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The Legend of Qajuuttaq: Exploring the Potential of Inuit Oral History in South Greenland Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2020-02-01 Mikkel Sørensen, Pauline Knudsen
In this article, we explore the Inuit legend of the Inuk Qajuuttaq, employing an ethnohistorical, anthropological, and archaeological approach. Qajuuttaq’s legend takes place in South Greenland in the area of Narsaq around AD 1800. Our research concerns what the local population of the Narsaq area knows about Qajuuttaq and his history in 2018. Six people with knowledge about Qajuuttaq were interviewed
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“They Taste like Tuurngait”: Wolves and How Nunavut Elders See Them Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2020-02-01 Frédéric Laugrand
Among the Inuit of the eastern Arctic, where hunting remains one of the foundations of society, humans have long cohabited with the wolf (amaruq). It holds a special place among animals known to the Inuit and is closely associated with the bear, the dog, and especially the wolverine. The wolf no longer arouses fear. It is merely distrusted, due to its characteristics. It is perceived as a large predator
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Paleoenvironmental Analyses from Nunalleq, Alaska Illustrate a Novel Means to Date Pre-Inuit and Inuit Archaeology Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2020-02-01 Paul M. Ledger, Véronique Forbes
Arctic archaeology suffers from a series of unfortunate conjunctures that make accurate and reliable dating of the prehistory of circumpolar North America problematic. Through the late-prehistoric Yup’ik site of Nunalleq, this paper explores a novel approach to dating archaeological sites in the circumpolar north. Presenting data from a peat sequence associated with the archaeological site, we examine
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Finnish Planning and Housing Models Molding Skolt Culture in the 20th Century Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2020-02-01 Anu Soikkeli
Housing architecture can be regarded as both a product of culture and a medium that can influence change in a society. The relationship between identity and identification can be a source of conflict between architects, planners, and designers and those who must live with the designs. The Skolt Sámi have traditionally lived in the borderland area between Finland, Russia, and Norway. Some Skolt villages
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The Art of Hunting: Coordinating Subsistence Laws with Alaska Native Harvesting Practices Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2020-02-01 Amber Lincoln
In this paper, I explore the socioeconomic relationships between Alaska Native harvesting practices, the laws that regulate those practices, and Alaska Native art. In the 21st century, indigenous residents of northwestern Alaska incorporate harvesting activities into their travels between small rural communities, regional centers, and larger Alaskan cities. These harvests efficiently coordinate their
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Northern Dene Constellations as Worldview Projections with Case Studies from the Ahtna, Gwich’in, and Sahtúot’ı̨nę Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2020-02-01 Chris M. Cannon, Wilson Justin, Paul Herbert, Charles Hubbard, Charlie Neyelle
The sky is routinely overlooked in Northern Dene ethnology as a meaningful domain of linguistic and cultural knowledge. However, a decade of comparative ethnological research in Alaska and Canada has shown that Dene stellar knowledge is largely tied to sacred and covert knowledge systems. In this paper, we describe an Ahtna, Gwich’in, and Sahtúot’ı̨nę constellation identified as the incarnated spirit
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Freshwater Fishing Strategies in Early Modern Sami Households Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2020-01-01 Jesper Larsson,Eva-Lotta Päiviö Sjaunja
Fish were absolutely necessary for survival for many households in preindustrial societies. Because fishing waters are considered a common-pool resource, it is difficult to exclude users, and the catch is subtractable. To learn what strategies were in place to avoid fish-stock depletion and secure continuous harvests, we investigated how Indigenous Sami households in Lule lappmark, Sweden, used low-productive
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Russian Resistance to Human Sacrifice among the Tlingit Indians (1819–1867) Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2020-01-01 Andrei V. Grinëv,Richard L. Bland
Sacrifice of slaves among the Tlingit Indians, who lived in southeastern Alaska, had a ritual character and was part of their traditional culture. Slaves were sacrificed during special ceremonies—potlaches. Initially, the Russians, coming into the lands of the Tlingit at the end of the 18th century, did not interfere in their customs or try to prevent ritual slayings. Only at the end of the 1810s,
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Reconstruction of Dietary Habits of a Local Upper Taz Selkup Group in the 18th and 19th Centuries Based on Archaeoparasitology, Osteology, Stable Isotope Analysis, and Archival Documents Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2020-01-01 Olga E. Poshekhonova,Dmitry I. Razhev,Sergey M. Slepchenko,Zhanna V. Marchenko,Vladimir N. Adaev
