The discussion of possible "aesthetic considerations" among the Inuit in designing kayaks is interesting, and I'll jump in briefly. I offer the caveats that (a) I'm relatively new to paddling (long-time sailor), and (b) I know little about historical designs or about Inuit culture. When I was an anthropology student at UNC some twenty years ago, we spent a fair amount of time studying non-literate cultures in an attempt to determine where -- or if -- a sense of the "aesthetic" might manifest itself. I took one graduate seminar dedicated exclusively to that question. We found many examples of things that were apparently "artistic" in quality, that went "beyond pure function," and that evidently derived from some sort of aesthetic. However, in virtually each case, we were also able to explain these things in some other terms. Often, for example, the items had some "religious" purpose (in the broad sense necessary when using that word in such a cross-cultural manner), and the dedication and effort in creating the item, and the remarkably beauty of it, derived from some strongly-felt "religious" belief or concern. As I recall, we really couldn't find examples of "art" in early or non-literate cultures. We concluded (as a group -- this was a group effort [and therefore subject to many mistakes <g>]) that "art for art's sake" was a modern Western phenomenon. We attempted to pinpoint it's arrival on the scene, and picked (as I vaguely recall) the 18th Century and the arrival of the "museum" as a concept. So much of our thinking as human beings changes so dramatically coming out of the Medieval Era (and gradually through the following eras leading up to the "Industrial Era"). . . I think it's very very difficult for most of us to understand the extent of these changes. Our minds used to really focus so much on external forces, on "God", on icons of the Church, etc. Now, we are autonomous individual entities, each of us, by nature. That is a "new" thing. This involved the "separation" of many previously "unified" things -- God, certain objects (icons), our "selves," etc. Now, we think of "art." Before, we did not. My point? Um, I forget. . . I'm getting older. But seriously, I guess my point was that it may be a futile exercise to attempt to apply our modern Western concepts of aesthetics (or most anything else) to earlier Inuit culture. The circles just don't fit in the boxes. It may be that, although there are things of great beauty, things that evidence incredible human effort that would appear to have no strict "functional" basis, nonetheless these things probably had some very "real" purpose in the culture in which they were created. Finally, as an almost humorous aside, being the "good anthropologists" that were were, we concluded our studies by trying to analyze the question of whether even the contemporary Western notions of "art" -- it art for it's own sake -- were self-deceptive. Does "art" really serve a purely functional purpose even in our own culture? An economic purpose? A communicative purpose? A political purpose? This was fun, of course, but . . . being the good anthropologists that we were, we also concluded that it is not possible to scientifically study the culture that produced the scientific maxims by which the purported study is to be conducted. Like Heisenberg's molecules (or whatever they were), the very studying changes the object of the study, and at any rate it is the object that is doing the study. Therefore, no science. Sigh. Sorry for the rambling, which is arguably way off topic. I just love this kind of thing. Kayaks. They shore are purty. Mark Lane NY *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - All postings copyright the author and not to be reproduced outside PaddleWise without author's permission Submissions: paddlewise_at_lists.intelenet.net Subscriptions: paddlewise-request_at_lists.intelenet.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************
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