Rebbelib Navigation Chart, Marshall Islands, Micronesia (Before 1892) - (48-51)

What did people rely on for orientation before printed/drawnw maps?

Oral histories, celestial alignments, patterns of use or modification to the land, etc.

What helps humans create mental maps?

Natural features, sensory cues, and narratives

How are cultural, psychological, or perceptual expressions of spatial knowledge typically passed down?

orally

Do psychological, cultural, and perceptual expressions of spatial knowledge always lead to map-making?

No

What is map making defined as?

The recording of spatial knowledge in a physical or graphical way

Before scientific instruments how did humans find their way?

Navigation and calculation by stars

What was included in star knowledge for North American groups?

Physical and seasonal location and orientation, but also served as a narrative tool for conveying cosmology

How often was star knowledge In North American cultures presented graphically?

Not often, it was quit rare

Which group is notable for their effort to produce modern visualizatinss of native star knowledge?

The Native Skywatchers program

Where is the Native Skywatchers Program based?

Minnesota

The Native Skywatchers Program is made up of what native groups?

Lakota, Ojibwe, and Dokota artists, scientists, linguists, and elders

North American star knowledge intersected the field of _________ location and __________ tradition

Physical; cultural

How does a group in australia demonstrate the use of customary knowledge for way finding?

Aboriginal Australians developed chants and songs for orientation which served as navigational aids and helped connect personal travels to the journeys of ancestral beings who shaped the land.

What is the vast interior of AUstralia called?

The Outback

What was “The Dreaming?”

Knowledge of aboriginal Australians which came from chants and songs used for orientation in the outback

What musical devices do indigenous Australian chants utilize?

Repitiona and call and response

What is the relationship between various Australian chants and their landscape?

The chants often relate specific sites they traverse to the mythic storylines which occured there (ancestral journeys)

What physical aspect helped solidify narratives of ancestral journeys and “The Dreaming” in the outback?

Physical modifications to the landscape, including rock art

Visual language on rock art in the outback meant what?

They indicated features like water holes, campsites, rivers, or areas of spiritual/ancestral power

Scientific dating of motifs from Australian rock art in the outback has shown us what>?

That these motifs have been in continual use for tens of thousands of years

Orientation tactics by aboriginal people has allowed what?

Flourish in harsh conditions of the desert by navigating to places of safety

What navigational inventions have changed how people around the world dnavigate?

Written/printed maps, compasses, sextants, or GPS

What is a Wakahuia?

Treasurebox

When is the treasure box in the art resource guide dated to?

19th century

Where was the Wakahuia in the art resource guide from?

The Maori people in New Zealand

What are Wakahuia’s use for?

Hold treasured items of persona;l adornment, but also believed to contain spiritual power

Oceania is divided into what regions?

Polynesia, Micronesia, and Melanesia

The Pacific Ocean World is made up of what?

Thousands of islands across millions of sq miles of water

Occeanic art encodes __________ __________, serves ______________ and __________ functions and imbues ___________ of daily use with utility and beautify

Social relations; religious; ceremonial; objects

What does the modern west define art as?

Something set aside for aesthetic contemplation

Which art historian wrote about how Pacific art suggests effective action over the West's visual communication?

Nicholas Thomass

What did Nicholas THomas write about Pacific and Western art?

“Art forms were usually not looked at with the kind of detached contemplation that seems to characterize the Western viewer’ss observation of works in art museums… Pacific art suggests that effective action was and is more important than visual communication.”

The Rebbelib Navigation chart was made when and where?

Marshall Islands, Micronesia, before 1892

How does the Rebbelib Navigation Chart exemplify the idea that Pacific art was largely utalitarian?

It encodes a mental map which allows a navigator to take effective action.

Why can’t the navigational message of the Rebbelib Navigation Chart be effetively communicated?

Only the family of navigator swhich made it understand the message

The arrangement of shapes in the Rebbelib Navigation Chart is _______ and _________

Intriguing and pleasing

The rebbelib navigation chart demonstrates __________ and ___________ specific wayfinding

Culturally and personally

How does the navigation chart differ in its wayfinding from western forms of wayfinding?

It is culturally and personally specific rather than more generalized like the West's methods

Where are the marshal Islands located?

Micronesia

When were the Marshall Islands likely settled?

1300 BCE

Where did migrants to the Marshall Islands come from?

Mainland Southeast Asia from the west and polynesia from the east

What is an aje?

Drum

Where and when is the Aje depicted in the art resource guide from?

Marshall Islands, 19th century

What are aje used for?

Ceremonial drums [played by women to accompany men in their dances

What is the most dominant force on Marshallese ;life?

The Ocean

What form of hunting is important for survival in the Marshall Islands?

