Our Box Was Full: An Ethnography for the Delgamuukw Plaintiffs by Richard Daly

Abstract

OUR BOX WAS FULL: AN ETHNOGRAPHY FORTHEDELGAMUUKWPLAINTIFFS by RichardDaly University of British Columbia Press,Vancouver, 2004. Illustrations, maps, notes, bibliography, index. 400 pages. $85.00 cloth, $29.95 paper. RICHARD DALY, an independent anthro pologist living inNorway, gave themost ex tensive ethnological expert opinion regarding Aboriginal rightsand titleever heard before a Canadian court in the landmark case known as Delgamuukw (decided in 1997). This evidence was given on behalf of theheads of theGitksan house chiefs and members. This FirstNation, togetherwith the neighboring Witsuwit'en, began tonegotiate a comprehensive land claim in 1977 and, making no progress, entered into the litigation process in 1982.Daly began his work in 1986,with a particular focus on the oral traditionsof thecommunity.Our BoxWas Full ishis expert report together with a preface, introduction,and epilogue thatplace thereport in context,particularly theproduction of eth nological knowledge under the conditions of litigation. In this,Daly ismarvelously candid and thoughtful,and his isperhaps the clearest statement inprint of the issues facing anthro pologists engaged in legal testimony. The ethnographic study itself, which com prises thebody ofOur BoxWas Full, is situated within thefield of hunter-and-gatherer studies and the literature on gift-exchangesocieties.Daly takes the position that "hunter and gatherer," the termoften applied topeoples of theNorth PacificCoast, isa condition or enterprise within a variety of social formations,and he develops and uses a relational approach rather than rely ingon essentialized categorizing.His argument is thatthisapproach allows forthe studyof the penetration of capital into indigenous societ ies.Notably, it ishis contention that it is not New Edition of 1994Oregon Book AwardWinner StubbornTwig Three Generations in theLife ofa Japanese American Family By Lauren Kessler This book is a living work of social history that rings with the power of truth and the drama of fiction. The story of the Yasui family from the patriarch's 1903 arrival in the United States through WWII internment and beyond speaks to both the promise and the peril of America. The new edition's preface, reading group questions, and interview with Homer Yasui help teachers, students, and individual readers explore this difficult, but ultimately triumphant, story. 398 pp., 27 photographs, $25.00, paper Available at theOHS Musuem Store or order from theOregon Historieal Society Press -*> Classroom sets available Oregon Historical Society Press 1200 S.W. Park Avenue Portland, Oregon 97205 press@ohs.org 503-306-5233 Distributed by theUniversity of Washington Press 156 OHQ vol. 107, no. 1 axiomatic that simple entities,such as foraging societies,become culturallyobliteratedwhen en countering more complex ones, such as capitalist statesocieties. More generally, he argues against a "simple-complex" distinction.This is important because itunderlies his view that theGitksan andWitsuwit'en social systems,particularly the chiefly andHouse systems, have persisted and are relevant to thepursuit of land claims. Daly writes that the House crest stories, orat ed forthe trialby thosewith thehereditarypre rogative,constitute an overlapping web? and hence a systemof social relations ? over the area of thosewho mutually participate in cer emonial feasting.The feasts systemdepends on a systemof intentional "misrecognition"which obscures thepolitical calculations beneath the ceremony and the respect relations (p. 34). Fur ther,the feast system engages a code of honor and subsequent challenges tohonor,which cre ate and contest symbolic capital and allows fora formofdomination without physical coercion. Inmaking his case about Gitksan society,Daly provides an example of a totem-pole raising feast, which isparadigmatic of social relations between matrilineal kin groups. This discussion of gift-giving and Bourdieui an social capital allows Daly to argue thathis expert testimonyand the subsequent book, Our BoxWas Full, are formsof gift-giving. His testi mony, he says,giftedthepublicwith information, ideas,and relationships, but therecompense isof a delayed nature. Seen from another angle, the contents ofOur BoxWas Full were given to the courtbut returnedunopened by a trialjudgewho was unable to grasp themeaning of the contents. Bywriting this book, he hopes, thering might not be broken and a community of understanding might yet emerge. The epilogue is itselfa box of treasures.Daly writes thatthetwodecades afterthetrialprocess began have yielded unproductive treaty talks, and the pattern of removal ofwealth (in the form of natural resources) fromGitksan and Witsuwit'en territory continues. Meanwhile, the litigationprocess has changed perceptions such...