The Native Alaskan Neighborhood: A Multiethnic Community at Colony Ross. The Archaeology and Ethn... more The Native Alaskan Neighborhood: A Multiethnic Community at Colony Ross. The Archaeology and Ethnohistory of Fort Ross, California, Volume 2. Kent G. Lightfoot, Ann M. Schiff, and Thomas A. Wake, eds. Berkeley: Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility, No. 55, 1997, 429 pp., 191 figs., 10 plates, 74 tables, 3 microfiches, 29 appendices, $35.00 (paper).
Point Dundas Cairns (49-XMF-065) 81 Historical Background Setting and Landscape Cultural Features... more Point Dundas Cairns (49-XMF-065) 81 Historical Background Setting and Landscape Cultural Features and Investigations Discussion Mount Carolus Cairns (49-XMF-064) 82 Historical Background Setting and Landscape Cultural Features and Investigations Discussion Chapter 4: Changing Hoonah Tlingit Economy and Settlement Patterns,
The incidence of plate-boundary earthquakes across 3 prospective tectonic segments at the Alaska ... more The incidence of plate-boundary earthquakes across 3 prospective tectonic segments at the Alaska subduction zone (ASZ) in the late Holocene is reconstructed from geological evidence of abrupt land-level change and archaeological evidence of discontinuities in occupation of native villages. Bracketing radiocarbon ages on uplifted and down-dropped coastal deposits indicate that great earthquakes likely ruptured the plate interface in the eastern segment (Prince William Sound [PWS]) about 800, 1400, 2200–2300, 2600–2700, 3100–3200, and 3600–3700 cal BP. Evidence for an event about 1900 yr ago, and the possibility that the 2600–2700 cal BP event was a closely spaced series of 3 earthquakes, is restricted to parts of Cook Inlet. Geological evidence from the central (Kenai [KEN]) segment is fragmentary, but indicates that this segment likely ruptured about 1400 yr ago and in the triple event about 2600–2700 yr ago. The geological record from the Kodiak-Katmai (KOKA) segment at the western...
... Jon Erlandson, Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403 Aron Crocei... more ... Jon Erlandson, Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403 Aron Crocei], Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley ... McCartney (1988) classified the general Alu-tiiq adaptation as a Modified Maritime strategy, with some use of land ...
... My friend Urmila Devi Sood explained Krishna's prodigious romantic energ... more ... My friend Urmila Devi Sood explained Krishna's prodigious romantic energy as the result of desires expressed by women who swooned over him in his previ-ous incarnation as handsome Prince Ram, or Ramachandra. Krishna was always falling in love with women. ...
This paper considers a specific kind of hunting strategy, ambush hunting, employed by Ju/’hoansi ... more This paper considers a specific kind of hunting strategy, ambush hunting, employed by Ju/’hoansi San who reside in northwestern Botswana and northeastern Namibia. We examine this hunting technique from ethnoarchaeological, archaeological, historical, and ethnographic perspectives. Data are drawn from an analysis of 14 blinds at ǂGi Pan on the Botswana-Namibia border. These hunting blinds were mapped and two were excavated. Our methods included having Ju/’hoansi show us how they constructed blinds. We also conducted interviews of individuals who constructed and utilized the blinds. Based on this information, we assess the structure, distribution, morphology, contents, function, size, timing of use, and reasons for placement of these specialized hunting facilities. Conclusions are drawn concerning the utilization of ambush hunting and its social, economic, environmental, and technological significance in the northern Kalahari.RésuméCet article examine un type particulier de stratégie de chasse, la chasse à l'embuscade employée par Ju / 'hoansi San qui réside dans le nord-ouest du Botswana et le nord-est de la Namibie. Nous examinons cette technique de chasse du point de vue ethnoarchéologique, archéologique, historique, et ethnographique. Les données sont tirées d'une analyse de 14 stores à ǂGi Pan à la frontière entre le Botswana et la Namibie. Ces stores de chasse ont été cartographiés et deux ont été fouillés. Nos méthodes incluaient que Ju / 'hoansi nous montre comment ils construisaient des stores. Nous avons également mené des entrevues avec des personnes qui ont construit et utilisé les stores. À partir de cette information, nous évaluons la structure, la répartition, la morphologie, le contenu, la fonction, la taille, le moment d'utilisation et les raisons du placement de ces installations de chasse spécialisées. Des conclusions sont tirées concernant l'utilisation de la chasse à l'embuscade et son importance sociale, économique, environnementale et technologique.
