For thousands of years, hunters and gatherers lived in the Aleutians with spiritual beliefs tightly interwoven into almost every aspect of daily life with help from Qugax̂ (spirits who assist). When Russian and Europeans arrived in Alaska in 1741, they wrote journals containing irreplaceable information about Unangax̂ (indigenous peoples of the Aleutians) before the subsequent onslaught of Russian fur hunters forever altered ancient belief systems. This paper utilizes an ethnoscience analysis that focused on seven objects or concepts (loud sea lion voice, bravery, red ochre, feathers, belts, amulets, and knives) to attempt to reconstruct how the people might have utilized spiritual beliefs to safeguard themselves. This analysis indicates that phenomena documented in 1741 had multiple layers of meaning within the ancient Unangax̂ spiritual world, whose purpose may have been to provide spiritual protection during an encounter with strangers who might become aggressive or violent.
{"title":"Qugax̂: An Ethnoscience Analysis of Ancient Unangax̂","authors":"Michael Livingston","doi":"10.3368/aa.53.2.81","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3368/aa.53.2.81","url":null,"abstract":"For thousands of years, hunters and gatherers lived in the Aleutians with spiritual beliefs tightly interwoven into almost every aspect of daily life with help from Qugax̂ (spirits who assist). When Russian and Europeans arrived in Alaska in 1741, they wrote journals containing irreplaceable information about Unangax̂ (indigenous peoples of the Aleutians) before the subsequent onslaught of Russian fur hunters forever altered ancient belief systems. This paper utilizes an ethnoscience analysis that focused on seven objects or concepts (loud sea lion voice, bravery, red ochre, feathers, belts, amulets, and knives) to attempt to reconstruct how the people might have utilized spiritual beliefs to safeguard themselves. This analysis indicates that phenomena documented in 1741 had multiple layers of meaning within the ancient Unangax̂ spiritual world, whose purpose may have been to provide spiritual protection during an encounter with strangers who might become aggressive or violent.","PeriodicalId":45997,"journal":{"name":"Arctic Anthropology","volume":"25 1 1","pages":"81 - 92"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2016-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.3368/aa.53.2.81","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69574702","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Starting in about 1870, indigenous residents of southeast Alaska intensified their traditional hunting of harbor seals (Phoca vitulina richardii) in order to produce surpluses of skins and oil for trade with the Alaska Commercial Company. The most important hunting ground was the head of Yakutat Bay, where thousands of seals were taken annually in June and July at the ice floe rookery near Hubbard Glacier and processed on shore at Keik’uliyáa sealing camp. Firearms obtained in trade were essential tools for mass harvesting. A multisource study of Keik’uliyáa and the historical ecology of 19th-century sealing at Yakutat was undertaken during 2011 and 2013 by the Smithsonian Institution in collaboration with the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe, employing oral history, archaeology, archival sources, and photographic documentation from the 1899 Harriman Alaska Expedition. Economic, social, and ecological dimensions of this historical mode of production are examined and compared with both earlier and later eras.
{"title":"Ice, Seals, and Guns: Late 19th-Century Alaska Native Commercial Sealing in Southeast Alaska","authors":"Aron L. Crowell","doi":"10.3368/AA.53.2.11","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3368/AA.53.2.11","url":null,"abstract":"Starting in about 1870, indigenous residents of southeast Alaska intensified their traditional hunting of harbor seals (Phoca vitulina richardii) in order to produce surpluses of skins and oil for trade with the Alaska Commercial Company. The most important hunting ground was the head of Yakutat Bay, where thousands of seals were taken annually in June and July at the ice floe rookery near Hubbard Glacier and processed on shore at Keik’uliyáa sealing camp. Firearms obtained in trade were essential tools for mass harvesting. A multisource study of Keik’uliyáa and the historical ecology of 19th-century sealing at Yakutat was undertaken during 2011 and 2013 by the Smithsonian Institution in collaboration with the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe, employing oral history, archaeology, archival sources, and photographic documentation from the 1899 Harriman Alaska Expedition. Economic, social, and ecological dimensions of this historical mode of production are examined and compared with both earlier and later eras.","PeriodicalId":45997,"journal":{"name":"Arctic Anthropology","volume":"53 1","pages":"11 - 32"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2016-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.3368/AA.53.2.11","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69574190","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Bibliography of Douglas W. Veltre","authors":"D. Yesner","doi":"10.3368/aa.53.2.160","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3368/aa.53.2.160","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":45997,"journal":{"name":"Arctic Anthropology","volume":"53 1","pages":"160 - 166"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2016-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.3368/aa.53.2.160","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69574383","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Birds were an important, but little understood, part of the Aleut economy. Birds provided a tiny proportion of the food compared to sea mammals and fish, but their skins, feathers, and bones provided raw materials for clothing, tools, and religious purposes. This paper uses ethnohistorical, linguistic, and archaeological evidence to identify the specialized techniques and describe the tools used for hunting birds. McCartney’s procurement system concept is used to organize the data and place bird hunting into a broader context. Men, women, and children hunted birds on land and sea, in fair weather and foul. Understanding the techniques and weapons used for bird hunting are only the first step to a more complete appreciation of the role of birds in Aleut culture.