This study aims to reconstruct the dietary habits of a local group of the Northern (Upper Taz) Selkup in the 18th and 19th centuries based on multidisciplinary analyses of human interments from the Kikki-Akki burial site in Western Siberia and a study of unpublished written sources. It includes archaeoparasitological studies of soils adjacent to human remains, a paleopathological examination of human
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Challenging Tourism Landscapes of Southwest Greenland: Identifying Social and Cultural Capital for Sustainable Tourism Development Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2020-01-01 Hannu I. Heikkinen,Lill Rastad Bjørst,Albina Pashkevich
In this article, we identify and discuss the possibilities, limitations, and challenges of sustainable tourism development in Southwest Greenland through a consideration of dimensions of social and cultural capital. We present our findings concerning the current context-specific promises and problems of tourism development and then discuss suggestions to improve local sustainability. Our argument is
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Body Metamorphosis and Interspecies Relations: An Exploration of Relational Ontologies in Bering Strait Prehistory Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2020-01-01 Feng Qu
This article explores the prehistoric ontologies etched into theriomorphic images on ivory harpoon parts among the Okvik and OBS cultures that flourished about 2,000 years ago in the Bering Strait region. Inspired by the theory of relational ontology, the author argues that the images on prehistoric Inuit artifacts not only reveal the interior essence of other-than-human animals but also signify the
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A Case Study in Recognizing Prehistoric Subsistence Organization through the Interpretation of Faunal Remains Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2020-01-01 Martina L. Steffen
The distribution of food in space and time influences hunter-gatherer settlement and subsistence patterning in generalizable ways. In North Slope, Alaska, where caribou (Rangifer tarandus) are abundant annually in predictable locations, storage equalizes availability across relative scarcity. This study examined an assemblage of caribou long-bone specimens from an activity area at the Croxton archaeological
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Entering Trance, Entering Relationship: Liminality at Finnish Rock-Art Sites Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2020-01-01 Ulla Valovesi
This article presents four new possible images of drums in the Finnish rock art, and considers these, and apparent dancing images as an acoustic record of the past. It also presents preliminary results of testing echo at over 100 rock-art sites that suggest that exceptional soundscape is an elemental, if not a fundamental component, of rock art. Both the images and the echo correlate well with the
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Unresolved Questions about Site Formation, Provenience, and the Impact of Natural Processes on Bone at the Bluefish Caves, Yukon Territory Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2020-01-01 Kathryn E. Krasinski,John C. Blong
Recent reanalysis of material excavated from the Bluefish Caves, Yukon Territory claims to have identified culturally modified bone dating to 24,000 cal. BP, thereby providing evidence for continuous human occupation of eastern Beringia from the Last Glacial Maximum. However, the recent research largely ignores the history of criticisms of the site and leaves outstanding questions about the site context
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“Spirit-Charged” Humans in Siberia: Interrelations between the Notions of the Individual (“Spirit Charge” and “Active Imprint”) and (Ritual) Action Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2020-01-01 Alexandra Lavrillier
This paper shows how a society imagines human individuals and their power to act upon spirits both ritually and materially. Based on the author’s fieldwork (from 1994 to 2019), it analyzes the emic concept onnir, which is omnipresent in the daily activities and the past and present collective/individual rituals of Siberian Evenki and Even. Each human owns a specific fluctuating “charge made of spirits”
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Hunting and Giving or Working and Selling? Contemporary Entanglements of Innu Economy and Cosmology Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2020-01-01 Émile Duchesne
By exploring the ethnographic example of the Innu of northeastern Québec (Canada), this paper proposes an analysis of the interaction between economy and cosmology using the concept of the production of persons. Through an examination of the transformations in subsistence and exchange patterns, it shows how the contemporary reality of the Innu is entangled between their traditional hunting cosmology
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Japan’s World War II on Kiska Island: Previously Undocumented Features on the Vega Bay Coastline Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2020-01-01 Caroline Funk,Debra Corbett,Hans Harmsen,Steve Goranson