A collaborative study of the Smithsonian Institution's ethnology ... more A collaborative study of the Smithsonian Institution's ethnology collections has inspired the narration of Alaska Native oral traditions, including Yupik Elder Estelle Oozevaseuk's re-telling (in 2001) of the story of Kukulek village and the St. Lawrence Island famine and epidemic of 1878–80. The loss of at least 1,000 lives and all but two of the island's villages was a devastating event that is well documented in historical sources and archaeology, as well as multiple Yupik accounts. Yupiget have transmitted memories of extreme weather, bad hunting conditions, and a wave of fatal contagion that swept the island. The Kukulek narrative, with origins traceable to the late nineteenth century, provides a spiritual perspective on the disaster's underlying cause, found in the Kukulek people's disrespect toward the animal beings that sustained them. This paper explores the cultural and historical contexts of this narrative, and contrasts it with Western perspectives.
Smithsonian contributions to anthropology, Mar 15, 2024
Fiord glaciers of southern Alaska reshape landscapes as they advance and retreat in response to c... more Fiord glaciers of southern Alaska reshape landscapes as they advance and retreat in response to climate cycles, influencing coastal ecosystems by enriching marine food webs with minerals carried in meltwater and ice floes. On land, biodiverse forest ecosystems grow and mature as glaciers withdraw, connected to the sea by glacially fed rivers and lakes where salmon spawn. For millennia, Alaska Native peoples have lived and thrived in these highly productive cryogenic biomes, harvesting bounties of plant and animal foods by employing complex ecological knowledge, adaptive technologies, and lineage-based social patterns of cooperation and resource sharing. A 1,100-year longitudinal study of the cultural ecology of Yakutat fiord in Southeast Alaska was conducted during 2011-2014 by the Smithsonian Institution's Arctic Studies Center and the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe to document Little Ice Age glacial retreat; settlement of the emerging fiord by migrating Eyak, Ahtna, and Tlingit clans; and utilization of the fiord's marine and terrestrial habitats by past and present residents. Applying principles of knowledge coproduction, this study joins oral ecological and historical knowledge shared by members of the community with scientific data from archaeology, archaeofaunal analysis, marine and terrestrial ecology, glaciology, subsistence surveys, and historical archives. Information and cultural perspectives from interviews conducted in English and Lingit with community scholars, hunters, and artists are presented alongside results of archaeological investigations at former villages and camps dating from the thirteenth century to the 1960s. Special emphasis is placed on hunting and consumption of harbor seals (Phoca vitulina), a cultural focus and principal subsistence species throughout Yakutat history. The study demonstrates the centuries-long construction and modification of a cultural niche, or integrated human role, within the ecosystem of Yakutat fiord.
We measured δ 18 O values in modern and archaeological Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus) otoliths... more We measured δ 18 O values in modern and archaeological Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus) otoliths recovered from Aialik Bay on the Pacific coast of the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, using a high precision ion microprobe. Values of δ 18 O were measured in as many as sixty 10-μm spots along 2-3 mm transects from the otolith core to its margin with high spot-to-spot analytical precision (δ 18 O ± 0.3‰). We obtained sample densities along a linear transect that were at least 2 to 3 times greater than micromilling/conventional mass spectrometry techniques. From modern Pacific cod otoliths (using in situ temperatures from electronic archive tags) we calibrated an empirical fractionation equation of aragonite δ 18 O to sea water temperature (r 2 = 0.75, p < 0.001, δ 18 O A = 2.13-0.25 T°C) and from which we predicted the thermography of fish life history and historic nearshore water temperature in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). Sinuous variability of δ 18 O values along core-to-margin transects likely reflect seasonal temperature changes and suggest similar longevity between modern and archaeological cod. Generally increasing δ 18 O values from the otolith core region to the margin revealed an ontogenetic migration from warmer nearshore habitat during the first year of life to cooler deeper waters at later ages, a behavior that has not changed over the past 200 years. A decline in the average δ 18 O of otolith cores from archaeological (~200 +,~100 + years before present, YBP) to modern otoliths suggest increasing sea surface temperatures from the late Little Ice Age to present. Temperatures calculated from the δ 18 O in aragonite suggest a 2-3°C rise in coastal marine sea surface temperatures in the GOA over the last 200 years. Implications of indigenous subsistence resource use and settlement patterns are discussed in light of major shifts in GOA water temperatures and biological regimes.
