The uncanny emptiness of reconstructed longhouses.

The feel of reconstructed longhouses is very different from the reality. They should be cluttered, vibrant, the material culture of a hundred lives all on display in one room. They should feel like a cross between a workshop, a storeroom and your grandmother's house.
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[@terrynewsome6698]

We see the bones and call it man, but know nothing of his face, laughter, or smile. We call it man, but in truth they are just bones

[@zenothemeano4381]

Beautiful video. I am always proud to say this is one of the few channels that deserve far more recognition for what you do. Your contributions of teaching indigenous history to a new generation of indigenous youth are awe-inspiring. I am always can't wait to see another video after I finish watching the latest one.

[@philryski9808]

There are written accounts of the early settlers visiting native american homes where they were astounded to disbelief how beautifully decorated they were.They were clean warm, cozy, comfortable with colorful woven mats and decorative items and artwork every where..Every item they owned was decorated beaded quilled painted etc.They had never seen such beauty and comfort even in Europe.

[@skeletalbassman1028]

Eerily similar to an Anglo-Saxon longhouse in many ways. Especially the carved artwork and mythological scenes depicted on the wooden posts in the hall itself, an identical practice on either side of the Atlantic. I imagine life was similar in a number of ways, the constantly boiling pots in use on all the fires, the ubiquitous smell of smoke, the rotating nature of the pottage as the seasons changed what was available.

[@randywise5241]

It would be cool to see some people actually try living in one for a year or two. No telling what it could tell us about it.

[@MalcolmPL]

Nice to get tvo or the bbc to give it the full victorian farm treatment.

[@leoscheibelhut940]

Excellent points all. Given the numbers and density of residents, I now picture constant movement in the aisle, an aisle as busy as a Shanghai alley[about the same width]. I imagine mothers constantly telling kids to go outside to get them out from underfoot. In good weather, traffic would be lighter as people spent time working outside. In bad weather, heavy rain or cold and snow, inside traffic would be much heavier. Strict rules or cultural norms would perhaps keep the sound level down but there would be the constant hum of dozens of conversations. I wonder if there was strict rules about quiet after a certain time or perhaps everyone learned to sleep despite continued talking. I never really gave any of this serious thought until I saw this clip. Thank you for your brilliant research and observations.

[@josephwarra5043]

This may not be exactly the same but it is very similar -- a relative if mine was in the Naval Air Corps durning the late 20s to the late 30s and worked with and in airships, his photos from that time shows huge airship hangers almost completely filled not only the airships themselves but hundreds maybe thousands of people, all kinds of equipment, supplies, construction, maintenance, and on and on. An entire culture devoted to these gigantic machines and their crews, whole trades and skill sets that are needed to keep them in repair and airborne. I recently had the opportunity to visit a couple of these hangers and I was immediately struck with how empty they seem. They are still being used for storage and/or experiments in LTA and aircraft vehicles but the huge airships themselves along with all the necessary paraphernalia and the personal are long gone. They reminded me of several visits to the re-creations of the longhouses of the peoples of the NE regions of the USA and how empty and even lonely they seem now. Whole cultures now gone except for some old historical accounts or someone's photo scrapbook. Just some quiet remembering on what we have lost and any lessons that can be learned from it. Sic Transit Gloria Mundi

[@GuntWastelander]

Your writing and delivery is encapsulating

[@GretchenHewitt]

I have been studying the longhouse, and found a man online in Ontario who, with three or 4 friends, built a new longhouse. It was so fascinating to see them get the bark off the trees and fit them on the structure. They used nails,. I pursued trying to find out what they did without nails. It was you who explained to me how they actually anchored the bark sides. (These men built it to learn from the Haudenosaunee people) So it was good to see a new structure. I can imagine the many men working together in building one. I so wish to see one go up again, all new, and supplied. I think of all the families cooperating together, the sounds, singing, stories, fires, cooking, hard times. And in the hard times, people were not alone. Thank you. This is great.

[@gtbkts]

You can use barbs from plants and trees as nails. Or, rather I know pioneers in early america would use barbs to hang bark for their roof and as insulation in their cabins. I got the info from Townsends, a channel on Yt about early pioneering and cooking. They built a cabin with a bark roof and used barbs to nail it, while talking about how man's been using barbs as nails for centuries.

[@imperatorcaesardivifiliusa3805]

The best reenactment spaces I've seen are bronze and iron and stone age European round houses. I feel they a decent recreations because the space is actually being used by the reenactors with a big roaring fire in the middle. Compared to a stale castle that you are merely toured though. A place that is being used as it would have been captures the sights and smells better than a place that is merely observed.