{"title":"Saĝdaĝ—To Catch Birds","authors":"D. Corbett","doi":"10.3368/aa.53.2.93","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3368/aa.53.2.93","url":null,"abstract":"Birds were an important, but little understood, part of the Aleut economy. Birds provided a tiny proportion of the food compared to sea mammals and fish, but their skins, feathers, and bones provided raw materials for clothing, tools, and religious purposes. This paper uses ethnohistorical, linguistic, and archaeological evidence to identify the specialized techniques and describe the tools used for hunting birds. McCartney’s procurement system concept is used to organize the data and place bird hunting into a broader context. Men, women, and children hunted birds on land and sea, in fair weather and foul. Understanding the techniques and weapons used for bird hunting are only the first step to a more complete appreciation of the role of birds in Aleut culture.","PeriodicalId":45997,"journal":{"name":"Arctic Anthropology","volume":"53 1","pages":"113 - 93"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2016-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.3368/aa.53.2.93","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69574777","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Glass trade beads are tiny packets of information that are commonly misunderstood by archaeologists. Evidence is accumulating to indicate that they were introduced to Alaska before contact through existing indigenous trade networks. This study identifies a pattern of bead types from the precontact or protohistoric in western and northern Alaska. Green-, clear-, and gray-centered red varieties (Type IVa) were introduced into the Bering Strait region during the historic period, probably during the 19th century. However, large wound pale blue, turquoise, or white glass beads (Type WIb) were reported in the late precontact to protohistoric range. Another characteristic of glass beads during this period was split, or half beads. These early bead types were quickly integrated into existing socioeconomic systems and material culture, so much so that by 1791, glass beads were valued commodities.
{"title":"Late Precontact and Protohistoric Glass Beads of Alaska","authors":"M. Grover","doi":"10.3368/aa.53.2.69","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3368/aa.53.2.69","url":null,"abstract":"Glass trade beads are tiny packets of information that are commonly misunderstood by archaeologists. Evidence is accumulating to indicate that they were introduced to Alaska before contact through existing indigenous trade networks. This study identifies a pattern of bead types from the precontact or protohistoric in western and northern Alaska. Green-, clear-, and gray-centered red varieties (Type IVa) were introduced into the Bering Strait region during the historic period, probably during the 19th century. However, large wound pale blue, turquoise, or white glass beads (Type WIb) were reported in the late precontact to protohistoric range. Another characteristic of glass beads during this period was split, or half beads. These early bead types were quickly integrated into existing socioeconomic systems and material culture, so much so that by 1791, glass beads were valued commodities.","PeriodicalId":45997,"journal":{"name":"Arctic Anthropology","volume":"53 1","pages":"69 - 80"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2016-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.3368/aa.53.2.69","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69574618","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The professional career of Dr. Douglas Veltre spans a 45-year period of dedication to Aleutian anthropology, beginning with a mutual field experience on Umnak Island in 1971, and continuing to the present day. That career has utilized a combination of techniques deriving from archaeology (both precontact and postcontact), as well as from ethnohistory, oral history, and ethnography, to achieve a deeper understanding of the relationship of the Unangax̂ (Aleut) and their ancestors to the north Pacific environment of the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands. In the process, he has not only greatly expanded our knowledge about the history of human occupation of these islands, but has linked that history to the contemporary people, survivors of 8,000 years of environmental challenges, of impacts of 18th–19th century colonialism, and of more recent cultural transformations.