The reviews in this Journal are published as the views of those persons who write them. They are ... more The reviews in this Journal are published as the views of those persons who write them. They are accepted by the Journal in all good faith as accurate and honest expressions of opinion. In view of the large amount of correspondence which may ensue we invite those who wish to do so to write to or communicate with the reviewer direct. Reading the Past. Current Approaches to Interpretation in Archaeology. By IAN HODDER. 22 X 14 cm. Pp. xi+194, ills. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. ISBN 0-521-32743-1 (1-33960-x p/b). £20-00 (£6-95 p/b). Theory in British archaeology has long had two depressing characteristics: a lack of originality and reliance on developments made elsewhere, and a lack of awareness of positions held in related disciplines such as history, social anthropology and social theory. The advent of New Archaeology by no means wholly removed these traits, and it is highly welcome therefore to have a short, comprehensible book which challenges many of the shibboleths of the New Archaeology, looks seriously but critically at structuralism, Neo-Marxism and Critical Theory, and attempts to develop an original 'post-processual' and 'contextual' approach to the cultural meaning of things and to the significance of individuals and individual action in the past. That much of the text is clear and readily digestible is an important achievement, given that many people have been put off by the presentation of theory in the past, but there lurk here and there some rather opaque Delphic utterances, particularly at key points. The presentation and critique of structuralism, Neo-Marxism, ethnoarchaeology and Critical Theory are well done, and will help to bring favoured gurus like Bourdieu, Giddens, Sahlins, Collingwood, Habermas and Weber to a wider audience. The Critique of New Archaeology from which the book begins is also powerful but curiously diffuse, and a compulsion to deal with the bogeyman Binford surfaces, in rather undignified fashion, throughout the book. The book, however, is much more than a survey of other approaches. It argues the need for far greater attention than hitherto to the individual, to historical perspectives and contexts, and to the meaning attached by different people to situations and events, ways of doing things and objects. In so doing it raises central questions about the relationship between people and material culture, about causation, and about archaeological inference and knowledge. Hodder's recurrent claims are that we must: avoid universal laws and cross-cultural generalizations; investigate specific situations in long seamless sequences; give full weight to the ability of individuals to alter cultural rules; and attempt to grasp meaning as well as function, though the two are not mutually exclusive. The methodology advocated is contextual, requiring an immersion in good data sets, an evaluation of similarities and differences, a search for coherence and correspondence in sifting rival hypotheses, and a willingness to see things from the 'inside', from the standpoint of participants and actors. The challenge is important but incomplete. The arguments for the importance of individuals and for the significance of attitudes, intentions and beliefs are compelling at a theoretical level and, in laying the foundations for a fresh theory of historical action, will help to nudge British archaeological theory in rewarding new directions. However, the book labours with three major difficulties. First, for all the force of the critiques of other positions, the alternative contextual methodology is never made clear. Chapter 7 is prolix but unhelpful as a field guide. It is significant that all the examples of the contextual approach are trivial (the Antonine Wall, p. 98),
The book and exhibitionLooking Both Ways: Heritage and Identity of the Alutiiq Peoplepresent both... more The book and exhibitionLooking Both Ways: Heritage and Identity of the Alutiiq Peoplepresent both Alutiiq and anthropological perspectives on a complex Alaska Native ethnicity. This community-based project, produced by the Smithsonian Institution and Alutiiq Museum in Kodiak, is considered within several frames: cultural identity and revitalization in the Alutiiq region, the new paradigm of collaborative anthropology, and contrasting essentialist and constructivist models of cultural change. An Alutiiq “cultural logic” of connection to ancestors, kin, place and a provident natural environment is proposed as the basis for continuity of identity through two centuries of cultural transformation. Collaborative engagement in Indigenous heritage projects is discussed as a complex but indispensable commitment for contemporary anthropology.