The Japanese occupation of Kiska Island in the Western Aleutians was far more comprehensive than previously reported or archaeologically documented. Remarkably wellpreserved World War II Japanese military tunnels, entrenchments, structural remains, and communications networks are located throughout the southern coastal bays and coves of the island. These features were constructed in 1942–1943 by Imperial
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Signs of Cultural Diversity in the 13th to 15th Centuries AD Coastal Region of the Bothnian Bay in Northwestern Fennoscandia Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2020-01-01 Jari-Matti Kuusela
This paper examines archaeological signs indicating cultural diversity between trader societies in the coastal regions of the Bothnian Bay in northwestern Fennoscandia between the 13th and 15th centuries AD by focusing attention on the functioning of the network that connected the societies together. It is observed that within a relatively small bounded region, notable variation specifically in contemporary
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Marginal No More: Introduction to a Special Issue on the Archaeology of Northern Coasts Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2019-01-01 Christopher B. Wolff
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Paradise Gained, Lost, and Regained: Pulse Migration and the Inuit Archaeology of the Quebec Lower North Shore Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2019-01-01 William W. Fitzhugh
The long-contested question of the Inuit occupation of the Quebec Lower North Shore has been illuminated by excavations at five 17th–18th-century sod-house villages. Few organic artifacts survive, and the preserved material culture is almost entirely of European artifacts or materials refashioned into Inuit forms. Faunal assemblages indicate winter occupations. Hare Harbor represents a departure from
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Bridging Past and Present: A Study of Precontact Yup’ik Masks from the Nunalleq Site, Alaska Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2019-01-01 Anna Mossolova, Rick Knecht
This article examines precontact Yup’ik masks, maskettes, and mask fragments recently recovered from the Nunalleq site (16th–17th century AD) near the village of Quinhagak, Alaska. Remarkable in their number, size, and variety of designs, the Nunalleq masks, which represent spirits, humans, and animals, indicate a very active ceremonial life among the residents of Nunalleq settlement. This paper combines
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Foxes and Humans at the Late Holocene Uyak Site, Kodiak, Alaska Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2019-01-01 Catherine F. West, Reuven Yeshurun
The red fox (Vulpes vulpes) is a generalist, omnivorous predator that is often drawn to human environments, exploiting anthropogenic refuse. Foxes may have had little or significant economic importance for prehistoric human foragers, depending on the environmental, economic, and cultural context. Here we investigate human-fox interaction at the Late Holocene Uyak site (KOD-145) on Kodiak Island, Alaska
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The Stock Cove Site: A Large Dorset Seal-Hunting Encampment on the Coast of Southeastern Newfoundland Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2019-01-01 Christopher B. Wolff, Donald H. Holly, John C. Erwin, Tatiana Nomokonova, Lindsay Swinarton
The Stock Cove site (CkAl-3) is a large, deeply stratified, multicomponent site located in southeastern Newfoundland. The richest strata at the site, which have yielded thousands of artifacts and multiple overlapping house features, provide evidence of a substantial Dorset presence. Earlier researchers proposed that the Stock Cove site additionally contained the Province’s only Dorset longhouse, which
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Nunalleq: Archaeology, Climate Change, and Community Engagement in a Yup’ik Village Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2019-01-01 Charlotta Hillerdal, Rick Knecht, Warren Jones
In this paper, we present an overview of the most recent results of the ongoing research on the Nunalleq site in Southwestern Alaska, a late pre-contact Yupik settlement. This endeavor is a long-term project that has taken place in the context of the threat that the combined effects of climate change poses to archaeological heritage in the sub-Arctic. Recent climate-change research highlights local
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Marine Shielings in Medieval Norse Greenland Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2019-01-01 Christian Koch Madsen
The Norse that settled Greenland between ca. AD 985 and 1450 were sedentary agropastoralists that combined farming with hunting and organized after a North Atlantic socioeconomic model. Research of the last 40 years has emphasized the great and increasing importance of marine resources for both the Greenland Norse local subsistence economy and long-distance trade. However, the archaeological sites
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Late Dorset Deposits at Iita: Site Formation and Site Destruction in Northwestern Greenland Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2019-01-01 John Darwent, Genevieve M. LeMoine, Christyann M. Darwent, Hans Lange
