Potlatch at Gitsegukla
William Beynon's 1945 Field Notebooks
- Publisher
- UBC Press
- Initial publish date
- Nov 2011
- Category
-
eBook
- ISBN
- 9780774842501
- Publish Date
- Nov 2011
- List Price
- $39.95
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9780774807432
- Publish Date
- Jan 2000
- List Price
- $77.00
-
Paperback / softback
- ISBN
- 9780774807449
- Publish Date
- Oct 2000
- List Price
- $39.95
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Description
William Beynon was born in 1888 in Victoria to a Welsh father and a Tsimshian mother. He was an accomplished ethnographer and had a long career documenting the traditions of the Tsimshian, Nisga'a, and Gitksan. In 1945 he attended and actively participated in five days of potlatches and totem pole raisings at Gitksan village of Gitsegukla. There he compiled four notebooks containing detailed and often verbatim information about the events he witnessed. For over 50 years these notebooks have seen limited circulation among specialists, who have long recognized them as the most perceptive and complete account of potlatching ever recorded.
About the authors
Contributor Notes
Margaret Anderson is Regional Chair and Program Coordinator, Northwest for the University of Northern British Columbia, and the editor of the Tsimshian: Images of the Past, Views for the Present. Before her untimely death in 2001, Marjorie Halpin taught in the Department of Anthropology and was a curator at the Museum of Anthropology, University of British Columbia. Among her books is Totem Poles: An Illustrated Guide.
