Animacy and the Johnson Collection: An Exploration of Cultural and Linguistic Beliefs, Values, and Ideologies within the Context of a Basket Collection

This thesis employs an indigenous basket collection (the Johnson Collection) located at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History (NMNH), along with the original corresponding tags held at the National Anthropological Archives (NAA), as a window into examining potential cultural and linguistic animacy within the context of the Karuk Tribe in Northern California. By incorporating interviews with Karuk tribal members, the original tags, and supplemental archival texts, this thesis determines that there is evidence of cultural animacy. Linguistic animacy, on the other hand, is less obvious. Because of the fragmentary nature of archives, it is difficult to determine if there is linguistic animacy. However, it is clear that in combination with clear cultural animacy, verb-focused language demonstrates traces of personification that can be linked to linguistic animacy. The exploration of both cultural and linguistic animacy allow for continued, but broadened, discussions of archival work and language revitalization programs. By centering cultural and linguistic contexts, the importance of indigenous memory and decolonization frameworks is highlighted within museum and archival settings.