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Documenting Maritime Folklife: An Introductory Guide
Part 1: What to Document
Material Culture
"Material
culture" refers to physical artifacts and the knowledge required for their
creation and use. These artifacts are usually the most easily identifiable
forms of traditional expression. In maritime communities, boats of all
sizes and types--from small plywood row boats to large shrimp trawlers--are
extremely
important elements of the cultural environment. In communities where builders
design and construct watercraft according to informal rules and procedures
handed down over the years, boats reflect builders' evolving solutions
to such problems as depth of water, prevailing winds, climate, availability
of construction materials, and intended uses. Due to gradual improvement
over time, many boats, such as the Apalachicola Bay oyster skiff and the
Maine lobster boat, are superbly suited to
local contexts.
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Fishing gear is another rich and significant aspect of maritime
material culture. Nets, traps, buoys, line trawls, spears, cane
poles, hooks, lures, anchors, weights, sinkers, bait bags, and
other types of equipment illustrate the methods fishermen have
developed for capturing local marine species. As with boats, fishing
gear often undergoes change over time in response to local conditions
and materials.
Shoreside buildings of all kinds, such as houses, boat shops,
boat houses, net lofts, shucking houses, and fish camps, represent
a third major category of maritime material culture. Such structures
illustrate the adaptation of traditional design and construction
techniques to a maritime environment. They also reveal local preferences
about the arrangement of interior space, and the spatial requirements
of traditional activities such as oyster shucking, net making,
and boat building. How the interiors of dwellings are arranged--the
shapes, sizes, and locations of rooms and the type and placement
of furnishings--says much about the traditional patterns people
use to order their lives.
In addition to boats, fishing gear, and houses, many other artifacts
illustrate a community's relationship to maritime culture. Thus,
decoys and blinds are used for hunting waterfowl; specific types
of boots, caps, and other items of clothing are worn by commercial
fishermen; and yard decorations consist of overtly maritime objects
such as salvaged anchors, ship wheels, hawsers, and shells. Artifacts
also include wharves and moorings, paintings and signs, half-hull
boat models used by builders to develop hull designs, and full-rigged
scale models used to decorate interiors of homes or restaurants.
All these items, from the fishing vessel to the painting of a lighthouse
on a mailbox, can reveal much about maritime culture when viewed
in relationship to other objects and human activities.
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