Fishing

Prehistoric settles from Southeast Asia brught what with them?>

Domesticated plant and animal species

What are examples of plants and animals brought to the Marshall Islands prehistorically?

Coconuts, breadfruit, poultry

Since when have oceanic cultures been increasingly impacted by colonialism?

18th century

What was early contact between oceania and colonial powers marked by>?

Conflict, including transportation of Marshallese populations for enforced labor

Where were many Marshallese laborers taken to?

Hawaiian plantations

When were many Marshallese populations transported for enforced ,abor?

Late 19th century

When did the Marshall Islands come to be part of the german empire?

1885

After what year were the marshall islands under Japanese speheres of influence?

1914

When did the Marshall Islands come to be under the influence of the US?

After ww2

What was the WW2 era like for Marshall Islands?

It was marked by military occupation and nuclear testing by the US

When did the Marshall Islands gain independence?

1979

What is the full name of the marshall islands as a nation?

The Republic of the Marshall Islands

What is the population of the marshall Islands?

A little more than 42,000 people

When is the mattang chart in the Art Resource guide dated to?

1920s

What groups of people are noted for collecting oceanic art in the stages of early contact?/

European travelers, traders, and ethnographers

What cultures were collected by Europeans early on?

Maori, papuan, and Polynesian

As early as when did we tern consumers begin targeting oceanic art?

1770s

How does Micronesia compare to Polynesia and Melanesia?

It has less natural resources, so it has more utalitarian art

Why was micronesian art not collected as much by Europeans?

They lacked art which was made for aesthetics, favoring/being limited to utalitariana rt

What category of art from the Marshall Islands is seen in museums worldwide?

Navigation stick charts

Micronesia is made up of how many square miles of land?

1050 square miles

Micronesia is made up of how many square miles of ocean?

2.9 million square miles

What percentage of the Marshall Islands is made up of water?

98%

How many major islands make up the Marshall Islands?

5 major islands

How many atolls make up the marshall islands?

29

In the Marshall Islands how many canoes outrigger canoes were in a fleet?

25-30 outrigger canoes

Master navigators saile what a canoe by what name?

Pilot vessel

W@hat did the Pilot vessel do?

Lead the way for other boats in the flotilla

How many major clusters are there in the Marshall Islands?

Two

What major island cluster lies to the west in the Marshall Islands?

Ralik Chain

What major island cluster lies to the east in the Marshall Islands?

Ratak chain

Why is it especially hard to navigate in the Marshall Islands?

The 2 major island clusters are low-lying and hard to see, and there's no noteworthy landmarks to use

Have master navigators shifted to new technological instruments?

No

What do Master navigators rely on for navigation?

the form and rhythm of ocean swells, the behavior of land-based birds, the movement of clouds and colors over land, and currents and their aptterns

Being a master navigator is exclusive to who?

Males

What characteristics are needed to eb a successful Marshallese navigator?

Strong leadership, quick decision making, and excellent memory

How did elite families develop and exercise the required knowledge for navigation?

They made and passed down the secrets of navigation with stick charts

What were Marshallese stick charts made of?

Cowrie shells, and dried midribs of coconut fronds, all bound together with natural fibers

What are Mattang charts?

They are diagrams used to teach young navigators about the dunung and how they radiate from islands

What are the most basic teaching tool young navigators learn with?

Mataang charts

What are dunung?

Swell patterns

The mattang charts teacch elementary principles of how to do what?

Feel vibrations thru the boat hull and how to use them to guide the boat towards an unseen island

What are Meddo Charts?

They represent small clusters of islands and their dunung patterns, used for local navigation

What are rebbbelib charts?

They represent large areas, typically the entire Marshall archipelago, and are used for understanding how swells intersect and how winds and currents guide travelers across long distances

What are rebbelib charts also called/

Rebbelith

When was the Meddo chart in the Art resource guide dated to?

1920s

The background grid in rebbelib charts provide what?

A stable framework

What do the bent sticks represent in rebbelib charts?

Wind or water currents

What do the shells in rebbelib charts represent?

Specific islands

How does the spacing between shells on rebbelib charts relate to real life?

It doesn't, the spacing and relative position of islands is not related to actual position in real life

Rebbelibs are __________ representations of mariners knowledge

Schematic

What did micrnesian navigators create rebbelib charts to do?

Support the crucial activities of fishing, traveling, trading, provisioning, or making political/familial connections

Why didn't navigators take their charts on canoes with them?

They were seen as bad luck to take the chart out to sea, as it called into question the navigators knowledge and abilities.

How did the makers of these charts reinforce their knowledge?

They felt the charts curves and recited information about what they represented