[@axton9954]

You paint an extremely vivid picture with your narration, wonderful work as always! I learn so much with every video you produce :)

[@weerwolfproductions]

Thank you for bringing the longhouse to life. My only experiences with archeological recreation sites (in Europe) have had actors or families living in the recreated buildings during weekends and summer vacations during april - september. Many of these people, other than museum personnel or university-employed archeologists, are volunteers. Some even pay for being allowed to 'go back in time', as a family holiday. Anything from stone age deerskin huts from hunter-gatherers chasing reindeer to early 20th century huts made of turf and rought wooden planks, build in a single day, in peat-digging communities. One of the most vibrant ones I have visited was in Denmark, called Sagenlandet Lejre (Land of Sagas, near the village of Lejre). Recently they had acquired the funds to build a King's Hall, a viking longhouse on steroids. All throughout the season (april - september) they populate it with actor-tourguides, dressed in historically accurate clothing. Sagenlandet is an experimental archeology institute as well as an archeological conservation site. They make their own clothing from materials available on the site, which is so large they have their own cow, sheep, pig, geese etc herds and flocks. They have several iron age longhouses too, which are basically single family farmhouses (housing several generations) with pretty much a similar basic layout to an Iriquois longhouse, but on a smaller scale. Benches with padding and skins for seats/beds, partitions between them to grant some privacy, first layer of rafters with boards for long-term storage. Smoke from the ever-burning fire would conserve anything hanging from the second (top) layer of rafters. As part of an archeological experiment, they once build a traditional iron-age longhouse, packed it with recreated possessions, and set it on fire. A decade later teams of archeology students would go in and train on the burnt house, to teach them to identify the materials, layout etc and the correlation of materials and their location in the house and in the layers of soil, dirt and ash. During children's vacations, families can rent these longhouses for a fee. During the day they hide their modern materials underneath the benches in the longhouses and go around dressed in historically accurate clothing manufactured on the site, and with the help of the museum's personnel they prepare their food. It will be provided by the museum as part of the holiday package, but will be prepared according to the historical timeperiod they are living in. Or they chop wood, work in a workshop (smithy, pottery, etc), work a loom in the longhouse or weave baskets etc. The more I know about bronze- and iron age Germanic peoples and stone- and bronze (copper?) age First Nations peoples, the more I am struck by the general similarities between the two. Not to imply there was extensive contact between the two, but just growing out of common sense, similar materials available, and long-tried practices that work. Also, both have a strong oral tradition with script largely of a ceremonial purpose or for illustration. We have lost so much knowledge about these cultures and how they functioned since Christianity took over both areas, and a heavily contract and deed depended, hierarchical-religious culture become dominant. Regular use and a steady stream of revenue or donations are required to keep such sites alive. Sagenlandet has made no secrets about the fact that some very wealthy patrons have left them huge sums of money, with stipulations to improve the recreated buildings and provide education and personnel to help explain the history of the people that have lived there for thousands of years. If this is ever going to be feasible for a First Nations archeological recreation site, or if such exist already, i have no idea. I hope it will be, with the respect First Nation history deserves and without turning it into a themepark. Living history can teach so much more than mere illustrations and text in a book.

[@cybelli80]

I really like how across a lot of cultures people generally tended to trend towards certain things, even without cross-cultural input, when it turns out to be useful or a good idea. Domestication of animals, farming, etc.

[@rhino3677]

You paint an amazing picture. Thank you for bring that empty building to life.

[@Methus3lah]

Anyone can talk about history. Very few can make you feel history. After watching this video, I honestly feel like I can imagine what life would be like in a longhouse. Stepping over piles of things to get anywhere, weaving my way through people, looking at the wall and seeing a dumb drawing that I’d made a while back when I was bored. I’d accidentally step on a child’s toy and promise to try and fix it, and then utterly failing and asking a friend to help. In the winter, I’d cozy up to the fur on the wall next to my bed, getting nice and toasty. In that awkward time between season where you don’t quite know if it’s summer yet, everyone in the longhouse would be pushing their furs onto the floor to cool off and pick them up in the morning. In the summer nights I’d sneak off with someone I fancy so we could have some time to ourselves. The hardest thing to understand about history for most people (myself included), is that people throughout history have just been people. There have always been teenagers doing stupid things, always been teething babies, always been friendships full of humorous insults, always been people making drawings due to boredom, always been slackers who don’t pull their weight, warriors and cowards, wisened and fools, joy and sadness, fun and boredom. Always, even in the days when history fades into myth and when myth fades into the mists of time.

[@z3rthos]

Your narration gave me some lovely imagery, thank you.

[@gregcale5388]

That was as poetic as it was informative.

[@AvanaVana]

Lovely, lovely essay.

