Page 123 - J. C. Turner - History and Science of Knots

112 History and Science of Knots

ship manuals for a number of reasons . Just like everything else at sea one has
to save expensive rope, since it quite obviously is not an immediately replen-
ishable resource . In the aftermath analysis of a dangerous situation apparently
trivial things get consideration and nomenclature to describe them is gener-
ated. Eventually all of this hard-gained knowledge ends up in the literature
where it hopefully will be studied by aspiring Mariner officers. This process
implements the essential parts of the propagation of technological knowledge
on the Mariner 's scene. Conservative maritime traditions comprise the rele-
vant parts of that social group's cultural identity. This results in a relatively
fixed set of solutions to the rope problems which Mariners encountered.
Mariners are introduced for a number of reasons . They are representative
of an Occidental group having many aspects, in a knotting context, in common
with the Inuit. Shared elements cover the sea, their states of relative isolation
which result in the necessity to be thrifty with resources, and lastly their
frequent confrontation with rope problems and knottable media, though they
differ mainly in a materialistic manner. This discrepancy manifests itself in
the varying knotting techniques , but the basic thinking required in the solving
of the rope problems encountered is maintained . It will become evident that,
in an abstract sense, many ideas from both groups are equivalent solutions.

Some Arctic Knot History

The Inuit were among the last of Stone Age peoples. Understanding their
use of knots would greatly benefit from comparison with those used by other
Stone Age peoples. Hence it would be obvious to gather knot-knowledge about
other known prehistoric peoples all over the world and attempt to synthesize
an analogy between them and the inhabitants of the Arctic. Alas, for a num-
ber of reasons, this is quite impossible. In the global knotting literature not
many writings are to be found on aspects of prehistoric knotting . Whatever
is available of contemporary so-called primitive peoples' knotting is very frag-
mentary. For these reasons we shall only review the accessible relevant knot
history of the Arctic.
Knowledge of the history of Inuit knotting converges on two intervals
of a time scale which spans from 4500 B.P. to the present day. These two
intervals are situated at both ends of this scale. We know a little about knots
from the Saqqaq Inuit period , which started over 4000 years ago , and slightly
more about knots from A.D. 1700 and onwards . Everything in between is
extremely difficult to access. No definite answers, for instance , can be given
about possible Viking influences , or interactions during the period of whaling
by Europeans around Greenland ; both Western groups of established rope
users.
In the literature we have two major sources which offer indications about