The Regions: North America |
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The following objects originated in North America:
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The first arrivals walked into America from northeast Asia by means of a land
bridge across what is now the Bering Strait some 30,000 years ago. Other groups
came into the continent when the seas allowed, until the ancestors of the Inuit
and Aleut groups, about 5000 years ago.
The peoples of the North Pacific Rim provided the source of native American
groups. The ancestors of the Inuit and Aleut were more closely related to the
Siberian Kamchatkans than they were to the Inca and Amazonians of South America.
Canadian Northwest coast groups went to sea for their food- salmon, whale and
seal. The first nations of the plains hunted bison seasonally and moved frequently.
The Inca knew nothing of tipis nor the Inuit of buffalo.
Natives of the Americas believe in a range of spirits - in human beings, other
animals, plants and natural phenomena (such as thunder), all requiring respect
to be paid to them. Contact with the spirit world is made by shamans or priests,
through visions. They are also the healers, possessing detailed knowledge of
medicines.
There was very infrequent contact with other continents until the Spanish arrived
in central America in 1492CE. They introduced horses into the plains of North
America and the greed for gold into Mexico and Peru. British and French contact
began 100 years later on the east coast of North America, gradually spreading
inland, while Russians and East Asians made contact in the far north.
Treaties were signed between colonists and native nations, but were broken. Numerous whole nations were wiped out by disease and warfare. Native languages were banned, beliefs outlawed, traditions despised. Nevertheless, over 500 nations remain in North America alone. Now, more than two million people are taking control of their own future, especially their own lands and resources.
The countries bordering the vast Pacific Ocean, are known collectively as the Pacific Rim. Exhibited here are objects from countries of its northern arc, as the map shows.
The peoples of these regions are separated by geographical distance, yet common elements exist. For example, the decoration in the clothing of the Ainu is similar to that of the Tlingit of northern British Columbia and south-west Alaska.
Aleut and Inuit peoples settled the upper regions of North America, travelling from Siberia in skin or wood boats. Over 8,000km separate the western Aleuts from the eastern Greenlanders, but cultural similarities span that distance. Inuit and Aleut speak closely related languages.
The Aleuts live along the Aleutian chain of Islands. The Inuit used to be called Eskimo, which is the Algonquian word for 'raw meat eaters'. Today, 'Inuit' meaning 'the people' is preferred.
The entire region was unknown to western explorers until the voyage of the Russian, Vitus Bering in 1741. Contact with western cultures intensified in the 20th century, bringing many changes to the lives of the Aleut and Inuit peoples. The nomadic way of life of hunters and fishermen was abandoned. All groups now live in permanent communities, often dependent on government benefits.
After 30 years of legal and political struggle for self-government, the vast Arctic land of the Canadian north has been returned to the sovereignty of the Inuit. Since April 1999 it has been known as Nunavut, ÔOur Land'.
The Ainu live in the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido and the island of Sakhalin. They also lived in Honshu and the Kuril Islands up to 800 years ago. Their cultural origins are unclear. Their material culture and social organisation are distinct from the Japanese.
For the Ainu, the worlds of spirit and matter exist in parallel. The Ainu believe that life force is in all things and able to travel between both worlds. Rituals for the release of this force from the material world were of great significance, the most important being the Iomante, or bear festival.
Increasing Japanese influence led to the occupation of Hokkaido in 1868, undermining Ainu cultural values. Since about 1970 this decline has been reversed. Ainu communities, of between 20-60,000 people, have been officially recognised. The items seen here were collected over a hundred years ago, when Ainu culture was under threat.
The Northwest Coast culture area extends from northern Washington State, USA, along the west coast of British Columbia, Canada, and north into southern Alaska.
Arriving in the region some 10-15,000 years ago, the coastal peoples gradually developed an economy based on fishing, hunting and gathering.
The temperate climate and high rainfall of the southern area produced great forests and varied animal life.
In the past people lived in family groups in big cedar plank houses in coastal villages facing the sea or close to the banks of main rivers. Groups were linked by canoe travel, the canoes hewn from massive cedar trunks. Cedar has always been of great significance, the wood carved into domestic and ceremonial items, and clothing and baskets woven from its soft inner bark.
A strong social hierarchy is based on hereditary chiefs, their ancestry traced back to a mythological time when people and animals were one. Today there are also elected chiefs. Each person has a place in the clan system.
What is now known as the potlatch is the occasion for ritual and ceremonial, for public display and celebration of the rights and privileges of the ruling families.
The voyages of Captains James Cook in 1776-9 and George Vancouver in 1791-5 to the Northwest Coast led to an increase in European contact. Suppression of First Nations' culture and languages and unsustainable exploitation of the region's natural resources in the 19th and 20th centuries continue to be areas of contention both in British Columbia and Canada as a whole.
The climate of the northern forests and tundra, with severe winters and short summers, is unsuitable for crop production. Caribou, moose and deer were hunted by the Athabaskan and Cree peoples. In the eastern woodlands, where the climate is less severe, village life was based on farming, mainly of maize and beans.
Until the 18th century, the Iroquois and Huron nations lived in longhouses while the inhabitants of the northern woodlands favoured domed earth-covered wigwams.
The League of the Iroquois was founded in about 1570. The related Huron groups also negotiated with the French and British colonists. Further north-east and north-west family groups formed a basis, with an emphasis on individual freedom of action. Nevertheless large assemblies occurred at least once a year for religious events and activities requiring co-operative effort, such as hunting. Chiefship was inherited by individuals in high status families.
The family was the basic social unit, with hereditary chiefs. But to organise for war and for contact with the early French and British fur traders, the Iroquois nations organised into a League and the Huron formed a loose confederation.
Diseases introduced by the Europeans, especially smallpox and influenza, nearly wiped out the population. Those who survived were confined to reservations and had to adapt to a non-traditional way of life.
Visit
the British
Museum Compass tour to find out more about Arctic North American Clothing.
The plains and prairie region of the western half of North America is a vast open landscape of grasslands and river valleys, over 2500 miles from north to south. This treeless area was subject to cold winters in the north, and was increasingly arid further south, including the hot desert area of Arizona.
The groups living in the northern plains were hunters who also cultivated. In the hot southwest people lived near the precious water-courses in permanent villages, some occupied for many hundreds of years, growing maize, beans and squashes such as pumpkin. In the area of modern-day California the heat was less severe, allowing more cultivation.
Until about 200 years ago, Plains groups spent most of the year living in buffalo-skin tipis in extended family groups. Nations such as Blackfoot, Dakota and other Siouan -speaking groups came together in greater numbers for large-scale buffalo hunts. Individuals who had shown prowess in war and amassing wealth in horses became influential, achieving status as chiefs.
With the coming of Europeans many Plains nations were moved and confined to reservations, separating communities from their homelands, hunters from their sources of food.
Peoples of the Pueblos of the southwestern desert of New Mexico and Arizona, including Hopi, Santa Clara, Jemez, Zuni, Acoma lived in villages. Decisions were made communally, guided by an elected chief or governor. They had a distinctive style of pottery, decorated with designs that have religious and ceremonial meaning.
Read
about Cook, Denny
and Dewdney who collected
these artefacts