The site of Iita (Etah) could, in many ways, serve as a poster child for climate-change-driven destruction of arctic coastal sites. Sitting on an alluvial fan at the base of a steep-sloped kame deposit on the north shore of Foulke Fjord in northwestern Greenland, the site has rich historical and late prehistoric occupations visible on its surface. However, more uniquely for the high Arctic, 1,000 years
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Intersecting the Cultural Landscapes of Uummannaq Island, SW Greenland, through Epistemologies of Geology and Environmental Anthropology Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2018-02-01 Ann Eileen Lennert, Majken Djurhuus Poulsen, Nynke Keulen
This study looks upon how different epistemologies reassess knowledges and histories, and how different fields of interest and ways of knowing can look at landscapes in similar ways and intersect as well as reveal fascinating facts about landscapes and place. Likewise, how local knowledges and stories are knowledges of how to produce and reproduce a locality. It is this identification of knowledge
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Nomadic Nenets Women’s Sewing Skills: The Ethno-Pedagogical Process of Transferring Traditional Skills and Knowledge by Nenets Women through the Generations as Part of Their Nomadic Culture Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2018-02-01 Zoia Vylka Ravna
“Dressed up with needles,” as they say in Nenets, means praising someone for their impeccable appearance, elegance, and beauty. Nenets women sew clothes for their husbands, children, and themselves. They also sew covers for their tents, bags for storing and packing, the covers for baby cradles, and the last clothes worn by the deceased before burial. Dedicated and loving, a Nenets woman works tirelessly
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Reinterpreting the First Human Occupations of Ivujivik (Nunavik, Canada) Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2018-02-01 Murielle Nagy
This article presents a reassessment of the Paleoeskimo presence in Ivujivik (northwest tip of Nunavik, Canada). It discusses 36 new radiocarbon dates obtained to determine whether the Pita (KcFr-5) and Ohituk (KcFr-3A) sites belong to the so-called “Pre-Dorset to Dorset transition,” as concluded from previous research, or represent occupations during periods corresponding to either culture. The new
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Farming in the Extreme—Animal Management in Late Medieval and Early Modern Northern Finland Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2018-02-01 Maria Lahtinen, Anna-Kaisa Salmi
Agrarian activity clearly intensified in northern Finland from the 14th century onwards. This climatically marginal area was one of the northernmost locations for farming during the studied period. This study contributes to understanding the development and local adaptions in agriculture in the Late Medieval and Early Modern (ca. 1400–1700 AD) period northern Finland through zooarchaeological and stable
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Deserters and Fugitives in Russian America Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2018-02-01 Andrei V. Grinëv
Desertion, as a specific social phenomenon, occurred over the extent of almost the whole period of existence of the Russian colonies in Alaska (18th century–1867). Some attempts at desertion were successful; others suffered failure. At the same time, “external” desertion, outside the boundaries of Russian America, absolutely prevailed. Sometimes fugitives voluntarily returned to Alaska; other times
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Substitution and Continuity in Southern Chukotka Traditional Rituals: A Case Study from Meinypilgyno Village, 2016–2017 Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2018-02-01 Konstantin Klokov
The village of Meinypilgyno is located on the shores of the Pacific Ocean in southern Chukotka. In the past, some of its inhabitants were engaged in reindeer herding on the tundra, while others fished. However, 20 years ago, during the economic crisis that followed the collapse of the Soviet Union, reindeer herding was lost. However, the Chukchi of Meinypilgyno did not stop performing their main reciprocity
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Iarte VI and Late Holocene Reindeer Remains from the Iamal Peninsula of Arctic Siberia Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2018-02-01 Tatiana Nomokonova, Robert J. Losey, Andrei V. Plekhanov, Heather J. McIntyre
Rangifer tarandus is one of the most important animals for indigenous groups living in the Arctic. This significance is particularly the case in the Iamal Peninsula of the Russian Federation. The Iamal Peninsula has produced a substantial archaeological record of human engagement with reindeer during the Late Holocene period. The archaeological site known as Iarte VI, a multihousepit settlement on
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“It’s a Social Thing”: Sociocultural Experiences with Nutrition and Exercise in Anchorage, Alaska Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2018-02-01 Britteny M. Howell, Shoshana H. Bardach
Cross-cultural research shows marked variation in health across the world’s senior populations. The social and cultural environment contributes to complex negotiations of food and physical activity patterns; however, little is known about social and cultural influences on diet and activity patterns for older adults in the urban Circumpolar North. Utilizing a socioecological framework, this project