A conifer forest on the shore of Verdant Cove, an inlet of Aialik Bay on the southeast coast of t... more A conifer forest on the shore of Verdant Cove, an inlet of Aialik Bay on the southeast coast of the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, was buried by high-energy beach sediments shortly after 860 ± 50 I4C years BP. The switch from ocean-distal forest to cobble beach indicates a radical change in depositional environment suggestive of rapid subsidence of 1–3.5 m. The presence of hemlock, a tree taxon sensitive to salt-water exposure, and the preserved cast of a tree trunk suggest that subsidence and burial occurred rapidly. By 690 ± 60 14C years BP, forest peat was accumulating atop the beach sediments burying the forest and rapid spit progradation was underway. Spit progradation implies land emergence or stable sea level, especially in this case where the spit has a limited sediment supply. We infer that subsidence of the spit ca. 860 ± 50 14C years BP was followed by slow land emergence up to the time of the 1964 AD great earthquake, when the area subsided coseismically 1.4 m. The sudden drow...
... ARCTIC ANTHROPOLOGY Vol. 35, No, 1, pp. 112-131, 1998 Page 2. Climatic History Mann et al. : ... more ... ARCTIC ANTHROPOLOGY Vol. 35, No, 1, pp. 112-131, 1998 Page 2. Climatic History Mann et al. : Gulf of Alaska 113 the Alaska Peninsula and to the southeast by the Queen Charlotte Islands (Fig. 1). This review con-siders climate change, glaciation, sea level change, and ...
As a linguistic medium, oral tradition conveys rich and specific detail about past events but is ... more As a linguistic medium, oral tradition conveys rich and specific detail about past events but is also subject to alteration in the course of transmission between generations. As a source for indigenous history, spoken heritage is characteristically specific in geographic attribution and thus definitive of cultural landscapes, but it is temporally under-defined because it is unconstrained by calendrical dates. We consider these qualities in relation to Tlingit oral accounts that refer to Xak-wnoowú, an 850-year-old fort in the Glacier Bay region of southeastern Alaska. The site is narratively linked to the origins of Tlingit warfare and of the Kaagwaantaan clan, and remains a landmark of historical consciousness for contemporary descendants. We apply archaeological and geological evidence to date and verify key oral narratives, finding substantial convergence with scientific data and a complementarity of perspective that potentiates fuller understandings of both Tlingit history and e...
Contributions to Global Historical Archaeology, 1997
When Grigorii Shelikhov landed with two shiploads of men on the outer coast of Kodiak Island in A... more When Grigorii Shelikhov landed with two shiploads of men on the outer coast of Kodiak Island in August 1784, his mission was audacious and thoroughly commercial–to explore and conquer the coastal regions of southern Alaska, establish a permanent and self-sustaining Russian colony, systematize the exploitation of Alaska Native labor, harvest large quantities of sea otter pelts, and reap profits from the lucrative fur trade with China. Prospects for the success of this effort were far from certain. Russian traders had probed the Kodiak region for 20 years, but had been repeatedly discouraged by the wariness of the Qikertarmiut and their readiness to take the upper hand through surprise attacks. The relatively large Native population of the Kodiak archipelago, probably more than 8000 at the time of first Russian contact, contributed to both the attraction of the island group for trade, and the difficulties of bringing it under control. Qikertarmiut proficiency in warfare had been honed by centuries of seaborne raids and skirmishes against neighboring societies from the eastern Aleutian Islands to Prince William Sound. Shelikhov’s plan to conquer and colonize the island would require an unprecedented level of military force, as well as a skilled hand at coercion and political persuasion, if Native leaders were to be brought into alliance with a new Russian regime.
