The Heiltsuks: Dialogues of Culture and History on the Northwest Coast (Studies in the Anthropology of North American Indians Series)

This Book is Conservatively Graded in Very Good Condition. The Dust Jacket (protected by a Dust Jacket Protector) has Very Light Shelfwear but No Tears, Creases, Stains, or Any Major Damage. The Hardcover Boards retain Sharp Corners with No Tears, Creases, Stains, or Any Major Damage. The Binding is Strong, Intact, and Undamaged. The Interior is Clean and Unmarked with No Writing, Highlighting, or Underlining and with No Tears, Creases, Stains, Mold, or Any Major Damage. The Page Edges have a Very Small, Droplet-sized Stain at the Top Edge but No Remainder Mark, Foxing, or Other Major Damage. Securely Packed and Promptly Shipped. Book Description: In an incisive and wide-ranging critique of ethnohistory and historical anthropology, Michael E. Harkin develops an innovative approach to understanding the profound cultural changes experienced during the past century by the Heiltsuks (Bella Bella), a Northwest Coast Indian group. Between 1880 and 1920, the Heiltsuks changed from one of the most traditional and aggressive groups on the Northwest Coast to paragons of Victorian virtues. Why and how did this dramatic transformation occur? Harkin answers these questions by tracing the changing views the Heiltsuks had of themselves and of their past as they encountered colonial powers. Rejecting many of the common methods and assumptions of ethnohistorians as unwittingly Eurocentric or simplistic, Harkin argues that the multiple perspectives, motives, and events constituting the Heiltsuks' world and history can be productively conceived of as dialogues, ongoing series of culturally embedded communicative acts that presuppose previous acts and constrain future ones. Historical transformations in three of these dialogues, centering on the body, material goods, and concepts of the soul, are examined in detail.