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Topographic Analysis of the Dorset Occupation at Phillip’s Garden, Northwestern Newfoundland: Implications for Dwelling Numbers, Forms, and Site Settlement Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2018-01-01 Christina Robinson, Patricia J. Wells
A topographic survey of the Dorset site Phillip’s Garden identified 183 surface features that potentially expand present understandings of social life at the settlement. Its long history of archaeological excavations focused on depressions observable on the ground surface. Excavation confirmed them as large dwellings, which became the basis for describing a unique settlement pattern at the site. This
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The Gwich’in Boy in the Moon and Babylonian Astronomy Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2018-01-01 Wayne Horowitz, Alestine Andre, Ingrid Kritsch
The Gwich’in narrative of “The Boy in the Moon” tells the story of how the face of the Moon came to be seen as it is today in the skies over the Gwich’in homeland in the Canadian Arctic and Alaska. This article uses the methodology of “comparative ethnoastronomy” to explore the story of “The Boy in the Moon” and its place in Gwich’in culture to inform on a Babylonian tradition of a Lion Man in the
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“We are the Arctic”: Identities at the Arctic Winter Games 2016 Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2018-01-01 Robert C. Thomsen, Carina Ren, Renuka Mahadevan
In this article, we explore the 2016 Arctic Winter Games (AWG) as a site for arctic, Indigenous, and national identity building, drawing on fieldwork from the planning and execution of AWG 2016 and surveys conducted with participant and stakeholder groups. We show that although the AWG 2016 event is seemingly a contranational sports competition in the Olympic modality, and thus a vehicle for traditional
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Cultural Identity, Mental Health, and Suicide Prevention: What Can We Learn from Unangax Culture? Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2018-01-01 Sean R. O’Rourke, Nadine Kochuten, Chantae Kochuten, Katherine L. Reedy
Many Indigenous peoples in Alaska have high suicide rates. The Unangan/s, however, have a rate reported to be below those of other Alaska Natives. Using data derived from literature review, autoethnography, and correspondence with Unangan/s and clinicians who serve them, we explore the validity of Unangax suicide statistics and the relationship between this people’s unique multifaceted—yet integrated—identity
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Cultural Continuity from Pre-Dorset to Dorset in the Eastern Canadian Arctic Highlighted by Bone Technology and Typology Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2018-01-01 Claire Houmard
Since the 1920s, two main cultural entities are distinguished in the eastern Canadian Arctic, namely Pre-Dorset and Dorset, with the latter being considered as originating from the former. This assertion has, however, been challenged for the past 30 years. To get new insights about the filiations of the Pre-Dorset and Dorset, technological and typological analyses of bone artifacts were performed on
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Iyatayet Revisited: A Report on Renewed Investigations of a Stratified Middle-to-Late Holocene Coastal Campsite in Norton Sound, Alaska Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2018-01-01 Andrew H. Tremayne, Christyann M. Darwent, John Darwent, Kelly A. Eldridge, Jeffrey T. Rasic
The multicomponent middle-to-late Holocene coastal site of Iyatayet, at Cape Denbigh, Alaska, originally excavated by J. L. Giddings in the early 1950s, was key to developing a culture-historical sequence for northwest Alaska. We revisited the site in 2012 and 2013 to collect data to refine the occupation chronology and to test models of maritime-resource intensification. Our results show the Denbigh
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Whale Bone as Fuel at an Inland Farm in Early Modern Iceland Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2018-01-01 George Hambrecht, Kevin S. Gibbons
Excavation at Gröf, an early modern inland farm in Iceland’s southern Skaftártunga region, reveals a faunal assemblage dominated by fragmented and burned whale bone. To date, no other inland assemblages exhibiting these characteristics have been reported in Iceland. The presence of whale bone at an inland farm site in Iceland is itself peculiar, but the fact that in it is heavily fragmented and burned
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Reindeer Returning from Combat: War Stories among the Nenets of European Russia Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2018-01-01 Stephan Dudeck
The following paper sheds new light on the Second World War oral history of the Nenets—indigenous people living in the northwestern part of the Russian Arctic. The participation of Nenets reindeer herders is commemorated and celebrated as part of the antifascist heroism of the Soviet people in the public historical discourse. Parts of the personal life stories Nenets elders shared in this research
