On the Edge of the Colonial Sphere: The Effects of Indirect Interaction on Subsistence Strategies in Northern Alaska

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Cabinets of Curiosities: Collections and Conservation in Archaeological Research" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

How did trade participation impact human-environmental interactions? It is known that the fur trade was a significant part of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century life in southern Alaska. However, the effects of the fur trade and the whaling industry on northern Alaskan lifeways have been understudied. Sustained interaction between traders and Indigenous communities did not begin until the emergence of the whaling industry, but the presence of an extensive Native trading route made it possible for goods to be easily moved throughout the region and facilitated the exchange of furs for items such as copper kettles and tobacco. In this paper, I use results from my study of the historic zooarchaeological assemblage from the Walakpa site in northern Alaska to assess what influence the fur trade had on animal exploitation. I consider the taxonomic frequency and culinary processing patterns to examine how commercial trading activities affected the foraging strategies and species exploitation in this region. Finally, I compare these data to those from the precontact Thule period to examine if there is a continuance of traditional hunting and processing methods into historic times.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Cabinets of Curiosities: Collections and Conservation in Archaeological Research   •
• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33168