assemblage consists of 416 vessels (Lueger 1981) derived from a single excavation area and probably represents discard from one or two large multi-family dwellings. The Kupti assemblage includes 80 excavated sherds combined with 288 surface collected sherds. The third site is Chee-ish from which 216 sherds were surface collected. Since the collections from Kupti and Chee-ish came from a wide area of beachfront the sherds can be assumed to represent discard from throughout the village. Yuquot, Kupti and Chee-ish were all major villages consisting of at least ten large multi-family dwellings. It was at these villages, particularly the winter villages of Kupti and Chee-ish, that major social events such as potlatches took place. Finally, 595 sherds were surface collected from a small unnamed site which consisted of a single, multi-family dwelling known to have been occupied by the Dick family during the first half of the twentieth century. The assemblages of European ceramics recovered from these sites are summarized by decoration and vessel type in Tables 4 and 5. Note that the Yuquot numbers were taken from Lueger (1981) and are given in vessels, whereas the others are given in sherds. However, there were so few mends possible among the surface collected sherds that almost every one can be assumed to represent a discrete vessel. There is considerable vari- ation in the relative proportions of different decorative styles. In part this can be attrib-

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Figure 2 Locations of native sites in Nootka Sound from which European ceramics have been recovered.

Table 4 Decoration styles from ceramics in Nootka Sound sites

Decoration Yuquot Kupti Chee-ish Dick's

Plain white 90 (22%) 127 (34.5%) 91 (42%) 240 (40%) Plain coloured 49 (12%) 54 (15%) 23 (10.5%) 113 (19%) Transfer printed 103 (25%) 28 (8%) 34 (16%) 39 (7%) Sponge stamped 60 (14%) 38 (10%) 10 (4.5%) 24 (4%) Banded 61 (14%) 72 (19.5%) 26 (12%) 6 (1%) Hand painted 40 (10%) 31 (8%) 8 (4%) 16 (3%) Moulded 13 (3%) 6 (2%) 6 (3%) 44 (7%) Decal 12(3%) 18(8%) 113(19%) TOTAL 416 368 216 595

uted to differences in the times at which ceramic acquisition began in earnest at each site. Sponge-stamped, banded and hand-painted wares, all of which were at peak production during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, occur in larger numbers at Yuquot (38 per cent) and Kupti (37.5 per cent) than at Chee-ish (20.5 per cent) and the

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Table 5 Vessel types present in Nootka Sound sites

Vessel Yuquot Kupti Chee-ish Dick's

Bowl 107 (26%) 150(41%) 47 (22%) 89 (15%) Soup plate see note 19 (5%) 23 (11%) 70 (12%) Cup 85 (20%) 40 (11%) 35 (16%) 92 (16%) Saucer 59 (14%) 22 (6%) 24 (11%) 98 (17%) Plate 41(10%) 15 (4%) 24 (11%) 55 (9%) Crock 23 (5%) 36 (10%) 21(10%) 122 (20%) Other 15 (4%) 13 (3%) 31 (14%) 13 (2%) Unidentified 86 (21%) 73 (20%) 11(5%) 56 (9%) TOTAL 416 368 216 595

Note: Soup plates were not distinguished as a separate category in Lueger (1981) but illustrations show they were present. They have almost certainly been included with the plates making them appear more common than was actually the case.

Dick's house (8 per cent). The reverse is true of decal wares which did not come into pro- duction until the end of the nineteenth century. Transfer printed wares were available throughout this period but increased in price relative to other decorated ware (Miller 1980, 1991). A sequence in the adoption of ceramics beginning at Yuquot and spreading to Kupti, Chee-ish and finally the Dick's House seems to have occurred. As at Bella Bella there is a change over time in the proportion of decorated to plain wares. At Yuquot 34 per cent is plain compared to 59 per cent at the Dick's House. The high proportion of plain coloured wares at the Dick's House is due to an increase in crocks, possibly due to the progressive adoption of European foods with novel storage needs, such as grains. The general trend, however, is an increase in plain white vessels at the expense of decorated wares. At Yuquot 63 per cent carry coloured decorations com- pared to Kupti 48.5 per cent, Chee-ish 44.5 per cent and the Dick's House 34 per cent. Evidently, bright decoration was initially of crucial importance. As at Bella Bella vessels capable of holding the traditional liquid foods dominate. Bowls, cups and saucers make up at least 60 per cent of all four assemblages, whereas plates are never numerous. Small differences in the relative frequency of vessel types are discernible within this general pattern. At Yuquot and the Dick's House cups and saucers are the most numerous vessels while at Kupti and Chee-ish bowls predominate. These differences relate to a combination of site function and assemblage type. The assemblages from Yuquot and the Dick's House are from only one or two dwellings and those from the Dick's House represent primarily usage and breakage during everyday activities. In contrast the winter villages of Kupti and Chee-ish were locations for major social gather- ing and both assemblages derive from the entire site. Cups and saucers were perhaps favoured for serving food in an everyday context while bowls, especially the striking banded examples from Kupti (Plate 1), were the vessel of choice for serving food at social gatherings. Again, historic records complement the archaeological evidence. In 1894, storekeeper Walter Dawley established his new shop at Yuquot. Accounts for the year 1900 show that cups were of little interest and moved slowly but steadily off his shelves (Marshall

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Plate 1 Sherds of multi-banded utility bowls, surface collected from the beachfront at the village of Kupti. The decoration is in blue, black and white.