The Native Alaskan Neighborhood: A Multiethnic Community at Colony Ross. The Archaeology and Ethn... more The Native Alaskan Neighborhood: A Multiethnic Community at Colony Ross. The Archaeology and Ethnohistory of Fort Ross, California, Volume 2. Kent G. Lightfoot, Ann M. Schiff, and Thomas A. Wake, eds. Berkeley: Contributions of the University of California Archaeological Research Facility, No. 55, 1997, 429 pp., 191 figs., 10 plates, 74 tables, 3 microfiches, 29 appendices, $35.00 (paper).
Point Dundas Cairns (49-XMF-065) 81 Historical Background Setting and Landscape Cultural Features... more Point Dundas Cairns (49-XMF-065) 81 Historical Background Setting and Landscape Cultural Features and Investigations Discussion Mount Carolus Cairns (49-XMF-064) 82 Historical Background Setting and Landscape Cultural Features and Investigations Discussion Chapter 4: Changing Hoonah Tlingit Economy and Settlement Patterns,
The incidence of plate-boundary earthquakes across 3 prospective tectonic segments at the Alaska ... more The incidence of plate-boundary earthquakes across 3 prospective tectonic segments at the Alaska subduction zone (ASZ) in the late Holocene is reconstructed from geological evidence of abrupt land-level change and archaeological evidence of discontinuities in occupation of native villages. Bracketing radiocarbon ages on uplifted and down-dropped coastal deposits indicate that great earthquakes likely ruptured the plate interface in the eastern segment (Prince William Sound [PWS]) about 800, 1400, 2200–2300, 2600–2700, 3100–3200, and 3600–3700 cal BP. Evidence for an event about 1900 yr ago, and the possibility that the 2600–2700 cal BP event was a closely spaced series of 3 earthquakes, is restricted to parts of Cook Inlet. Geological evidence from the central (Kenai [KEN]) segment is fragmentary, but indicates that this segment likely ruptured about 1400 yr ago and in the triple event about 2600–2700 yr ago. The geological record from the Kodiak-Katmai (KOKA) segment at the western...
... Jon Erlandson, Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403 Aron Crocei... more ... Jon Erlandson, Department of Anthropology, University of Oregon, Eugene, OR 97403 Aron Crocei], Department of Anthropology, University of California, Berkeley ... McCartney (1988) classified the general Alu-tiiq adaptation as a Modified Maritime strategy, with some use of land ...
... My friend Urmila Devi Sood explained Krishna&amp;amp;amp;#x27;s prodigious romantic energ... more ... My friend Urmila Devi Sood explained Krishna&amp;amp;amp;#x27;s prodigious romantic energy as the result of desires expressed by women who swooned over him in his previ-ous incarnation as handsome Prince Ram, or Ramachandra. Krishna was always falling in love with women. ...
This paper considers a specific kind of hunting strategy, ambush hunting, employed by Ju/’hoansi ... more This paper considers a specific kind of hunting strategy, ambush hunting, employed by Ju/’hoansi San who reside in northwestern Botswana and northeastern Namibia. We examine this hunting technique from ethnoarchaeological, archaeological, historical, and ethnographic perspectives. Data are drawn from an analysis of 14 blinds at ǂGi Pan on the Botswana-Namibia border. These hunting blinds were mapped and two were excavated. Our methods included having Ju/’hoansi show us how they constructed blinds. We also conducted interviews of individuals who constructed and utilized the blinds. Based on this information, we assess the structure, distribution, morphology, contents, function, size, timing of use, and reasons for placement of these specialized hunting facilities. Conclusions are drawn concerning the utilization of ambush hunting and its social, economic, environmental, and technological significance in the northern Kalahari.RésuméCet article examine un type particulier de stratégie de chasse, la chasse à l'embuscade employée par Ju / 'hoansi San qui réside dans le nord-ouest du Botswana et le nord-est de la Namibie. Nous examinons cette technique de chasse du point de vue ethnoarchéologique, archéologique, historique, et ethnographique. Les données sont tirées d'une analyse de 14 stores à ǂGi Pan à la frontière entre le Botswana et la Namibie. Ces stores de chasse ont été cartographiés et deux ont été fouillés. Nos méthodes incluaient que Ju / 'hoansi nous montre comment ils construisaient des stores. Nous avons également mené des entrevues avec des personnes qui ont construit et utilisé les stores. À partir de cette information, nous évaluons la structure, la répartition, la morphologie, le contenu, la fonction, la taille, le moment d'utilisation et les raisons du placement de ces installations de chasse spécialisées. Des conclusions sont tirées concernant l'utilisation de la chasse à l'embuscade et son importance sociale, économique, environnementale et technologique.
