How might we use an anthropological perspective to better understand the history of British Columbia?
What is Anthropology?
Anthropology is the study of Human societies, cultures and developments over time. There are 4 main branches of anthropology archeological, biological, cultural and linguistic.
Archeological 🦴
Archeological anthropology is the study of material remains to determine an idea of the past. Material remains can consist of objects people created or modified, structures, environmental data.
Biological 🫀
Biological anthropology is the study of evolutionary using fossils, genetics and anatomy.
- Past diets
- Ancients diseases
- Migration patterns
Cultural 📚
The study of human cultures, beliefs, practices, customs, rituals and social structures.
Linguistic💬
The study of human language and how language is shaped by social interactions and cultural practices.
What is an Anthropological Perspective?
An Anthropological perspective is a method of research using an unbiased mind. While researching a different culture you need to implement Cultural Relativism which means you recognize a culture has different standards and practices and needs to be assessed by it’s own standards.
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Key Definitions
Ethnocentrism– Judging a culture based on comparison to one’s own culture.
Cultural Imperialism– The deliberate imposition of one’s ostensibly advanced cultural values on another culture
Culture Shock– Ethnocentrism can be so strong that when confronted with ask of differences of a new culture, one may experience disorientation and frustration
Cultural relativism– The practice of assessing a culture by its own standards rather than viewing it through the lens of one’s own culture
Xenocentrism– The opposite of ethnocentrism, refers to the belief that another culture is superior to one’s own
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Dig Deeper ⛏️
Aboriginal Anthropologists is changing history
History and Branches of Anthropology
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Museum Exhibit
The Museum of Anthropolgy has a huge collection of over 50,000 artifacts. Out of these artifacts we had to choose one that was from British Colombia. I choose a basket cradle from the Interior Salish (Lil’wat Nation). I choose this basket because I wanted to explore basket weaving and the many uses of cedar.
For the final product on this project we made an interactive museum exhibit in craft as a class. Each person had their own card where they would include 4 key elements.
Context and Connections: The story of your artifact and its connections to the nation.
Nation Deep Dive: Investigate the nations history and contemporary presence in B.C. to learn more about the artifact.
Anthropological Connection: The branch of anthropology that may be utilized to interpret the artifact, or how an anthropological perspective could teach us more about this nation
Interactive Element: An Interactive piece of media to enhance your learning.
We shared our classes museum with the Musuem of Anthropology as a resource that they could use. We are still waiting to hear back so I will keep you updated!!
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My Artifact
As you know the artifact I selected was a basket cradle from the Lil’wat Nation. Throughout this project I explored the history and importance of basket weaving to the Lil’wat people including their special traditional techniques that are still used to this day. I learned about how basket weaving way a form of art, a form of storytelling.
The Lil’wat baskets are woven with spruce root and red cedar root. To create decorative features they use dyed bear grass and cherry bark. Cherry bark is soaked in slough for up to a year to make it black. Lil’wat designs were typically on the upper half of the baskets. Basket weavers would use a deer bone awl to create stitches with the roots. The gathering and preparation of the needed materials was considered the hardest part of the basket weaving as it took a lot of time. Roots and bark would be stripped from trees during the spring when they were the most pliable and easy to use.
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Interactive Element
For our museum exhibit we needed to include an interactive element that would expand on the viewers learning. I decided to create an interactive journey in keynote where you would create a basket well learning about the Lil’wat nation and their traditional techniques. I tired to make it educational while also being fun.
PS: This link will only work if you have keynote downloaded on your device.
https://www.icloud.com/keynote/050-oZXEobjY3g4v_-qzFQKdQ
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Rose🌹(What I Enjoyed)
I enjoyed having a class shared craft document because I was able to see other peoples work and draw inspiration from theirs. It was a good mix of collaboration and iniduvidual work, you had enough freedom to create your own creative work but there were still enough guidelines to make it cohesive.
Bud🌱(What I could Improve on)
This project I would’ve worked on my time management. I ended up doing lots of my work on the last couple days before it was due instead of using all the time I had. I think it would have been significantly better if I had allocated 30 minutes a day to work on it + class time over the course of the whole project.
Thorn🌵 (What could have been better)
I think that if would’ve been cool if we were able to create physical displays or some form of VR display but I enjoyed how the Craft Document worked out.
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How might we use an anthropological perspective to better understand the history of British Columbia?
By using an anthropological perspective we can explore the history of B.C through the stories and past of Indigneous Nations. We can go beyond the important dates/events and explore human experiences, cultural developments and societal structures. We can use the many branches of anthropology to explore deeper into B.C’s past.
Cultural Anthropology
- Different nations knowledge and way of life through traditions, ceremonies, oral history and connections to the land.
- The impact of colonization on Indigenous cultures and how Indigneous groups adapted to and resisted these changes.
Linguistics
- The wide variety of diverse Indigenous languages over B.C.
- Understand oral traditions such as storytelling and myths.
- Language revitalization movements across B.C.
Archeological
- Evidence of human habitation from thousands of years ago.
- Culturally modified artifacts that show proof of Indigneous traditions such as Culturally modified trees.
- Indigneous structures such as totem poles and villages.
Biological
- Study of Ancient Human remains research of the diet, lifestyle and diseases before European contact.
- Investigating unmarked graves, bringing attention to the horrors of residental schools.
- Study Human migration patterns from thousands of years ago.
I hope you learned something about how we can grow in our research through using an anthropological prespective. Thanks for reading!!