Plate 2 Six soup plates from a collection of potlatch plates from Nootka Sound. The plate at top centre has a moulded design overlaid by green transfer printing. The other five are sponge-stamped wares. Top left, bottom left and bottom centre have rim banding in blue, red and yellow with a stamped and painted flower design in lime green, blue and red. Top right has dark green rim banding with maroon stamped florets. Bottom right has maroon rim banding and stamped florets in red and green.

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1992:143). Soup plates, however, were a different matter entirely. Dorothy Abraham, who settled on Vancouver Island in the early twentieth century, recalls in her journal:

In the early days the shopkeepers did a roaring trade with the Indians, in fact they still do. The late W. T. Dawley, who was one of the pioneer merchants on the coast, told me the Indians would sometimes buy hundreds of English soup plates, which they have a passion for. He used to order them by the dozens of crates; they also purchased bolts of cloth, calico and print, the brighter the colour the better they liked it, and would buy dozens of these bolts for their potlatches. (Abraham 1961: 79)

As late as the 1960s senior women still retained large collections of these soup plates. One collection of approximately 100 plates was purchased in the 1980s from a Nootka Sound woman. Both the seller and purchaser retained examples of each design and in both cases the majority are of sponge stamped ware (Plate 2). These plates survive because they were reserved for potlatches where they were used to serve food and were given as gifts to women guests. The small numbers of soup plates and sponge ware recovered archaeo- logically indicates that like the Bella Bella washbasins these vessels were carefully curated.

Common patterns

In both Bella Bella and Nootka Sound it is only possible to obtain a rounded picture of pottery adoption by combining archaeological and archival sources. The archaeology pro- vides a general picture of everyday use and breakage while historic records fill a gap left in the archaeological record by the curation of ceremonial wares. In both places, the first extensive use for European ceramics was ceremonial. Pottery was used to display food served at potlatches and as gifts presented to guests. In Nootka Sound soup bowls were preferred whereas in Bella Bella it was the washbasin and then cups and saucers. Given the importance of display in both usages it is hardly surprising that brightly coloured dec- orative wares were selected. In Bella Bella transfer ware predominated while in Nootka Sound sponge stamped wares and banded bowls were the top choices. Both the Heiltsuk and the Mowachaht were initially impressed by the aesthetics of the pottery not its poten- tial to relieve the pressure of work on the domestic front. In fact a domestic front had to be created before such a change could occur, and this did not happen until around the turn of the twentieth century. Pottery appealed to people in Bella Bella and Nootka Sound because it was beautiful and could be displayed to effect at ceremonial gatherings where the primary objective was to 'create an impression' (Wilson 1988). Although it was 'used' as gifts and to serve food, as potlatch wealth its value derived from its participation in potlatch ceremonies not its domestic utility (Blackman 1976: 407). It was set aside and curated, not to be mixed with the common utensils of everyday life. This process of pottery adoption fits closely the general pattern by which Northwest Coast peoples adopted and adapted items of material culture from European newcomers. The adoption of European ceramics is entirely consistent with general patterns in the adoption of European material culture on the Northwest Coast. But is the Northwest

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Coast an exception to the usual manner in which pottery was adopted in other places? Until recently the answer would have been a resounding yes, for it has long been argued that pottery was developed and adopted above all because it was an intrinsically useful container (Arnold 1985). This was held to be the case for both innovation and diffusion. But increasingly this simplistic functional view is being questioned. Brown (1989), for example, proposed an alternative model based on raising demand and many of the papers in a recent volume on the emergence of pottery by Barnett and Hoopes (1995) highlight the social rather than functional roles of pottery. Hayden (1995) and Hoopes (1995), for example, point to the role of pottery in feasting, while Armit and Finlayson (1995) and Barnett (1995) address the potential of pottery for carrying symbols of ethnic identity. These new models all suggest that, as was the case on the Northwest Coast, aspects of pottery other than its potential usefulness in everyday domestic tasks may have been of primary importance in spurring the processes of innovation and adoption.

