tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6466695305125791022.post985724245663964431..comments2024-03-13T08:16:23.560-07:00Comments on Indigenous Boats: Not So ConservativeBob Holtzmanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05878339327766256094noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6466695305125791022.post-43105749277078750972010-07-26T07:44:41.399-07:002010-07-26T07:44:41.399-07:00I think also that a time-frame needs to be defined...I think also that a time-frame needs to be defined with "conservatism." The general process of "tradition" is that willy-nilly changes be flatly rejected, and other changes be considered and approved through a slow consensus. No formal vote -- it is the voluntary adoption of new things by a large part of a community. <br /><br />Now, if the physical context (environment, problems solved through technology, etc.) of an adaptation has not changed, "conservative" will mean "solutions that are still good will naturally resist change." But if the environoment changes (as the example of being forced from estuaries to beaches to make a living) then evolution is forced. <br /><br />Absent from the discussion is innovation for the social dimension: adaptations in boats to signal social status or ethnic status. In these arenas evolution and adoption of new things may proceed relatively rapidly since the artifact's adaptation to the enivronment may not have changed (boat decorations, or the style of some part of the boat that does not greatly effect air or water). <br /><br />But new environments, both social and physical, can be found simply by shifting down a coast ten miles, so the pressure against conservatism must be constant. <br /><br />The big things don't change much: the physics of wind and water, and the availability of materials. Lack of metals and some scarcity of wood (or the need to manage it closely), and the need to chase fast-moving schools of fish drove the evolution of the Pacific outrigger canoe, for example. Changing social networks after the main colonization periods drove its evolution further. The Pacific is a good place to think about conservatitism vs. innovation, especially since we have Western contact to watch what they adopted from the West and what they maintained, and what happened have natural resources were depleted, and what happened when some islands were enslaved to the global economy. <br /><br />Of course in this century, watching the use of plywood and epoxy and glass is a lesson in rapid innovation (but that is the general story of urban-industrial culture anyway, and perhaps should not come into this discussion). <br /><br />Even the Pacific has its lesson here: when sawn lumber and nails became available, the "3-board" canoe (straight sides, flat bottom) spread quickly because it was far easier to build than a dug-out and lashed hull (though the traditional designs were more hydrodynamically efficient). The 3-board canoe became the pick-up truck of the Pacific (at least in some parts, as Gary Dierking has noticed), and aesthetics and tradition were very quickly trumped by the economy of the build. <br /><br />In the field of folklore study, tradition is a primary concern (and boat building is a part of folk tradition). So I recommend readings in folkloristics where traditiona and innovation are concerned. One might start with a an article by Henry Glassie, "Tradition," in The Journal of American Folklore, dated some 10 or 15 years ago. In fact I think that entire issue was focused on tradition and innovation in folk practise.Wade Tarziahttp://www.wtarzia.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6466695305125791022.post-87085823642259915902010-07-11T15:27:54.778-07:002010-07-11T15:27:54.778-07:00I think there think a distinction needs to be made...I think there think a distinction needs to be made between conservative as resistant to change, and conservative as evolutionary change. Evolutionary change tends moves slowly.<br /><br />It is only in the last couple of centuries that we have seen rapid technical change. And it is only in the cultures that have full access to tech stuff that we see radical fast changes in watercraft. <br /><br />You can see it when you think of the fact that all boats that have been wildly successful recreationally..... non motorized types.... have their origins in non Euro/American craft. Surfboards become sailboards and beach sailors like sunfish and lasers. Dugout canoes become Peterboroughs become David Yost designs. Qajaq become plastic double paddle canoes and river runners. Bark canoes became wood canvas and then Jensens. Multihulls become Hobie cats.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com