Ellmig Qukaq. She is the Center: Indigenous Archaeology of Temyiq Tuyuryaq

Author(s): Kristen Barnett

Year: 2018

Summary

Ashmore and others have taken the time to observe and discuss the inherently gendered ‘nature’ of the landscape. As an indigenous scholar this discussion directs me toward concepts of "nature" and specifically, our mother earth, our peoples, and our celestial beings. Mother earth is impregnated with our past, cradling our lives and our ancestors in her womb, from which they once came, and returning (for matters within our discipline) to us in "archaeological context", if you will. I argue that it is irrelevant as to whether or not your ideology fits within this indigenous belief system, archaeologists engaging in pre-colonial, indigenous ‘sites’ of study are entrenched in a gendered cultural landscape. In my research I explore Temyiq Tuyuryaq, named for the three women whose lives were taken at the mouth of the bay. Overturning concepts of the "colonial ghost" (Hokowhitu 2009) I approach the cultural landscape through a mode of continuity experienced by the Yup’ik community residing in Tuyuryaq, and consider the gendered experience of place throughout the last 1200 years in Bristol Bay Alaska.

Cite this Record

Ellmig Qukaq. She is the Center: Indigenous Archaeology of Temyiq Tuyuryaq. Kristen Barnett. Presented at The 82nd Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Washington, DC. 2018 ( tDAR id: 444700)

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Keywords

Spatial Coverage

min long: -169.453; min lat: 50.513 ; max long: -49.043; max lat: 72.712 ;

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 20543