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Postglacial Vegetation of Canada, by J.C. Ritchie

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Postglacial Vegetation of Canada, by J.C. Ritchie 324 I REVIEWS bring readers up to the present with respect to land use planning and theWhile threatened, traditional crafts demonstrate tenacious adaptabil- issues with which itis associated. For those with longer involvements ity. Sections of formica counter tops discarded after installing modern in northern affairs, it brings together a diversity of views of land use sinks are salvaged as scraping boards for cleaning sealskins. We also planning not found elsewhere. learn that extra-soft, creamy-white leather may be produced by smear- The editors have succeeded quite well in elucidating both the devel-ing pelts with “Mr. Clean.” (Ad agencies take note.) opment of land use planning and the issues that are raisedby such an Oakes’s hands-on approach results in some interesting exchanges. initiative. Younger women, she finds, fear that chewing seal hides (to prepare them for kamik production) might damage their teeth. Oakes’sof ause R.J. Payne wringer washing machine to soften soles (a technique she learned from School of Outdoor Recreation a woman from Chesterfield Inlet) is watched with keen interest. Lakehead University Another process developed by her friend in Chesterfield Inlet is Thunder Bay, Ontario, Canada revealed with the sympathetic and understated humour that pops up P7B 5EI here and there to brighten what could easily have become a comprehen- sive but lifeless report: Once the skinis pliable she dips it into a bowlof warm water mixed with FACTORS INFLUENCING KAMIK PRODUCTION IN ARCTIC a bitof salt anddish detergent,rubs theskin withlard or goose fat,wraps BAY, NORTHWEST TERRITORIES. By JILL E. OAKES. Mercury it in a plastic bag and puts it under a sofa cushion overnight. It is not Series, Canadian Ethnology Service Paper No. 107. Ottawa: Nation- certain why this is done [p. 341. alMuseums of Canada, 1987. 54 p., illus., photos. Softbound. When all is said, making kamiks is hard work-physically difficult, Cdn$4.00. time-consuming and requiring considerable skill. Meanwhile, the hunt- ing culture in which it played such an important role is under siegeby Duringthe recent Canadian International Fur Fair in Montreal, forces still largely beyond Inuit control. In Arctic Bay, for example, fashion writer Iona Monahan wrote an unusually enthusiastic column. The Nanisivick mine ships lead and zinc in early June, six to eight weeks She urged furriers to visit the McCord Museum’s new exhibit: “Ivalu before the ice normally breaks up. Early shipping speeds up theannual -Traditions of Inuit Clothing.” TheInuit, she wrote, “were centuries ice break-up, disrupting floe-edge hunting of nanvhales and seals. ahead in fur and skin design” (Gazette, 26 April 1988). Shortened ice hunting seasons reduce the need for kamiks to protect As examples of Inuit fur savvy, Monahan cites the use of dropped hunters’ feet and reduce the number and variety of skins returned to shoulders and other techniques to move seams away from areas of sewers [p. 461. stress. Designs incorporated natural qualitiesof the fur- head skin for The ability of Inuit across the Arctic to finance their hunting activi- hoods, supple shoulder and back fur to cover human shoulders, rumpsties has, meanwhile, been seriously eroded by the recent collapse of for trousers and tough leg skins to make mitts and boots. Tight stitchingworld markets for sealskins, orchestrated by “animal-rights’’ campaigners. kept out wind and water. Current fashion techniques like the alternationThe future for traditional crafts in this context is uncertain. Oakes of dark and light colours or fur worked in decorative mosaics were notes that in the late 1950s and early 1960s women began using nylon developed by Inuit seamstresses long ago. fabric for the upper portionof kamiks, to reduce their use of sealskins, Jill Oakes’s detailed monograph on skin boot production today in which were then selling for high prices in the international market. The one northern Baffin Island community shows that the survival and drop in prices after the first wave of anti-sealing protests, in 1964, evolution of traditional design and handicraft skills are influenced by a resulted in a return to sealskin uppers for kamiks. Today,“more time complex web of social, economic and environment factors. and materials are used to create exquisitely hand crafted kamiks” (p. The resettlement of Inuit in larger communities thirty years ago and 48). the availability of alternative footwear from the outside have reduced Still, Oakes ends her book with a plea for more research in the fields the need for, and sometimes the suitability of, kamiks. Meanwhile, of Inuit skin preparation, design and construction of all types of skin changing lifestyles and the possibility of wage employment redefine clothing, which “mustbe documented before they are forgotten.” Her the significance of time as a “cost” in the production (and mainte- own contribution to this recording effort willno doubt be appreciated nance) of traditional clothing. In ArcticBay, resettlement