Michelle R. Munsey and Dr. Marti Allen, Museum of Peoples and Cultures
Objective
To curate an exhibit of leather goods, pottery and processed raw materials from ancient Puebloan cultures at the Museum of Peoples and Cultures (MPC). This exhibit was one discrete component of a larger umbrella project that included publishing a catalogue of the entire exhibit.
Description
Many of the artifacts from the Pectol-Lee Collection are from the Fremont Native American culture. They were an intriguing culture employing both hunter/gatherer and farming subsistence strategies who inhabited the Colorado Plateau and eastern Great Basin from approximately AD 500 through AD 1400. Aspects of this culture have been an enigma ever since they were first identified in the late nineteenth century. Some other cultures represented in this collection are the Anasazi, a contemporary neighbor of the Fremont, and the Numic speaking people (e.g. Ute and Southern Paiute) who were the later inhabitants of the lands of the Fremont and Anasazi.
I was one of two student curators who worked with the artifacts that the Pectol and Lee family discovered in the Capitol Reef region. In addition to learning the details of museum science, my responsibilities in this project were to conduct extensive research on the leather goods, raw materials, and pottery in this collection, and to participate in writing for, and publishing a catalogue of the entire Pectol-Lee collection (forthcoming October 2001). I was involved in every aspect of the exhibition design, including being responsible for writing labels for the exhibit and developing complementary educational materials.
Aims of Project—Contribution to Society
In addition to an exhibit that could be enjoyed by school children, the students at BYU and the public-at-large, there were several academic aims for this project. Several of the artifacts in this collection including a deer-head headdress, a miniature cradleboard with a clay figurine, and numerous raw materials like bundles of deer hocks, had been known about but because of the collection’s past unavailability, had been little understood. Additionally, because the artifacts that make up the collection were found by a private citizen, important details about their cultural affiliation had been lost. It was therefore an important part of my study to try to identify the culture(s) they were from.
Through an extensive research process that included studying the vast amount of data on many Puebloan cultures, detailed curatorial analysis of the artifacts themselves—including carbon dating on several of the artifacts, studying archaeological excavation reports, finding comparable materials (comparanda) in ancient and modern Puebloan material cultures, and utilizing the vast expertise of several of BYU’s faculty who specialize in these areas, I was able to determine some probable answers to my inquiries. For example, my research indicated that the miniature cradleboard with figurine, which we had carbon dated to ca. AD 1000, and which is unparalleled in the archaeological record, was indeed from the Fremont culture as suspected, and upon close examination was representative of a rare Fremont figurine type. The research also indicated that it was likely used as part of a fertility fetish in which a woman who cared for it would receive the power to conceive the child she desired.
Concerning the rare deer-head headdress, which was determined to be used as a headdress and not as a mask as previously reported, it was dated to AD 1470-1660, solving the problem of unknown cultural affiliation by placing it firmly within the later Numic population of Capitol Reef. Because of the unexpected affiliation of the Pectol headdress, and through the study of the only other known analogous headdress in the archaeological record, which was from the Fremont culture, a long, previously unrecognized tradition for this type of headdress was able to be supported. Likely the headdress functioned as one component of a larger costume which was worn as a disguise by a shaman during the hunt, and as a ceremonial costume in rituals which would bring the power of the animal upon the human impersonator.
My study of the footwear in the Pectol-Lee collection, which included the Fremont hock moccasin furthered our understanding of what is considered “typical” Fremont wear. It has been long been believed that the Fremont primarily wore the distinctive hock (i.e. the lower hind leg skin and “toes” of hoofed animals) moccasin. However, research on the collection, including a prehistoric radio carbon date of a pair of moccasins which were thought to be from the historic time period, unveiled the broader variety of footwear utilized by the Fremont. In addition, my study of the bundled hocks themselves illustrated another variety of hock moccasins which used two hocks (versus the one hock moccasin) in constructing hock moccasins.
Aims of the Project—Contribution to my Studies
This project has afforded me an unparalleled opportunity to study and gain some expertise in both ancient Native American cultures, and in the field of museum studies. I received the opportunity to gain expertise in specialized types of material culture. To my knowledge even in a graduate program in museum science, I would have received, at best, the opportunity to shadow a professional in the field. However, through this mentoring experience, I was able to gain first-hand experience and skills in all the aspects of museum studies, and curatorial publishing. I was able to learn something of balancing the vicissitudes of an interdisciplinary and collaborative long-term project. It allowed me to gain experience in handling unexpected and unforeseen problems which arose with time deadlines, money constraints, and differing viewpoints.
In short, the ORCA grant, which partly supported my living expenses, allowed me to spend countless hours on this project. Because of this effort and experience, I have received many great advantages in both the academic realm of the anthropological studies and in working with and displaying archaeological collections. I have received many skills which are already marketable in the museum field, as well as for my continuing study in graduate school. I have also been able to contribute to the public’s enjoyment of our history as well as to academia’s greater understanding of how those who came before us lived.
I wish to thank the tireless assistance of Dr. Marti Allen, Dr. Rich Talbot, Dr. Joel Janetski, Shane Baker, and Leslie-Lynn Sinkey.