Attribution, Continuity, and Symbolic Capital in a Nuxalk Community
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THUNDER AND BEING: ATTRIBUTION, CONTINUITY, AND SYMBOLIC CAPITAL IN A NUXALK COMMUNITY by CHRISTOPHER WESLEY SMITH B.A., University of Alaska Anchorage, 2009 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (Anthropology) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) August 2019 © Christopher Wesley Smith, 2019 The following individuals certify that they have read, and recommend to the Faculty of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies for acceptance, a thesis entitled: Thunder and Being: Attribution, Continuity, and Symbolic Capital in a Nuxalk Community submitted by Christopher Wesley Smith in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Anthropology Examining Committee: Jennifer Kramer Supervisor Bruce Granville Miller Supervisory Committee Member Additional Examiner ii Abstract This ethnography investigates how Nuxalk carpenters (artists) and cultural specialists discursively connect themselves to cultural treasures and historic makers through attributions and staked cultural knowledge. A recent wave of information in the form of digital images of ancestral objects, long-absent from the community, has enabled Nuxalk members to develop connoisseurial skills to reinterpret, reengage, and re-indigenize those objects while constructing cultural continuity and mobilizing symbolic capital in their community, the art market, and between each other. The methodologies described in this ethnography and deployed by Nuxalk people draw from both traditional knowledge and formal analysis, problematizing the presumed binary division between these epistemologies in First Nations art scholarship and texts. By developing competencies with objects though exposure and familiarity, Nuxalk carpenters and cultural specialists are driving a spiritual and artistic resurgence within their community. One example of a traditional knowledge being returned to the Nuxalk is the “carpenter’s mark,” a crease on the palms of some carpenters connecting them to supernatural events and prominent ancestors who shared this rare physical feature. Through case studies and interviews, this thesis demonstrates that 1) Nuxalk carpenters and community members build and mobilize relationships to ancestral carpenters and iconic objects as cultural and symbolic capital, 2) Nuxalk carpenters have indigenized aspects of formal art analysis in their engagements with objects and images of objects in developing connoisseurial skills that draw coequally from traditional ways of knowing and formalism and 3) the carpenter’s mark, a single transverse palmar crease, serves as a physical connection between historic and contemporary carpenters and is a vehicle for both continuity and symbolic capital. iii Lay Summary Nuxalk artists and cultural leaders in the town of Bella Coola, British Columbia, are developing methods to reconnect with objects in museums that have been absent from their community for generations. By studying images of objects available online and drawing from a variety of knowledge sources, Nuxalk people are connecting themselves and their art with well-known objects and ancestors to build recognition and status within their community. In familiarising themselves with these objects and their histories, Nuxalk members are returning forgotten traditions and ceremonies to their community to help strengthen their culture and identities as Nuxalk people. This thesis examines what that process looks like and offers insights into how the Nuxalk are building expertise in studying objects and replicating those objects to be used in their ceremonies. This process is an important step in helping the community heal by reviving Nuxalk culture and art traditions. iv Preface This thesis is an original intellectual product of Christopher W. Smith. The fieldwork discussed throughout was approved by the Nuxalk Ancestral Governance Office and by the UBC Behavioural Research Ethics Board (BREB) under the title “Nuxalk Thunder” BREB number H18-00457. v Table of Contents Abstract ......................................................................................................................................... iii Lay Summary ................................................................................................................................ iv Preface ............................................................................................................................................ v Table of Contents ........................................................................................................................... vi List of Figures ............................................................................................................................... vii Nuxalk Name Key ........................................................................................................................viii Acknowledgements ....................................................................................................................... ix Dedication....................................................................................................................................... x Introduction: The Original Masks of Snuxyaltwa ........................................................................... 1 Art, Attribution, Continuity, and the Symbolic Capital of Connection .............................. 3 Theoretical Frameworks ..................................................................................................... 5 Outcomes of Research ........................................................................................................ 6 Fieldwork, Methodologies and Positionality ...................................................................... 7 A Note on Nuxalk Naming Complexities ........................................................................... 8 Thesis Structure and Flow ................................................................................................... 9 Chapter 1: Giving Credit to the Ancestors .................................................................................... 10 The Nuxalk Nation: Four Paths, One People ..................................................................... 10 Smallpox, the Sun Mask, and Snuxyaltwa (LS) ................................................................ 12 The Sleeping Period: Suuncwmay (DS) and Willie Mack II (WMII) ............................... 17 Suuncwmay (DS) (1889-1966) ......................................................................................... 18 Willie Mack II (WMII) (1927-1974) ................................................................................. 21 Nuxalk Carpenters Today ................................................................................................. 23 Chapter 2: Nuxalk Engagements with Formal Analysis in Art and Objects ................................. 26 Formal Analysis and the Etic Gaze ................................................................................... 27 Indigenizing a Western Way of Knowing ......................................................................... 31 Case Study 1: Alklasis (PS): Claiming the Carpenters after Smallpox ............................. 32 Case Study 2: Snxakila (CT): Clearing the Path for my Name ......................................... 34 Case Study 3: Qwaxqwaxmn (AM) and Wiiqa7ay (LM): The Purpose of the Art ........... 36 Chapter 3: The Hands of Carpenters ............................................................................................. 39 Nunanta (IS): The Hands of Yulatimut ............................................................................. 40 vi Alklasis (PS): The Smell of your Blood Lineage .............................................................. 40 Wiiqa7ay (LM): Marking Connections ............................................................................. 41 Conclusion: Constructing Continuity, from Smallpox to Healing on the World Stage ......43 Works Cited .................................................................................................................................. 46 Appendix: Nuxalk Interview References ...................................................................................... 50 vii List of Figures Figure 1 The “original” masks of Snuxyaltwa. Deric and Peter Snow .............................................1 Figure 2 Map of Nuxalk Territory. Nuxalk Stewardship Office ................................................... 10 Figure 3 Snuxyaltwa (LS) lineage diagram ................................................................................... 12 Figure 4 The Nuxalk Sun mask. Jennifer Kramer ......................................................................... 13 Figure 5 Thunder Being figurine by Suuncwmay (DS), June 2016 ................................................18 Figure 6 Carpenters completing the Yaki pole and ceremonial raising, June 2018 ...................... 25 Figure 7 View of Acwsalcta entrance, October 2018 .................................................................... 25 Figure 8 Two views of Acwsalcta School art classroom, October 2018 ....................................... 27 Figure 9 Detail photo of “carpenter’s marks,” October 2018 ........................................................ 39 Figure 10 Detail photo of Wiiqa7ay’s (LM) Four Carpenters tattoo. Lyle Mack ......................... 42 viii Nuxalk