SOCKETED HARPOON HEADS FROM THE NORTHWEST COAST ALAN LEWIS HOOVER B.A., Simon Fraser University, 1968 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF MASTER OF ARTS 0 f Archaeology @ ALAN LEWIS HOOVER, 1974 SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY November 1974 All rights reserved. This thesis may not be reproduced in whole or in part, by photocopy or other means, without permission of the author. APPROVAL Name : Alan Lewlq. Hoover Degree : Piortar of Art8 Title of Therir: Sa8cketodBarporn Headr Prom th. Northat Coart ' Roy L. Carlron Ian Whitaker r External Examiner Professor Department of Sociology and Anthropology Simon Fraror Univerrlty ABSTRACT This thesis examines a number of ethno~raphicallycol- lected socketed harpoon heads and valves from the Northwest Coast. The aim of this thesis is to discover correlations between the formal attributes of harpoons and recorded func- tion. One hundred and twenty-seven specimen8 from the British Columbia Provincial Museum in Victoria, the National Museum of Man in Ottawa and the Museum of Archaeology and Ethnoloay at Simon Fraser University in Burnaby were examined and recorded. The methodology involved first of all establishine a standard- ized terminoloey for socketed harpoon heads and their consti- tuent parts. This terminology was then applied to the des- criptions of harpoon heads found in the ethnographic literature. Once the morpholoeical-functional types had been defined for the various groups, extendine from the Coast Salish in the south to the Tlingit in the north, the typology was ap~liedto the data in order to specify the formal attributes of the pre- viously defined types, or, conversely, to modify and redefine those types presented in the literature on the basis of the substantive data. Three morphological-functional types were defined, The first of these types is the salmon harpoon head. This type includes four subtypes, all of which are specifi- cally associated with one or more cultural eroups. The second type is the small sea mammal head used historically by the Coast Salish and Nootkan, and probably by some Kwakiutl groups, although no examples of this type attributed to the Kwakiutl iii are present in the data. The third type is confined to the Nootkan proups of Vancouver Island and the Olympic Peninsula. It was used to harpoon both whales and sea lions. The results of this study will provide investigators workina with ethno- graphically collected socketed harpoons in museum collections a substantial comparative body of information on which to base attributions of provience and function, as well as to provide archaeologists working on the Northwest Coast with a sound typolow on which to base attributions of' function usine the method of ethnographic analogy. ACKNOWLEDGEVENTS I would like to express my a~preciationto Vr. Dennis Alsford and Ms. F. J, Patterson of the Ethnology Division, National Museum of Man, Mr. Peter L. Macnair of the Ethnoloqr Division, British Columbia Provincial Museum, and Dr. Roy L, Carlson of Simon Fraser University for permitting me to work with the har~oonsheld in their collections. I would also like to express my thanks to Mr. Gordon Hanson, Mr. Tom Loy, and Mr. Bjorn Simonsen for their time discuss in^ with me the problems faced in this study. I would also like to thank Dr. Roy L. Carlson and Professor Philip Me Hobler for their assis- tance in the preparation of the thesis. Special thanks to Ms. Leni Hoover who drew the illustrations. I would also like to thank ~imonFraser University for providing me with a Graduate Student Stipend, summer semeater 1970. TABLE OF CONTENTS CHAPTER I Introduction wewwweeweee~w~~~ee~~wewwwwe1 Aims and Scopes of Thesis ewwww~e.www.ww 4 Account of Specimens Used ,. ., .. .,.., .., 4 CHAPTER I1 Terminology e,ww,..ww.wew.e~ewee...... 6 CHAPTER I11 Ethnographic Review wee.wew..wwe.e.e.w,el~ CHAPTER IV The Dataw.e.ee.e.ee..weeeeeweeewweee....~4 CHAPTER V CO~C~US~O~S...~~.~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ LIST OF REFERENCES .eweeewe.eeee*.e.e*e*~e~..weeewee201 APPENDIX A we*e**,www*wm*w*e***ewwwee*wewewwew*e'wwew207 APPENDIX B w,e*w***eewewwaww*ee*weeeewwwe*e*ee.*wwee295 LIST OF TABLES Table I Socketed Head Distribution. Northwest Coast ... 99 Table I1 Socketed Heads. Valve Attributes .............100 Table I11 Type I1 Arming Element. Lanyard. and Functional Attributes ........................107 Table IV Subtype Ia ...................................110 Table V Subtype Ia. Coast Salish .....................111 Table VI Subtype Ia. Nootkan .......................... 