Hunters who take tea

Two additional studies of the adoption of European ceramics in neighbouring regions identified a similar pattern to that found on the Northwest Coast; namely the adoption of ceramics by hunting groups for use in the ceremonial consumption of food before it was used extensively for simple domestic purposes. In both cases pottery was adopted pri- marily for tea drinking. The Eskimo of Southwestern Alaska (Fig. 1), like all Arctic people, were hunters who moved between seasonal settlements. However, they maintained a minimal potting indus- try producing crude cooking vessels for domestic use until well into the nineteenth century when they were replaced by metal containers (Arnold 1985; Jackson 1991: 181-3). Although intermittent contact with Europeans began earlier, sustained contact did not occur until the early nineteenth century when Russian trading posts were established in the area. In the 1950s Wendell Oswalt and James VanStone initiated a large archaeologi- cal project aimed at understanding the process of culture contact in Southwestern Alaska. They excavated at five Eskimo village sites and at the Russian trading post Kolmakovskiy Redoubt. Jackson (1991) has recently re-analysed the European ceramics recovered from these sites. She reports that of the 598 vessels recovered from the five Eskimo villages, 496 (83 per cent) were cups and saucers and a further 29 (5 per cent) were associated teaware and small bowls (Jackson 1991: 285). By combining information from these archaeological assemblages with historic records Jackson was able to document in some detail the adoption of tea drinking and its associ- ated ceramic paraphernalia among the Southwestern Alaska Eskimo. The use of tea was established in the region by 1825. Its early, even immediate appeal seems to have been linked to its essential role in rituals of social encounter, beginning with native-European trade deals, then spreading to trade ceremonies between native groups and other social occasions such as weddings (Jackson 1991: 196-8). Ceramic teacups did not occur in any number until about 1860. The traditional wooden dishes used for eating were never very numerous as trees were scarce and wooden items had to be obtained in trade (Jackson 1991: 180). In these circumstances personal eating and drinking vessels were marks of

This content downloaded from 128.227.133.130 on Tue, 15 Aug 2017 05:03:15 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms Dashing dishes 287 status. To own ceramic vessels with which to serve guests tea, and to turn up at trade meet- ings or even weddings prepared with one's own teacup became a matter of pride. By 1880 ceramics had begun to appear amongst the valued prestige items placed on graves to accompany the dead to their spirit world (Jackson 1991: 207-12). The Canadian Metis are the descendants of European fur traders and native women. Although some fair skinned, educated Metis women were upwardly mobile in the sense that they were regarded as desirable marriage partners for European men, the majority of Metis found acceptance among neither parental group and gradually formed their own society centred around the town of Red River in southern Manitoba (Fig. 1). Until the end of the nineteenth century the Metis were communal bison hunters. During the summer they moved camp frequently in order to follow the bison herds and in winter came together in small villages of temporary, 'rapidly constructed cabins' (Burley 1989: 99). Excavations at five of these villages recovered surprisingly large amounts of transfer printed European ceramics (Burley 1989: 100; Burley et al. 1992: 117). A variety of vessel types were present but at all sites the majority were cups, saucers and small bowls. Despite an economic lifeway virtually indistinguishable from the plains Indian, the Metis regarded themselves as a different and separate society with a unique social iden- tity. Much of the responsibility for maintaining that identity rested with the more socially mobile women. One way Metis women asserted their unique social identity was by oper- ating an etiquette of hospitality in which all comers were welcome guests. No matter how impoverished a household, it was expected that guests be served tea using an appropriate ceramic tea service. Although the circumstances of contact are extremely different in these two examples, a similar pattern of ceramic adoption to that identified on the Northwest Coast is appar- ent. A place for European ceramics was found initially in the arena of ritual or ceremo- nial social interaction. It was adopted because it helped to make an impression in social interactions, not because it was useful in any simple functional sense.

Conclusion

The case studies discussed in this paper demonstrate the potential of the colonial period in the new world to act as a source of widely varied examples illustrating how the process of pottery adoption actually works. The fact that contact was between European new- comers and indigenous peoples does not mean that the culture changes which followed from this contact were in some way inauthentic. Because the time period is so recent and information is available from both archaeological and historic sources it is possible to understand these examples in greater detail than would normally be possible for the more distant past. The insights gained, however, can inform our interpretation of those more distant times. In particular, it is possible to observe how the social context mediates decisions on the adoption of a new item of material culture by framing what is considered useful. Use- fulness cannot be understood in simple functional terms. Just because pottery is useful as a food container, it should not be assumed that this was the only, or even the primary,

This content downloaded from 128.227.133.130 on Tue, 15 Aug 2017 05:03:15 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 288 Yvonne Marshall and Alexandra Maas reason for its adoption. In the case of pottery on the Northwest Coast, adoption into the potlatch preceded its use as an everyday domestic item. Furthermore, the reasons for its initial adoption into these ritual contexts had as much to do with aesthetic appeal as func- tional practicality. The same pattern was found among the Southwestern Alaska Eskimo and the Canadian Metis where adoption of European ceramics occurred first in the context of social rituals of tea drinking. These results suggest that models for the adop- tion of pottery which privilege the role pottery can play in mediating social interaction (Barnett and Hoopes 1995), whether it be in the context of feasting, the assertion of ethnic identity or other social interchanges, have greater explanatory power than simple functional models. Finally, contrary to conventional wisdom the role of material culture was found to be more dynamic in ceremonial contexts than in the carrying out of everyday tasks suggest- ing resistance to change is more acute in the 'habitus' of everyday life (Bourdieu 1977), than in rituals of social gatherings. One is thus led to wonder whether ceremonial con- texts might in general be more open to change than everyday practices. Certainly this would seem to be the case much more often than archaeologists commonly assume.

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Andrew Crosby and JD. Hill for their comments on an earlier draft, and the Prehistoric Ceramics Research Group for the opportunity to air some of the ideas developed in this paper at their October 1995 meeting in Oxford.

Department of Archaeology University of Southampton, UK

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