Gods, Goods and Big Game: The Archaeology of Labrador Inuit Choices in an Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Mission Context Beatrix Joy Yvonne Michelle Arendt Charlottesville, Virginia B.A. Anthropology and Art History, Emory University, 1999 M.A. Anthropology, University of Virginia, 2006 A Dissertation presented to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Virginia in Candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Anthropology University of Virginia December 2011 ii © Copyright by Beatrix Joy Yvonne Michelle Arendt All Rights Reserved December 2011 iii Abstract This archaeological project investigates the long-term economic and social impact of German Moravian missionaries on Labrador Inuit culture, by exploring changes in eighteenth-and nineteenth-century Inuit material culture and architecture near the mission town of Hopedale, Labrador. My analysis archaeologically examines three sites in northern Labrador region that include Adlavik, a mid-eighteenth century Inuit sod house settlement, Anniowaktook, a late eighteenth century Inuit settlement, and the Inuit village associated with the mission at Hopedale, Avertôk. The research draws together archaeological, faunal, and ethnohistorical data to define changes in Inuit economic and subsistence strategies. This research examines whether changes to Inuit domestic space, subsistence practices, economic structures, and religious traditions during the Moravian period were due in part to earlier eighteenth-century organizational patterns. This dissertation evaluates the hypothesis that the Moravians disrupted an earlier Inuit social organization where Inuit leaders who could both trade with Europeans and coordinate local hunting groups experienced greater accessibility to desired trade goods. By offering Inuit easier access to desirable resources including European goods, the Moravians were able to challenge existing Inuit authority. Excavated Inuit sod houses were differentiated according to artifacts related to trade, hunting, and domestic production; however the lack of a marked differentiation between households with respect to the abundance of valued goods suggest that Inuit settlements followed a more egalitarian organization based on a division of labor. iv Further, the Moravian missionaries employed a systematic strategy that included economic and social variables towards changing Inuit perception associated with appearances, healing, taboos, and the role of the shaman. This study demonstrates that the process of culture change involves bilateral influences leading to the reorganization of Inuit society after the arrival of the Moravians, including Inuit adaptation and missionary coercion. v In memory of my uncle, Wolfram Rüdiger Arendt, who passed away before defending his thesis. vi Table of Contents Abstract iii Dedication v List of Figures vii List of Tables xiii Acknowledgements xv Chapter 1: Identifying Missionary Influence on Native Societies 1 Chapter 2: Early Inuit Predecessors for the Development of Social Organization 25 Chapter 3: First Contact: Europeans in Labrador 70 Chapter 4: The Moravian Church in Europe and Labrador 107 Chapter 5: Identifying Social Influence in the Moravian Documents 151 Chapter 6: Introduction to the Sites: Avertôk, Adlavik and Anniowaktook 193 Chapter 7: Inuit Material Culture and the Definition of the Artifact Categories 263 Chapter 8: Locating Evidence for Inuit Social Organization in the Material Remains 316 Chapter 9: Conclusions and Future Research 365 Appendix A: The Hopedale Archaeology Project 380 Appendix B: Explanation for the removal of Anniowaktook House 3 and the Avertôk houses from the correspondence analysis 404 Appendix C: Faunal Data 414 Bibliography 424 vii List of Figures Figure 2.1: Summary of cultural phases of house styles, the appearance of snow house villages, and harpoon heads of the Thule. 30 Figure 2.2: Plan map of Oakes Bay 1. 51 Figure 2.3: Plan of Uivak Point 1. 53 Figure 2.4: Plan of Eskimo Island 1 and 2. 57 Figure 2.5: Plan of Eskimo Island 3. 60 Figure 4.1: The Moravian settlement at Hopedale founded in 1782 (print 1791). 127 Figure 4.2: Chart of the richness scores, or number of different types of goods imported for sale in the trade store from 1788-1823. 132 Figure 4.3: Graph of Hopedale and Avertôk population. 142 Figure 5.1: Richness scores of the food category from the trade lists from 1788 through 1804. 159 Figure 5.2: Richness scores for the hunting category at the trade store from 1788 through 1804. 160 Figure 5.3: Richness scores of the hunting category from the Trade and Missionaries’ Lists. 161 Figure 5.4: Richness scores for the manufacturing category at the trade store from 1788 through 1804. 