{"title":"Douglas W. Veltre: A Life in Aleutian Anthropology","authors":"D. Yesner","doi":"10.3368/AA.53.2.1","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3368/AA.53.2.1","url":null,"abstract":"The professional career of Dr. Douglas Veltre spans a 45-year period of dedication to Aleutian anthropology, beginning with a mutual field experience on Umnak Island in 1971, and continuing to the present day. That career has utilized a combination of techniques deriving from archaeology (both precontact and postcontact), as well as from ethnohistory, oral history, and ethnography, to achieve a deeper understanding of the relationship of the Unangax̂ (Aleut) and their ancestors to the north Pacific environment of the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands. In the process, he has not only greatly expanded our knowledge about the history of human occupation of these islands, but has linked that history to the contemporary people, survivors of 8,000 years of environmental challenges, of impacts of 18th–19th century colonialism, and of more recent cultural transformations.","PeriodicalId":45997,"journal":{"name":"Arctic Anthropology","volume":"53 1","pages":"1 - 10"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2016-02-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.3368/AA.53.2.1","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69574131","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
H. Monchot, Andrea Thompson, Benjamin Patenaude, Claire Houmard
The Dorset sites of Tayara (KbFk-7) and KcFs-2 have yielded a rich assemblage of common eider duck (Somateria mollissima) and thick-billed murre (Uria lomvia). This study examines the role of birds and treatment of avian remains in the subsistence practices of Paleoeskimo groups along the southern coast of the Hudson Strait through the analysis of element representation, patterns of breakage, and bone-surface modifications. Our results demonstrate that although birds played a secondary role when compared with marine and terrestrial mammals, their economic importance cannot be understated.
{"title":"The Role of Birds in the Subsistence Practices of the Dorset Peoples of Nunavik","authors":"H. Monchot, Andrea Thompson, Benjamin Patenaude, Claire Houmard","doi":"10.3368/AA.53.1.69","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3368/AA.53.1.69","url":null,"abstract":"The Dorset sites of Tayara (KbFk-7) and KcFs-2 have yielded a rich assemblage of common eider duck (Somateria mollissima) and thick-billed murre (Uria lomvia). This study examines the role of birds and treatment of avian remains in the subsistence practices of Paleoeskimo groups along the southern coast of the Hudson Strait through the analysis of element representation, patterns of breakage, and bone-surface modifications. Our results demonstrate that although birds played a secondary role when compared with marine and terrestrial mammals, their economic importance cannot be understated.","PeriodicalId":45997,"journal":{"name":"Arctic Anthropology","volume":"53 1","pages":"69 - 83"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.3368/AA.53.1.69","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69574059","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
The subsistence patterns of the Sami of northern Fennoscandia in early modern times are poorly understood. In this study, we use a map from AD 1671 of a Swedish forest-Sami district in order to explore the subject. The map includes 38 summer settlement symbols, all placed close to rivers and lakes. We compare this settlement pattern with ethnographic descriptions of forest-Sami groups and find that it is consistent with a fish-centered subsistence pattern but not with a reindeer-centered one. In literature, the Sami of Sweden are generally said to have transitioned from a hunting economy to reindeer pastoralism, while fishing has been seen as a supplementary subsistence mode. Since fishers tend to differ from hunters and herders in terms of social organization and sedentism, it is important to consider the possibility of a fish-centered subsistence pattern when discussing arctic and subarctic societies.