A collaborative study of the Smithsonian Institution&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s ethnology ... more A collaborative study of the Smithsonian Institution&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s ethnology collections has inspired the narration of Alaska Native oral traditions, including Yupik Elder Estelle Oozevaseuk&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s re-telling (in 2001) of the story of Kukulek village and the St. Lawrence Island famine and epidemic of 1878–80. The loss of at least 1,000 lives and all but two of the island&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s villages was a devastating event that is well documented in historical sources and archaeology, as well as multiple Yupik accounts. Yupiget have transmitted memories of extreme weather, bad hunting conditions, and a wave of fatal contagion that swept the island. The Kukulek narrative, with origins traceable to the late nineteenth century, provides a spiritual perspective on the disaster&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s underlying cause, found in the Kukulek people&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;#39;s disrespect toward the animal beings that sustained them. This paper explores the cultural and historical contexts of this narrative, and contrasts it with Western perspectives.
Smithsonian contributions to anthropology, Mar 15, 2024
Fiord glaciers of southern Alaska reshape landscapes as they advance and retreat in response to c... more Fiord glaciers of southern Alaska reshape landscapes as they advance and retreat in response to climate cycles, influencing coastal ecosystems by enriching marine food webs with minerals carried in meltwater and ice floes. On land, biodiverse forest ecosystems grow and mature as glaciers withdraw, connected to the sea by glacially fed rivers and lakes where salmon spawn. For millennia, Alaska Native peoples have lived and thrived in these highly productive cryogenic biomes, harvesting bounties of plant and animal foods by employing complex ecological knowledge, adaptive technologies, and lineage-based social patterns of cooperation and resource sharing. A 1,100-year longitudinal study of the cultural ecology of Yakutat fiord in Southeast Alaska was conducted during 2011-2014 by the Smithsonian Institution's Arctic Studies Center and the Yakutat Tlingit Tribe to document Little Ice Age glacial retreat; settlement of the emerging fiord by migrating Eyak, Ahtna, and Tlingit clans; and utilization of the fiord's marine and terrestrial habitats by past and present residents. Applying principles of knowledge coproduction, this study joins oral ecological and historical knowledge shared by members of the community with scientific data from archaeology, archaeofaunal analysis, marine and terrestrial ecology, glaciology, subsistence surveys, and historical archives. Information and cultural perspectives from interviews conducted in English and Lingit with community scholars, hunters, and artists are presented alongside results of archaeological investigations at former villages and camps dating from the thirteenth century to the 1960s. Special emphasis is placed on hunting and consumption of harbor seals (Phoca vitulina), a cultural focus and principal subsistence species throughout Yakutat history. The study demonstrates the centuries-long construction and modification of a cultural niche, or integrated human role, within the ecosystem of Yakutat fiord.
We measured δ 18 O values in modern and archaeological Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus) otoliths... more We measured δ 18 O values in modern and archaeological Pacific cod (Gadus macrocephalus) otoliths recovered from Aialik Bay on the Pacific coast of the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, using a high precision ion microprobe. Values of δ 18 O were measured in as many as sixty 10-μm spots along 2-3 mm transects from the otolith core to its margin with high spot-to-spot analytical precision (δ 18 O ± 0.3‰). We obtained sample densities along a linear transect that were at least 2 to 3 times greater than micromilling/conventional mass spectrometry techniques. From modern Pacific cod otoliths (using in situ temperatures from electronic archive tags) we calibrated an empirical fractionation equation of aragonite δ 18 O to sea water temperature (r 2 = 0.75, p < 0.001, δ 18 O A = 2.13-0.25 T°C) and from which we predicted the thermography of fish life history and historic nearshore water temperature in the Gulf of Alaska (GOA). Sinuous variability of δ 18 O values along core-to-margin transects likely reflect seasonal temperature changes and suggest similar longevity between modern and archaeological cod. Generally increasing δ 18 O values from the otolith core region to the margin revealed an ontogenetic migration from warmer nearshore habitat during the first year of life to cooler deeper waters at later ages, a behavior that has not changed over the past 200 years. A decline in the average δ 18 O of otolith cores from archaeological (~200 +,~100 + years before present, YBP) to modern otoliths suggest increasing sea surface temperatures from the late Little Ice Age to present. Temperatures calculated from the δ 18 O in aragonite suggest a 2-3°C rise in coastal marine sea surface temperatures in the GOA over the last 200 years. Implications of indigenous subsistence resource use and settlement patterns are discussed in light of major shifts in GOA water temperatures and biological regimes.
