In the spirit of engagement: memories and the sensorium in Algonquin canoe building

Thesis

This project develops cross-cultural ontologies of memory that are explored dynamically through multimodal sensory pathways. Considering the vast and varying theories on memory, the near universal adoption of storage-and-retrieval metaphors, such as the memory trace, which posits that memories are embodied ‘inside’ in our central nervous system or embedded ‘out there’ in our material environment, remains problematic. Using Material Engagement Theory (MET) as an experimental research model in cognitive archaeology, I conduct collaborative ethnographic fieldwork building birch bark canoes with the Algonquin First Nations. Together we investigate the mnemonic flow that occurs between sensing bodies and living geographies. I propose the possibility that the human mind may possess underdeveloped sensory pathways involved in the transmission of transgenerational memories and the recovery of long-lost wisdoms. I excavate the sensorium through the archaeoacoustics of forest listening to uncover the ways in which memories are deeply sedimented in the sonic worlds of nature. With the helpful concept of mimesis, this ethnography encourages multiple forms of listening, where natural sounds are fully canvased for what they are capable of teaching us about how to live. An examination of the haptic dimensions of the mocataugan (crooked knife) presents a compelling case for how material inheritances provide sensuous similarities that cohabite past and present moments of our cognitive becoming. These sensory attunements challenge the popular belief that memories are imprinted and stored. The ethnographic findings suggest ancestral memories are imminent, temporally persistent, actively participating and ready-at-hand to be enacted through our material engagements and our skillful dealings with the world. Understanding the ways traditional territory and natural resources sustain cultural memory over vast periods of time is of vital importance to the Algonquin. This research encourages us to think about how to sensibly take our place in the larger ecology of mind that sustains us and is increasingly under considerable strain.

Authors: Goldner, J

• DOI: 10.5287/ora-g7xgpayyy
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: cultural heritage; ancestral memory; material engagement theory (MET); algonquin first nations
• Subjects: Natural resources; Cognition; Memory; Indigenous peoples; Land use; Community archaeology