{"title":"Fish or Reindeer? The Relation between Subsistence Patterns and Settlement Patterns among the Forest Sami","authors":"G. Norstedt, L. Östlund","doi":"10.3368/aa.53.1.22","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3368/aa.53.1.22","url":null,"abstract":"The subsistence patterns of the Sami of northern Fennoscandia in early modern times are poorly understood. In this study, we use a map from AD 1671 of a Swedish forest-Sami district in order to explore the subject. The map includes 38 summer settlement symbols, all placed close to rivers and lakes. We compare this settlement pattern with ethnographic descriptions of forest-Sami groups and find that it is consistent with a fish-centered subsistence pattern but not with a reindeer-centered one. In literature, the Sami of Sweden are generally said to have transitioned from a hunting economy to reindeer pastoralism, while fishing has been seen as a supplementary subsistence mode. Since fishers tend to differ from hunters and herders in terms of social organization and sedentism, it is important to consider the possibility of a fish-centered subsistence pattern when discussing arctic and subarctic societies.","PeriodicalId":45997,"journal":{"name":"Arctic Anthropology","volume":"53 1","pages":"22 - 36"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.3368/aa.53.1.22","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69573962","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Secrecy constitutes a vital part of hunters and anglers social life in northern Norway. This article explores how we can understand secrecy and how this is challenged by tourism. Hunters’ and anglers’ secrets are, despite a protectionist trait, part of a practice where knowledge is contested, shared, and even stolen. Secrecy as a norm is therefore constructed with reference to both protected and shared secrets. This article suggests that we must look at the secrets shared in order to understand secrecy as a norm. However, tourism represents a different premise for sharing secrets. An increasing demand for guide services that includes knowledge about locations and techniques that give harvests and catch raises questions about how local practices are affected by tourism. The data presented in this article is anchored in a social anthropological research tradition with qualitative data collected mainly through participant observation and interviews.
{"title":"Do You Have Any Particular Favorite Place? Hunters’ and Anglers’ Secrets Meet Tourism in Northern Norway","authors":"Gaute Svensson","doi":"10.3368/aa.53.1.58","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3368/aa.53.1.58","url":null,"abstract":"Secrecy constitutes a vital part of hunters and anglers social life in northern Norway. This article explores how we can understand secrecy and how this is challenged by tourism. Hunters’ and anglers’ secrets are, despite a protectionist trait, part of a practice where knowledge is contested, shared, and even stolen. Secrecy as a norm is therefore constructed with reference to both protected and shared secrets. This article suggests that we must look at the secrets shared in order to understand secrecy as a norm. However, tourism represents a different premise for sharing secrets. An increasing demand for guide services that includes knowledge about locations and techniques that give harvests and catch raises questions about how local practices are affected by tourism. The data presented in this article is anchored in a social anthropological research tradition with qualitative data collected mainly through participant observation and interviews.","PeriodicalId":45997,"journal":{"name":"Arctic Anthropology","volume":"53 1","pages":"58 - 68"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.3368/aa.53.1.58","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69574017","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Since the end of the Soviet period, usage of the Sakha (Yakut) language has become once again more widespread in its usage in both the public and private spheres in the Republic of Sakha-Yakutia. Language ideologies that circulated in the Soviet era focused on the rodnoi iazyk (Russian: native language); this paper examines the contact and interplay of these ideologies with indigenous Sakha beliefs about the nature of language and the reciprocal relationship between a speaker and their language(s), which involves mutual sustenance and protection. The concept of agency in language is discussed, in light of both the belief in the agentive powers possessed by the tyl ichichite (Sakha: spirit of language), and in terms of how bilingual Sakha-Russian speakers make choices about their communicative practices in terms of style and register, which has repercussions for the sustainability of the Sakha language as a whole.
{"title":"Language Has a Spirit: Sakha (Yakut) Language Ideologies and Aesthetics of Sustenance","authors":"Jenanne Ferguson","doi":"10.3368/aa.53.1.95","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.3368/aa.53.1.95","url":null,"abstract":"Since the end of the Soviet period, usage of the Sakha (Yakut) language has become once again more widespread in its usage in both the public and private spheres in the Republic of Sakha-Yakutia. Language ideologies that circulated in the Soviet era focused on the rodnoi iazyk (Russian: native language); this paper examines the contact and interplay of these ideologies with indigenous Sakha beliefs about the nature of language and the reciprocal relationship between a speaker and their language(s), which involves mutual sustenance and protection. The concept of agency in language is discussed, in light of both the belief in the agentive powers possessed by the tyl ichichite (Sakha: spirit of language), and in terms of how bilingual Sakha-Russian speakers make choices about their communicative practices in terms of style and register, which has repercussions for the sustainability of the Sakha language as a whole.","PeriodicalId":45997,"journal":{"name":"Arctic Anthropology","volume":"53 1","pages":"111 - 95"},"PeriodicalIF":0.5,"publicationDate":"2016-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"https://sci-hub-pdf.com/10.3368/aa.53.1.95","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"69574072","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"社会学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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