The reviews in this Journal are published as the views of those persons who write them. They are ... more The reviews in this Journal are published as the views of those persons who write them. They are accepted by the Journal in all good faith as accurate and honest expressions of opinion. In view of the large amount of correspondence which may ensue we invite those who wish to do so to write to or communicate with the reviewer direct. Reading the Past. Current Approaches to Interpretation in Archaeology. By IAN HODDER. 22 X 14 cm. Pp. xi+194, ills. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986. ISBN 0-521-32743-1 (1-33960-x p/b). £20-00 (£6-95 p/b). Theory in British archaeology has long had two depressing characteristics: a lack of originality and reliance on developments made elsewhere, and a lack of awareness of positions held in related disciplines such as history, social anthropology and social theory. The advent of New Archaeology by no means wholly removed these traits, and it is highly welcome therefore to have a short, comprehensible book which challenges many of the shibboleths of the New Archaeology, looks seriously but critically at structuralism, Neo-Marxism and Critical Theory, and attempts to develop an original 'post-processual' and 'contextual' approach to the cultural meaning of things and to the significance of individuals and individual action in the past. That much of the text is clear and readily digestible is an important achievement, given that many people have been put off by the presentation of theory in the past, but there lurk here and there some rather opaque Delphic utterances, particularly at key points. The presentation and critique of structuralism, Neo-Marxism, ethnoarchaeology and Critical Theory are well done, and will help to bring favoured gurus like Bourdieu, Giddens, Sahlins, Collingwood, Habermas and Weber to a wider audience. The Critique of New Archaeology from which the book begins is also powerful but curiously diffuse, and a compulsion to deal with the bogeyman Binford surfaces, in rather undignified fashion, throughout the book. The book, however, is much more than a survey of other approaches. It argues the need for far greater attention than hitherto to the individual, to historical perspectives and contexts, and to the meaning attached by different people to situations and events, ways of doing things and objects. In so doing it raises central questions about the relationship between people and material culture, about causation, and about archaeological inference and knowledge. Hodder's recurrent claims are that we must: avoid universal laws and cross-cultural generalizations; investigate specific situations in long seamless sequences; give full weight to the ability of individuals to alter cultural rules; and attempt to grasp meaning as well as function, though the two are not mutually exclusive. The methodology advocated is contextual, requiring an immersion in good data sets, an evaluation of similarities and differences, a search for coherence and correspondence in sifting rival hypotheses, and a willingness to see things from the 'inside', from the standpoint of participants and actors. The challenge is important but incomplete. The arguments for the importance of individuals and for the significance of attitudes, intentions and beliefs are compelling at a theoretical level and, in laying the foundations for a fresh theory of historical action, will help to nudge British archaeological theory in rewarding new directions. However, the book labours with three major difficulties. First, for all the force of the critiques of other positions, the alternative contextual methodology is never made clear. Chapter 7 is prolix but unhelpful as a field guide. It is significant that all the examples of the contextual approach are trivial (the Antonine Wall, p. 98),
The book and exhibitionLooking Both Ways: Heritage and Identity of the Alutiiq Peoplepresent both... more The book and exhibitionLooking Both Ways: Heritage and Identity of the Alutiiq Peoplepresent both Alutiiq and anthropological perspectives on a complex Alaska Native ethnicity. This community-based project, produced by the Smithsonian Institution and Alutiiq Museum in Kodiak, is considered within several frames: cultural identity and revitalization in the Alutiiq region, the new paradigm of collaborative anthropology, and contrasting essentialist and constructivist models of cultural change. An Alutiiq “cultural logic” of connection to ancestors, kin, place and a provident natural environment is proposed as the basis for continuity of identity through two centuries of cultural transformation. Collaborative engagement in Indigenous heritage projects is discussed as a complex but indispensable commitment for contemporary anthropology.
