IPSSAS
1
Amber Lincoln:
An historic collection revisited: The shifting meanings and uses of objects across British
museums and Inupiaq communities.
Abstract:
Through a case study of selected Inupiaq Eskimo communities in Alaska, my research
proposal seeks to examine the ways in which Inupiaq communities use resources created for
and/or with them by museums i.e. repatriated knowledge (Fienup-Riordan 1996, Krupnik 2002),
as a lens for tracing the shifting and multiple meanings of a collection of historic artifacts from
three British museums. In particular, I wish to explore how two Inupiaq communities use the
information/cultural knowledge tied to images of objects collected by Commander Frederick
William Beechey, Lt. Edward Belcher, and Lt. George Peard of the HMS Blossom in 1826-27.
This expedition was part of a search of the notorious Northwest Passage through the Arctic and
included other ships commanded by Commander John Franklin and Captain William Edward
Parry (Beechey 1831 and Bockstoce 1977). In exchange for tobacco, beads, and iron, the
officers traded for food, tools and clothing within the Norton Sound, Kotzebue Sound, and the
coastline from Point Hope to Point Barrow. Documenting uses of these images and information
may illuminate ways that material and visual culture contributes to Inupiaq people’s resilience
within rapidly changing climactic, political, and cultural environments and places this adaptation
within the historical context of exotic trade relations. This documentation may also reveal how a
collection of objects can influence social relations between people associated with the collection;
these relationships are both inter and cross-cultural and historical and contemporary.
Arctic Anthropology has investigated the responses by Arctic peoples to the rapidly changing
conditions surrounding them, such as climate change (Nuttall 1998, Krupnik and Jolly 2002),
cultural and political identity formations (Lee 2002, Fienup-Riordan 2000, Clifford 2004, and
Pullard 1992), and socio-economics changes (Freeman et. al. 1998, Napoleon 1991). Recent
material culture theory offers useful tools for highlighting how people use ‘things’ to explain and
understand their place within the world. Many of these studies take into account processes of
changing place and time – key factors within contemporary Arctic Anthropology investigations.
Using these bodies of literature as a departure point – Arctic resilience and adaptation, and
material culture theory – combined with fieldwork of a museum collection case study, I hope to
monitor a dialogue between the voices of the original collectors and makers, museum staff, and
source community members. At the same time expressions of use can chart political and cultural
identity-forming factors which have implications for the relationships between individuals
associated with the artifacts. This type of inquiry leads to the second aim of the project. My
investigations of the particular uses of the repatriated photos and information by individuals and
community institutions will trace continuities and transformations of object meaning both
relating to and separate from the Blossom expedition collection and will analyze the impact of
differences in generation, gender, religion, and kinds of education of the informants. I will draw
out the implications of these positions as they are infused into how community members use
these object images and information in community education, expressions of heritage,
development programs, and visual representations, which may suggests individual strategies for
coping with changing realities. Thus, the evidence gathered for this project will be a
combination of visual expressions and oral narrative.
Lincoln
Project Description
IPSSAS
2
References Cited:
Beechey, F. W., R. Bentley, and H. Colburn. 1831. Narrative of a voyage to the Pacific and Beering's
Strait, : to co-operate with the polar expeditions: performed in His Majesty's ship Blossom,
under the command of Captain F. W. Beechey ... in the years 1825, 26, 27, 28. ... Published by
authority of the Admiralty, A new . edition. London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley New
Burlington Street.
Bockstoce, J. R. 1977. Eskimos of Northwest Alaska in the early nineteenth century : based on the
Beechey and Belcher Collections and records compiled during the voyage of H.M.S. Blossom to
Northwest Alaska in 1826 and 1827. Oxford: Pitt Rivers Museum University of Oxford.
Fienup-Riordan, A., and Anchorage Museum of History and Art. 1996. The living tradition of Yup'ik
masks: agayuliyararput = our way of making prayer. Seattle: University of Washington Press.
Freeman, M., L. Bogoslovskaya, R. Caulfield, I. Egede, I. Krupnik and M. Stevenson. 1998. Inuit,
Whaling and Sustainability. London: Altamira Press.
Krupnik, I and D. Jolly. 2002. The Earth is faster now: Indigenous observation of Arctic environmental
change. Arctic Research Consortium of the United States and Arctic Studies Center, Smithsonian
Inst.
Krupnik, I., L. F. Krutak, W. Walunga, V. Metcalf, and Arctic Studies Center (National Museum of
Natural History). 2002. Akuzilleput igaqullghet = Our words put to paper: sourcebook in St.
Lawrence Island heritage and history. Contributions to circumpolar anthropology; 3.
Washington: Arctic Studies Center National Museum of Natural History Smithsonian Institution.
Lee, M. 2002. Boats and Baskets: The Yup’ik Eskimo Mingqaaq as Political Symbol. Fairbanks: 13th
Inuit Studies Conference
Nuttall, M 1998. Protecting the Arctic: Indigenous People and Cultural Survival. Amsterdam: Harwood
Academic Publishers.
Pullard, G. 1992. Ethnic Identity, cultural pride, and generations of baggage: A personal experience.
Arctic Anthropology 29: 182-91.
Lincoln
Project Description