Food Knowledge and Place Name Documentation on the Kuskokwim River

这项研究记录了传统的Yup'ik生态知识，涉及到阿拉斯加Kuskokwim河中游沿着食物的收获、加工、分享和使用。这种知识有助于通过捕鱼、狩猎和采集活动实现粮食安全。该项目采用参与性框架，将对植根于Kuskokwim河当地地理的与粮食有关的知识进行人种学描述。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文化意义的地方。将通过Yup'ik长老的口述历史来确定地名和地点的背景。这项研究将促进对当地粮食安全背景以及地理和传统生态知识如何相互交叉的理解。该项目还将为阿拉斯加最大流域之一的民族地理学提供高分辨率数据，该项目响应当地研究的优先事项，采用混合方法，包括参与性集会、研究人员和阿拉斯加土著长老实地考察，以及沿Kuskokwim河中游沿着同时进行考古调查。在计划的第一年，参与的长者将聚集在一起，讨论五个与食物有关的主题，这些主题将通过协商确定。可能的主题包括鲑鱼捕捞，食物保存和储存，食物分享和饥饿策略。随后将进行实地调查，包括访问沿着Kuskokwim被长老认为重要的地点。将通过与长者的讨论和通过视听记录来记录现场。考古调查将重新定位已知的遗址，并记录那些以前未记录的遗址。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值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.