A conifer forest on the shore of Verdant Cove, an inlet of Aialik Bay on the southeast coast of t... more A conifer forest on the shore of Verdant Cove, an inlet of Aialik Bay on the southeast coast of the Kenai Peninsula, Alaska, was buried by high-energy beach sediments shortly after 860 ± 50 I4C years BP. The switch from ocean-distal forest to cobble beach indicates a radical change in depositional environment suggestive of rapid subsidence of 1–3.5 m. The presence of hemlock, a tree taxon sensitive to salt-water exposure, and the preserved cast of a tree trunk suggest that subsidence and burial occurred rapidly. By 690 ± 60 14C years BP, forest peat was accumulating atop the beach sediments burying the forest and rapid spit progradation was underway. Spit progradation implies land emergence or stable sea level, especially in this case where the spit has a limited sediment supply. We infer that subsidence of the spit ca. 860 ± 50 14C years BP was followed by slow land emergence up to the time of the 1964 AD great earthquake, when the area subsided coseismically 1.4 m. The sudden drow...
... ARCTIC ANTHROPOLOGY Vol. 35, No, 1, pp. 112-131, 1998 Page 2. Climatic History Mann et al. : ... more ... ARCTIC ANTHROPOLOGY Vol. 35, No, 1, pp. 112-131, 1998 Page 2. Climatic History Mann et al. : Gulf of Alaska 113 the Alaska Peninsula and to the southeast by the Queen Charlotte Islands (Fig. 1). This review con-siders climate change, glaciation, sea level change, and ...
As a linguistic medium, oral tradition conveys rich and specific detail about past events but is ... more As a linguistic medium, oral tradition conveys rich and specific detail about past events but is also subject to alteration in the course of transmission between generations. As a source for indigenous history, spoken heritage is characteristically specific in geographic attribution and thus definitive of cultural landscapes, but it is temporally under-defined because it is unconstrained by calendrical dates. We consider these qualities in relation to Tlingit oral accounts that refer to Xak-wnoowú, an 850-year-old fort in the Glacier Bay region of southeastern Alaska. The site is narratively linked to the origins of Tlingit warfare and of the Kaagwaantaan clan, and remains a landmark of historical consciousness for contemporary descendants. We apply archaeological and geological evidence to date and verify key oral narratives, finding substantial convergence with scientific data and a complementarity of perspective that potentiates fuller understandings of both Tlingit history and e...
Contributions to Global Historical Archaeology, 1997
When Grigorii Shelikhov landed with two shiploads of men on the outer coast of Kodiak Island in A... more When Grigorii Shelikhov landed with two shiploads of men on the outer coast of Kodiak Island in August 1784, his mission was audacious and thoroughly commercial–to explore and conquer the coastal regions of southern Alaska, establish a permanent and self-sustaining Russian colony, systematize the exploitation of Alaska Native labor, harvest large quantities of sea otter pelts, and reap profits from the lucrative fur trade with China. Prospects for the success of this effort were far from certain. Russian traders had probed the Kodiak region for 20 years, but had been repeatedly discouraged by the wariness of the Qikertarmiut and their readiness to take the upper hand through surprise attacks. The relatively large Native population of the Kodiak archipelago, probably more than 8000 at the time of first Russian contact, contributed to both the attraction of the island group for trade, and the difficulties of bringing it under control. Qikertarmiut proficiency in warfare had been honed by centuries of seaborne raids and skirmishes against neighboring societies from the eastern Aleutian Islands to Prince William Sound. Shelikhov’s plan to conquer and colonize the island would require an unprecedented level of military force, as well as a skilled hand at coercion and political persuasion, if Native leaders were to be brought into alliance with a new Russian regime.
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Papers by Aron Crowell