Whale Hunting Societies of the Western Arctic: A Reginal Intergration (Archaeology and Sociocultural Components)

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ABSTRACT OPP-9807051, 9806516 MCCARTNEY, HARRITT UNIV. ARKANSAS, UNIV. ALASKA This project addresses the regional integration of biological, ecological, social, and climatic data for better understanding the origins, development, and dynamics of native whaling and how whaling communities organize themselves to deal with the abundance of whale products when available and their scarcity when whale hunting fails. The project will address four overarching interrelated goals: 1) reconstruction of climate fluctuations over the past two millennia with linkages to whale species and their numbers; 2) determination of native whale selection by species and size through the study of archeological whale bones, recently landed whales, and whale stock characteristics; 3) study of sociocultural variability of whaling and community organization; and 4) a focused examination of relations between prehistoric Siberian and Alaskan whale hunting groups around the Bering Strait. This research takes into account the endangered nature of whales, threatened and damaged archeological sites, and elderly native whalers who have the greatest long-term knowledge about historic whaling. Bowhead whales are federally protected due to their limited numbers, coastal archeological sites that contain whale bones and whale hunting technology are eroding at a rapid rate, and Eskimo elders often die of old age without having an opportunity to record their firsthand and long-term acquaintance with whaling and its social dimensions.