Food Knowledge and Place Name Documentation on the Kuskokwim River

这项研究记录了与阿拉斯加州库斯科维姆河中游食物的收获、加工、共享和使用有关的传统尤皮克生态知识。这些知识通过捕鱼、狩猎和采集活动促进粮食安全。该项目采用参与性框架，将对扎根于库斯科维姆河当地地理的与食物有关的知识进行人种学记述。PI团队将陪同参与者进行实地调查，以确定收获地点、考古遗址和其他具有重要文化意义的地方。地名和地点将通过Yupik长老的口述历史进行语境分析。这项研究将促进对粮食安全的当地背景以及地理和传统生态知识如何相交的理解。该项目还将为阿拉斯加最大的分水岭之一的民族地理学提供高分辨率的数据。该项目响应当地的研究优先事项，并采用混合方法，包括参与性聚会、研究人员和阿拉斯加土著长老的实地考察，以及库斯科维姆河中段的同步考古调查。在该计划的第一年，参与的长辈将聚集在一起，就五个与食物有关的话题进行交谈，这些话题将通过协商确定。可能的主题包括捕捞鲑鱼、食物保存和储存、食物分享和饥饿战略。随后将进行实地调查，包括访问库斯科维姆河沿线被长老们认为重要的地点。网站将通过与长老的讨论和视听录音来记录。考古调查将重新定位已知遗址，并记录那些以前没有记录的遗址。更广泛的影响包括一个在线关系地图，上面有Yup‘ik地名的发音和每个站点的叙事背景。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的智力优势和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

This research documents traditional Yup’ik ecological knowledge pertaining to the harvest, processing, sharing, and use of foods along the middle Kuskokwim River, Alaska. This knowledge contributes to food security through fishing, hunting, and gathering activities. Employing a participatory framework, this project will produce an ethnographic account of food-related knowledge rooted in the local geography of the Kuskokwim River. The PI team will accompany participants on a field survey to identify harvesting locations, archaeological sites, and other culturally significant places. Place names and sites will be contextualized through Yup’ik elders’ oral histories. This research will advance understanding of the local context of food security and of how geography and traditional ecological knowledge intersect. The project will also contribute high-resolution data to the ethnogeography of one of Alaska’s greatest watersheds.This project responds to local research priorities and employs mixed methods, including participatory gatherings, site visits by researchers and Alaska Native elders, and concurrent archaeological survey along the middle Kuskokwim River. In the first year of the project, participating elders will gather for conversation on five food-related topics, to be determined through consultation. Possible topics include salmon fishing, food preservation and storage, food sharing, and starvation strategies. Field survey will follow, involving visits to sites along the Kuskokwim identified as significant by elders. Sites will be documented through discussion with elders and though audio-visual recordings. Archaeological survey will relocate known sites and document those previously unrecorded. Broader impacts include an online relational map with Yup’ik place name pronunciations and narrative context for each site.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.