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Place, Identity, and Relations: The Lived Experience of Two Northern Worlds Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2017-02-01 Ann Eileen Lennert
Letting Ingold and Turnbull set the scene, in this paper I visualize how “relations” trace the lived experience of being, learning, and understanding the world. I do so comparatively by drawing upon my research and travels in Greenland and Iceland, exploring how place, identity, and social relations reflect lived relations, amplifying how mobility, narratives, knowledge, and locality are closely entwined
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Challenges to Arctic Nomadism: Yamal Nenets Facing Climate Change Era Calamities Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2017-02-01 Andrei V. Golovnev
Yamal peninsula is the largest center of reindeer herding in the Arctic, and Nenets historically and recently succeeded in maintaining their economic and ethnocultural potential. However, environmental challenges, such as the formation of a widespread ice crust across the Yamal Peninsula in the winter of 2013–2014 and the outbreak of anthrax in the summer of 2016, have provoked a discussion on Nenets
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The Rebirth of a People: Reincarnation Cosmology among the Tundra Yukaghir of the Lower Kolyma, Northeast Siberia Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2017-02-01 Laur Vallikivi, Lena Sidorova
We focus on Tundra Yukaghir reincarnation cosmology and its workings in the current ethnic revival by examining rebirth accounts from the Lower Kolyma. In Sovietized Siberia, the atheist state fought against everything that was “religious” and thus contributed to the wane of reincarnation ideology and related ritual practices. In addition, the state suppressed a distinct Yukaghir ethnicity it had partly
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Amakomanak: An Early Holocene Microblade Site in Northwestern Alaska Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2017-02-01 Yan Axel Gómez Coutouly
The Amakomanak site (AMR-00095), dated around 7500 BC, is located in the Noatak National Preserve in northwestern Alaska and presents an important microblade component (microblade cores, core tablets, and microblades) made of local chert. During the late Pleistocene and the early Holocene, microblade technology is widespread in central Alaska, dominated by Campus-style microblade cores (wedge-shaped
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The Ethnography of Memory in East Siberia: Do Life Histories from the Arctic Coast Matter? Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2017-02-01 Florian Stammler, Aytalina Ivanova, Lena Sidorova
This paper shows the use of oral history for contributing to larger debates on the making of memory, the particular role that anthropologists have in the social construction of memory, and ultimately to identity construction projects in the field sites we work. Combined with anthropological fieldwork, oral history allows us to reveal new facets and principles of memory negotiation. Biographical narratives
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Different from All the “Others”: Mobility and Independence among Greenlandic Students in Denmark Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2017-02-01 Janne Flora
Contrary to popular belief, Greenlandic students do not always study in Denmark because they have no other choice. Many choose to study abroad and regard their time there (in Denmark and beyond) as part and parcel with their education, stating that education is not only for their own social mobility but also contributes to Greenland’s future of independence from Denmark. The article is based on a small
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Beneath the Surface of the World: High-Quality Quartzes, Crystal Cavities, and Neolithization in Circumpolar Europe Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2017-02-01 Teemu Mökkönen, Kerkko Nordqvist, Vesa-Pekka Herva
Quartz was an important and widely used lithic material in the prehistory of circumpolar Eurasia. While ethnographic and other data indicate that quartz has been invested with special qualities and meanings in various cultures around the world, archaeological studies in circumpolar Europe have tended to discuss quartz use in exclusively practical and technological terms. This article takes a “nontechnological”
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The Fate of the Eyak Indians in Russian America (1783–1867) Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2017-02-01 Andrei V. Grinëv
This article is dedicated to the dramatic history of the small tribe of Eyak Indians during the period when Alaska belonged to the Russian Empire. The article was written with the use of archival data, published documents, notes of contemporaries, the use of statistics, materials of field research of ethnographers, native legends, and a broad circle of scholarly literature in the Russian, English,
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And People Asked: “We Want to Have Lakes to Fish!” and Lakes Were Given. Skolt Sámi Relocation after WWII in Finland Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2017-01-01 Nuccio Mazzullo
