My Sisters Will Not Speak: Boas, Hunt, and the Ethnographic Silencing of First Nations Women
First Nations women were instrumental to the collection of Northwest Coast Indigenous culture, yet their voices are nearly invisible in the published record. The contributions of George Hunt, the Tlingit/British culture broker who collaborated with anthropologist Franz Boas, overshadow the intellect...
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| Format: | Text |
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ScholarlyCommons
2014
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| Online Access: | https://repository.upenn.edu/anthro_papers/170 https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1173&context=anthro_papers |
| Summary: | First Nations women were instrumental to the collection of Northwest Coast Indigenous culture, yet their voices are nearly invisible in the published record. The contributions of George Hunt, the Tlingit/British culture broker who collaborated with anthropologist Franz Boas, overshadow the intellectual influence of his mother, Anislaga Mary Ebbetts, his sisters, and particularly his Kwakwaka'wakw wives, Lucy Homikanis and Tsukwani Francine. In his correspondence with Boas, Hunt admitted his dependence upon high-status Indigenous women, and he gave his female relatives visual prominence in film, photographs, and staged performances, but their voices are largely absent from anthropological texts. Hunt faced many unexpected challenges (disease, death, arrest, financial hardship, and the suspicions of his neighbors), yet he consistently placed Boas' demands, perspectives, and editorial choices foremost. The resulting cultural representations marginalized the influence of the First Nations women who had been integral to their creation. |
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