[@bushcraftingmuslim]

It would be quite the experience to live in a long house surrounded by relatives and people from the same tribe who have similar life experiences. I can only imagine what that would be like.

[@spaguettoltd.7933]

This is such an amazing video, on a truly fantastic channel. I wish I’d found you years ago, but I’m happy to be here! Best to you from Western Mass

[@khalilal-bukhari7042]

good stuff

[@blaf55]

and where would the armor be

[@Uhshawdude]

I discovered your channel a few weeks ago, and have to say you have a real talent for bringing history to life in a way Ive rarely seen. I love your focus on the small, day to day details of First Nations life, it humanizes the people of the past in a way grand narratives about Great Men and battles never does. Keep up the good work!

[@tampaguy2395]

Most of the past appears to us as wispy ghosts.

[@thenerscylla2388]

I feel the story telling aspect of history is not as important as it should be in western spaces and I love how you convey the experiential nature of the past. The past is not just statistics but the culmination of all of the lives of our ancestors, it deserves respect in how we represent it, as true to their experience as we can. keep up the good work

[@Jthe5th]

Definitely well said, the places are just a fraction of what they would actually be and the storage part is not even felt when you just look at it, basically one can kind of have an idea of where slept but the rest are just not really imaginable, tons of corn and food change the place to being unrecognizable and indeed to just have a bit of corn here and there is definitely far away from storing the corn for 25 people that has to last until next year's crop. And there is of course more than visual representation, there is no smell representation which I can't help not to constantly think about, skins, food, smoke, wood, people, I have to say I can't imagine how it would smell there and how it would change based on the day and month.

[@V8Murder]

You're doing something great with these videos. Have you thought of commissioning a drawing of a longhouse?

[@ericmckinley9455]

I just moved to Southern Ontario from N.B. I was just wondering if you could point me in the direction where I can go to native reenactment sites or something similar. Again thank you for all your hard work and the education.

[@MalcolmPL]

I can't help you with regards to reenactment. As for reconstructed villages/museums, Crawford lake and Saint Marie among the Hurons are the best two. Then there are ones at Longwoods conservation area, and at the museum of Ontario archaeology. Maybe a couple more that I am forgetting.

[@ericmckinley9455]

@@MalcolmPL thank you so much I'll look into thoes I just want to learn what being lost before it's gone. Blessings to you and your family

[@russellmyers934]

This is very insightful, and EXACTLY like visiting castles throughout Europe. They look NOTHING like they did when occupied. Same as this.

[@jezblades9913]

Great video. Sadly, it seems the reconstructions look more like prisons than peoples homes.

[@Flozone1]

Something I have been wondering about, what if the longhouse tradition would have continued into the modern day. How would "modern" longhouses look like. Like multi-family appartment buildings or dorms or something different?

[@merbau7887]

Now I simply must learn how to make games And make a historically accurate simulator of different tribes!

[@mythiclore5508]

Can you share examples of representations that get it right?

[@MalcolmPL]

None are 100%. They each succeed in some elements and miss others. If you do a google images search and put together all the elements of every representation you would have something pretty close, but I have never seen any that correctly portray the sheer volume of food there aught to be.

[@m005kennedy]

Maybe the solution is to stock a small section of the house completely as it would have .

[@MalcolmPL]

Another idea would be to recreate one of the small single family examples. But it would still be an expensive proposition.

[@clobberelladoesntreadcomme9920]

@@MalcolmPL I would love to see this. I think it could only be achieved through some kind of year long experimental archeology project. The idea reminds me of Tales from the Green Valley series (available on youtube), in which a group of British historians attempt to live for a year on a 16th century farm in Wales. I think the only way to get the house full of all the "stuff" it would have gotten full with is to let it happen over time. I'd pay to watch that show.

[@ChrissieBear]

It becomes a liminal space.

[@gregoryzemenick453]

I am very pleased with your discussions regarding the Mohawk people. I follow you carefully and commend you on your scholarship. Would you please do a video on the false face society. Thank you very much.

[@MalcolmPL]

No, that would be inappropriate. There are rules about that sort of thing.

[@gregoryzemenick453]

@@MalcolmPL thank you for your quick reply. I am very interested in false face society and I understand your respect for cultural values. Thank you for responding to me. I will consider it in an honor and will continue to follow you.

[@MrMisastar]

Liminal longhouses

[@athenassigil5820]

Iroquois liminality....

[@ratatoskr1069]

Upon watching your longhouse videos, I wonder about intimacy in these houses. Did men and women feel comfortable getting intimate in there, or would they find a secluded space somewhere else?

[@MalcolmPL]

Curtains and discretion, or if that wasn't possible a man would take his wife on a hunting trip.

[@ratatoskr1069]

Thank you for answering.@@MalcolmPL