This paper examines the relocation of the Skolt Sámi people from Russia to Finland in the first half of the 20th century. Based on empirical fieldwork and a review of literature and reports, I investigate both the decision-making and the place-making processes in the region of Sevettijärvi, Finnish Upper Lapland. This article gives an account of the difficulties resettled villagers had in making themselves
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Aleut Ethnography in Transition: In Memory of Dorothy Jones Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2017-01-01 Katherine L. Reedy, Marie E. Lowe
This paper honors the memory of Dorothy Jones (1923–2015), an Alaska scholar who conducted ethnographic research in the Aleutians between 1969 and 1976. The authors contextualize Jones’s and their own work within the history of ethnography in the Aleutians which began with Ioann Veniaminov’s 1840 Notes on the Islands of the Unalaska District to the autoethnographic perspective of indigenous students
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Ivory versus Antler: A Reassessment of Binary Structuralism in the Study of Prehistoric Eskimo Cultures Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2017-01-01 Feng Qu
This article reexamines the binary structural approach proposed by McGhee (1977) in his studies of Thule culture. First, using data generated from the Okvik, Kukulik, and Nukleet assemblages in Alaska, which cover Okvik, Old Bering Sea, Punuk, and Thule cultures over 1,900 years, the paper examines whether the binary structures were encoded in the technology and materials of the Northern Maritime tradition
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Collective and Individual Memories: Narrations about the Transformations in the Nenets Society Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2017-01-01 Roza Laptander
The Tundra Nenets have a very well developed oral history tradition, and they use different ways to disseminate this knowledge and memories. This paper examines Nenets’ oral history within the transformation of collective and personal memories about early collectivization in the tundra under the Soviet regime. The Nenets are a flexible society and accommodated most of the external changes in their
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Spatial Expression of Kinship among the Dukha Reindeer Herders of Northern Mongolia Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2017-01-01 Matthew J. O’Brien, Todd A. Surovell
Pastoralism represents a crucial shift in the relationship between humans and animals that permeates all aspects of culture. One aspect of this transition is changes to settlement and camp structure. Previous studies indicate pastoralists situate themselves in areas suitable for their domesticated animals as opposed to foragers who situate themselves closer to consumable natural resources, such as
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Leaving Novaȋa Zemlȋa: Narrative Strategies of the Resettlement of the Nenets Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2017-01-01 Karina Lukin
The article examines narrative strategies in recollections related to the resettlement of the Nenets from Novaȋa Zemlȋa during the 1950s. The material consists of interviews and ethnographic fieldwork, newspaper articles, literature on the history of Novaȋa Zemlȋa, and an Internet discussion forum. The strategies are analyzed to be borne at the intersection of public and private discourses and varying
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Yesterday’s Memories, Today’s Discourses: The Struggle of the Russian Sámi to Construct a Meaningful Past Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2017-01-01 Lukas Allemann
When new discourses appear, they can cause a certain pressure to search for new meaning of past actions and therefore even change recollection. During a period of discursive transition, these processes of memory evolution can cause serious social rifts. These insights from oral history theories are applied in this paper to the Sámi people in Russia, who all too often are seen by outsiders as a homogeneous
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“The Russians Are Coming”: U.S.–Soviet Collaboration in the Study of the Prehistory of Beringia during the Cold War—Joint Excavations in the Aleutian Islands, 1974 Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2017-01-01 Aleksandr K. Konopatsky, Yaroslav V. Kuzmin, Richard L. Bland
In 1974, William S. Laughlin, who had been excavating on Anangula Island, one of the earliest prehistoric sites in the Aleutian Islands, invited Aleksei P. Okladnikov, the grand master of archaeology in Northeast Asia, to visit and take part in fieldwork. Okladnikov managed to get permission to come to the USA bringing along four researchers, mostly his former Ph.D. students. One of those, Aleksandr
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Alutiiq Subsistence Economy at Igvak , a Russian-American Artel in the Kodiak Archipelago Arctic Anthropology (IF 1.211) Pub Date : 2016-02-01 Michael A. Etnier, Megan A. Partlow, Nora R. Foster
Igvak was a Russian-American Company fur-hunting outpost (artel) on the south end of Afognak Island that was occupied from the 1790s to about 1830. Midden samples were recovered from deposits adjacent to the Alutiiq workers’ barracks as part of the Dig Afognak program. Although small amounts of European domesticates were identified, the bulk of the diet focused on traditional local foods. The dominant