marks a clear by ethnologists, northern educators and museum curators, as suggested turning point: in her abstract. Women ten years or olderat the time of this major change in lifestyles, For less specialized readers (like this reviewer), Oakes’s book sug- remain active kamik sewers today. Younger females have grown up withgests a different order of question: are the skills she describes necessari- little interest in kamik productionskills [p. 491. ly doomed to the dustbin of history? The factors at play behind this deceptively simple statement are, as To someone raised close to the Montreal fur-garment manufacturing Oakes shows, often ambiguous. The influenceof Catholic and Angli- industry, Oakes’s description of the knowledge, skill and sensitivity can missions brings skin preparation and sewing to a halt on Sundays.with which Inuit women handle and sew furs sounds a familiar chord. But Christmas and Easter have become occasions for the production Greenlanders are now successfully producing and marketing their own and wearing of new kamiks. More significantly, resettlement changed sealskin garments. With the craft skills that Canadian Inuit women the channels through which skills are transmitted: obviously possess, surely some similar project could be initiated on Traditionally, girls were taught tosew by their mothers or grandmoth- Baffin Island? ers. Steps were demonstrated and handed to the studenttry. When to the student ran into difficulty the teacher would work over the difficult Alan Herscovici portion and pass it back to the student. Consequently,fist kamik the was 856a Bloomfield Avenue made well enough tobe worn. Today, girlsare taught in a course called Outremont, Quebec, Canada “Culture” at school. The first pair of kamiks often contain many H2 V 3S6 errors and aregenerally thrown into the garbage. Rarelydoes the student attempt a second pair [p. 471. Oakes has an advantage over earlier observers since she actually POSTGLACIAL VEGETATION OFCANADA. BYJ.C.RITCHIE. New sewed with the women whose skills she documents. Her admiration forYork Cambridge University Press, 1987. 151 p., appendix, refs., their work is apparent when she describes the subtle art of using the index. Hardbound. US$70.00. wearer’s “hand-span” to develop kamik patterns or the painstaking techniques of waterproof stitching. She comments insightfullyon why J.C. Ritchie has, in his usual clear, concise and comprehensive more difficult techniquesare sometimes avoidedby individual sewers. manner, produced a book that will anbe asset for all those involved in REVIEWS I 325 Quaternarypalaeoecology in Canada, and indeed, for many other tundra (arctic). The roles of climate (including a brief review of the disciplines and areas as well. Only a person of Ritchie’s capabilities Milankovitch model), fire, pathogens and paludification as palaeo- could undertake a project such as the postglacial history of vegetation environmental controls on vegetation history are discussed. The sec- of this large and diverse area and successfully present such a compre- tion “Problems for the Future,” although brief, raises important and hensive review. Prior myto reading this volume,if anyone had claimed significantpoints, and careful reading of thissection will provide that the postglacial vegetation of Canada could be documented in 151 direction and themes for future studies. Ritchie’s cautionary note at the pages, I would not have believed it. Although Ritchie apologizes for end of this section that “the progress of palaeoecology remains depen- not being able to cover all aspects of the postglacial vegetation in dentdetail, on the adequacy of its database” is worth emphasizing. As he he has dealt with most topics at least to the degree that the interested points out, computers and numerical methods cannot replace the long reader can follow up on the subject guided by the many references and careful analyses required for a quality database. An appendix of cited. sites used for modern pollen spectra, an extensive reference list and an Ritchie outlines at the beginning a threefold aim for the book, whichindex round out the book. he then proceeds to accomplish. The first aim, “to assemble informa- The quality of reproduction, especially the figures, is excellent. A tion on the history of the plant cover of Canada for the latestof the part few minor editing errors were noted, but these are too few to detract Quaternary - during and following the most recent major ice age,” isfrom the text. A small point concerning the term Champlain Sea on accomplished by, if nothing else, the extensive bibliography. The page 68 should be noted. Champlain Sea was the body of water that second aim, “to search for patterns of vegetation change and to evalu-occupied the depressed Ottawa-St. Lawrence Valley above Quebec ate such alternative explanations of these changes as climatic factors, City following deglaciation. The submerged areaof the St. Lawrence varied rates of species spread from Pleistocene refugia, biological Estuary and Gulf of St. Lawrence below Quebec City is termed the factors that may have controlled the spread and abundance of species, Goldthwait Sea.
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