A survey of traditional systems of boat design used in the vicinity of Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, and Hardangerfjord, Norway

Abstract

This work is an analysis of traditional systems of boat design employed by boatbuilders in two North Atlantic regions—Trinity Bay, Newfoundland, and Hardangerfjord, Norway. It present two case studies that apply an ethnographic approach to the study of boat design. Though covering basically the same analytical terrain, each case study offers different insights into the process of design. -- Preliminary sections provide the social, historical, economic, andenvironmental contexts of the study areas, discuss categories of builders, and examine the most significant changes influencing boatbuilding in the past 100 to 150 years. These are followed by the core sections of the work which explore a variety of topics relative to the design process, including design conceptualization, translation cf design from mental image to physical form, the use of devices and measurements to control form, the relationship between form and function, and the dynamic interplay between ba-itbuilders1 need for self-expression and their desire to conform to tradition. -- This study calls for greater attention to the process of design in material culture studies. Furthermore, it argues that basic emic concepts that define the essence of the forms of boats and other cultural artifacts can be perceived through systematic analysis of a range of data, including the physical properties of the artifact, verbal statements of artifact makers and users, documents, and observation of an artifact1 s design, construction, and use.