112 Table VII Subtype Ia. Northwest Coast General ..........113 Table VIII Subtype Ia'. Haida ..........................4 Table IX Subtype Ic. Haida ............................115 Table X Subtype Id. Haida ............................116 Table XI Subtype IIa ................................. -117 Table XI1 Subtype IIa. Coast Salish ....................118 Table XI11 Subtype IIa. Nootkan .........................119 Table XIV Subtype IIa. Northwest Coast General ......... 120 Table XV Nootkan 'Whaling-Type' Heads ................. 121 Table XVI Nootkan 'Whaline-Type' Specimens Documented as Sea ion Heads or Valves. .... ...I22 Table XVII Nootkan 'Whaling-Type* Specimens Documented as Auxiliary Whalinp Heads ........123 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 Schematic illustrations of harpoon head tmes and subty~es.including arming element attributes...... 126 2 Schematic illustration of valve attributes... ...... 128 3 Schematic illustration of tanged head lanyard attachment attributes ...........e............eeee.. 130 4 B,C.P.lr(. 2435b. subtype Ia head .................... 132 5 N.M.M. vII-X-192(1) and (2). subtype Ia heads ...... 134 6 B.C.P.M. 1458. subtype Ia' head .................... 136 7 N.M.P.-B. subtype Ib head .......................... 138 8 B.C.P.M. 9816a and b. subtype Ic heads and Foreshaft for 9816b .................e..........e... 140 9 B.C.P.M. 1459(1) and (2). subtype Id heads ......... 142 10 B.C.P.M. 2418. aubtype IIa head .................... 144 11 N.M.M. VII.F.154. subtype IIa valve ................ 146 12 BoCeP.M. 1233-1 and 09. subtype IIa arm in^ elements.. ..........~................e..e.ee..e..e. 148 13' N.M.M. vII.F.156. subtype IIa valve ................ 150 14 B.C.P.M. 2197. subtype IIa head .................... 152 15 B.C.P.M. 11540. subtype IIa head ...............,.,, 154 16 BoCePmM* 11209. subtype IIa valve .................. 156 17 B.C.P.M. 14178. type I1 head ....................... 158 18 B.C.P.M. 11202(3). type I1 head .........e.....e.... 160 19 B.C.P.M. 11202(b). type I1 head. ................... 162 20 N.M.M. VII-F-384 and vII-F-684 ..................... 164 21 B*C*PoM 134Om~.e.~~m~em~~m~e~~e~~~~e~em~~m~~emem~166 viii 24 N.M.M. vII.F.419. type I11 head .................. 172 25 B.C.P.M. 1224. type I11 head ...................,. 174 26 B.C.P.M. 2196. type I11 head ..................... 176 27 B.C.P.M. 9769. type I11 head ..................... 178 28 B.C.P.M. 2190. type I11 head ..................... 180 29 B.C.P.M. 10689. type I11 head .................... 182 30 N.V.M. VII.F.CO. type I11 head ................... 1@4 31 B.C.P.M. 10064a and b. ty~eIIX valves ........... 185 32 B.C.P.M. 11461 (1) and (2)' type 111 valves ...... 188 33 B.C.P.M. 2194. type 111 valve air ............... 190 34 B.C.P.M. 2195a and b. type 111 ('1 valves ........ 192 35 Schematic illustration of subtype Ia and subtpe Ia' valves .......................................194 36 B.C.P.M. 14177. subtype IIa head .................. 196 37 N.M.M. V11.B.556. tanged head ...................,. 19P 38 N.M.M. VII-937. taneed head ....................... 200 INTRODUCTION Aims SCOD~of ThU The aim of this thesis is to construct a typoloey for one hundred and twenty-seven ethno~raphicallycollected, socketed harpoon heads from the Northwest Coast. The typol- o~ywill attempt to discover correlations between the for- mal attributes of harpoon heads and recorded function. Secondly, it is hoped that the typoloay can be refined so as to reflect spatial differences within and betmen types, thus specifying metric and formal difference8 between, for example, Nootkan and Coast Salish salmon harpoon heads. The result of constructing a classification that reflects the functional types recognized by the native craftsman and hunters will be to provide the archaeologist with a sound basis for using ethnographic analogy in the attribution of functional use to archaeologically recovered harpoon heads or harpoon head parts. The archaeologist has available in the archaeological record only formal attributes of the artifacts and their con- textual associations. Often the latter are minimal or com- pletely absent. Although it is possible to assign a general functional label to an artifact on the basis of siee, shape, and material, this procedure, the common sense approach, is open to the trap of ethnocentrism. The most widely used and accepted method of identifying and interpreting archae- ologically recovered artifacts is ethnographic analogy (Anderson 1969: 1381 Ascher 19618 3171 Chana 19678 2291, Though analogy operates on two levels, the focus of inter- est herein is analogy at the level of the discrete object, the problem of artifactual identification, rather than anal- ogy at a higher level of abstraction (Chang 19671229; Thompson 19588 5; Watson et a1 1971 1 501, Analogy involving the functional identification of archaeolo~icalartifacts is a deductive argument in which the major premise is an assumption based on ethnographic information (Tuggle et a1 197284).