Subject: Re: [baidarka] Paddle making
From: boblq (boblq@cox.net)
Date: Thu Oct 07 2004 - 01:33:54 EDT
On Wednesday 06 October 2004 07:07 pm, wolfgang brinck wrote:
> --- kschmidt <kschmidt@akutan.aesd.schoolaccess.net> wrote:
> > So HOW did they do all this fancy work.... all the baidarkas I
> > have
> > seen were from post contact 1742 when the Aleuts had access to
> > steel... are there any pre contact iqyax that for certain were made
> >
> > of stone age tools exclusively?
>
> The Museum of the Aleutians in Dutch Harbor has a few kaykak parts
> that they pulled out of some caves. I don't know if they carbon dated
> them. They have two deck beams that are tenoned which means that the
> gunwales must have had mortises cut in them. Probably used the same
> mystery tool they made your wooden basket with.
>
> Wolfgang
Out from lurking I note that the mystery tool may be time.
Perhaps these folks did not have to produce a paddle in four
hours, nor a kayak in a few days. If hours were days or even
weeks then the problems are very different. Thus they may
well have used abrasion and patience to accomplish remarkable
things.
It is hard for us as moderns to appreciate the sense of time
that these people may have had. I am building a small boat
and I find that when I ignore time many alternative solutions
to problems appear. It is only when I must hurry that the space
of solutions is severely constrained.
Temporal efficiency is a demanding god.
Back to the lurk,
boblq
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