164 Figure 5.5: Richness scores of manufacturing from both the Trade and Missionaries’ List. 165 Figure 5.6: Richness scores for the clothing category at the trade store from 1788 through 1804. 166 Figure 5.7: Black and white photograph of four Christian Inuit women and a child. 169 Figure 5.8: Color postcard of a “heathen” Labrador Inuit woman in traditional clothing. 170 Figure 5.9: Richness scores for imported items from the Missionaries’ Lists from 1782 through 1813. 176 viii Figure 5.10: Linear regression of richness scores of the Missionaries’ List from 1782 through 1813 with the three periods identified. 177 Figure 5.11: Richness scores for the food category from the Missionaries’ Lists from 1782 through 1813. 182 Figure 5.12: Richness scores for the clothing category from the Missionaries’ Lists from 1782 through 1813. 188 Figure 5.13: Richness scores for the writing category from the Missionaries’ Lists from 1782 through 1813. 189 Figure 6.1: Junius Bird’s plan drawing of Avertôk including all excavated and unexcavated houses. 197 Figure 6.2: Photograph of three unexcavated sod house remains at Avertôk. 204 Figure 6.3: Photograph of the excavation of the large midden in front of a large sod house. 205 Figure 6.4: Map of Labrador with site locations and Hamilton Inlet. 207 Figure 6.5: Plan of sod house settlement on Anniowaktook Island with test units from 2007. 208 Figure 6.6: Plan drawing of Anniowaktook House 1. 213 Figure 6.7: Outline of a Avertôk sod house drawn by medical doctor Eliot Curwen who visited Hopedale in 1893. 214 Figure 6.8: Pie chart of botanical remains found in Anniowaktook House 1. 216 Figure 6.9: The Anniowaktook House 1 midden excavation in 2008: a 2 x 2 m unit excavated directly outside of House 1’s entrance tunnel. 216 Figure 6.10: Plan drawing of Anniowaktook House 4. 218 Figure 6.11: Profile of the west wall of House 4 at Anniowaktook Island. 220 Figure 6.12: Pie chart of botanical remains found on the sleeping platform at Anniowaktook House 4. 221 Figure 6.13: Unit N1E2. Floor of Anniowaktook House 4. 221 ix Figure 6.14: Possible lamp stand and hearth located in unit N4E1 of Anniowaktook House 4. 222 Figure 6.15: Hopedale student James Karpik holding a soapstone lamp fragment found inside a House 3 on Anniowaktook Island. 224 Figure 6.16: Map of Labrador coast with the location of Adlavik encircled in red. 226 Figure 6.17: Plan drawing of Adlavik by S. Loring and L. Rosenmeier. 227 Figure 6.18: Plan drawing of Adlavik House 1. 230 Figure 6.19: Entrance tunnel into Adlavik House 1 facing north. 231 Figure 6.20: West profile of the Adlavik House 1 midden. 232 Figure 6.21: Plan view of the shell midden in Adlavik House 4. 234 Figure 6.22: Screenshot of Context Form from Access database. 236 Figure 6.23: Screenshot of the Artifact Table from the Access database. 236 Figure 6.24: A collection of beads from the Adlavik assemblage. 244 Figure 6.25: 95% confidence intervals for mean ceramic dates for house deposits. 254 Figure 6.26: 95% confidence intervals for mean ceramic dates at midden deposits. 255 Figure 6.27: Occurrence seriation of four house deposits. 256 Figure 6.28: Occurrence seriation of the six midden deposits. 257 Figure 7.1: Example of a soapstone pot form Avertôk House 6. 270 Figure 7.2: Example of a soapstone lamp from Avertôk House 1. 272 Figure 7.3: Examples of a soapstone toy lamp from Adlavik House 1, and toy pots from Adlavik House 4. 273 Figure 7.4: Example of a child’s snow knife made out of baleen from the Avertôk midden. 273 Figure 7.5: Fragment of a small ulu knife with bone handle and iron blade Anniowaktook House 4 midden. 274 x Figure 7.6: Sewing implement or possible thimble guard found in Anniowaktook House 1 midden. 276 Figure 7.7: Image of a needle case and accessories from the Nunavut Inuit. 276 Figure 7.8: Lead ulu pendant found in the entrance tunnel of Anniowaktook House 4. 277 Figure 7.9: An example of a nail pounded into a harpoon head from Anniowaktook House 4. 283 Figure 7.10: Examples of iron forms cut from strap metal or sheet metal from Adlavik House. 286 Figure 7.11: Example of a whale bone snow knife from the midden of Anniowaktook House 1. 289 Figure 7.12: Example of a collection of bone artifacts. Example of a collection of bone artifacts, including a (1) handle to a man’s knife, (2) a toggle, (3) a wound plug, (4) a harpoon head, and (5) a game piece or pendant from Adlavik House 1. 289 Figure 7.13: Lead fishing weights or possible parka trim from Adlavik House 1 and House 2. 290 Figure 7.14: Slate harpoon head from Anniowaktook House 4. 290 Figure 7.15: Feature 1 on the sleeping platform in Anniowaktook House 1. 296 Figure 7.16: Normandy stoneware fragments found on rock located approximately 100 meters east of a cave burial on Anniowaktook Island. 299 Figure 7.17: Photograph of an Inuit woman smoking a pipe.