Trade Relations in Northwest Alaska

该奖项是根据2009年美国复苏和再投资法案（公法111-5）资助的。被提议的项目PI Anderson将研究过去3600年来阿拉斯加西北部不断变化的经济关系。该研究项目将通过对考古、口述历史和地质数据集的区域整合，调查过去3500年来阿拉斯加西北部不断变化的社会和经济关系。研究小组将通过绘制原材料从源头到考古遗址的分布地图，以及收集社会经济交换的口述历史，来追踪阿拉斯加西北部各民族之间交换网络的变化。研究人员假设，原材料的流向和流动所暗示的经济和社会关系的变化似乎至少部分是由于当地环境条件的变化；环境变化使不同的社会群体在每年的生计收获和材料采购中走到一起。该项目的一个更令人兴奋的方面将是梳理出古代家庭中常见的外来物（如燧石和石板等原产地不在该地区的原材料）的意义。这位考古学家密切研究口述历史，希望能阐明阿拉斯加西北部的贸易、冲突和身份演变等问题。假设每年的粮食轮次与环境条件密切相关，任何有利于一个粮食资源地区的环境或气候变化都可能需要重新调整该地区的整个季节性轮次网络和群体间联系。为了了解这种关系网络，该项目包含四个综合研究目标：1)通过获取新的放射性碳和树木年轮日期来完善区域时间框架，这将使研究团队能够比较整个地区相同年龄的地点；2)对一个史前晚期村落遗址（Kobuk河上）进行考古发掘，以完成PI对阿拉斯加西北部遗址的分区域和时间段采样，并调查家庭贸易强度的差异；3)获得Kobuk河人民的口述历史，重点是整个地区群体间接触的故事和回忆；4)确定主要原料的产地，特别是板岩、燧石和一定程度上的黑曜岩，这些原料参与了交换。研究项目的口述历史部分还将调查当地关于气候变化的知识，以及气候变化如何影响生存资源和年度粮食采集活动。收集到的关于环境条件变化对当地影响的数据，可能有助于深入了解过去在类似条件下的适应情况，并提供有关气候变化对当地影响的信息，这些信息可被添加到正在形成的关于全球变暖影响的全北极数据库中。通过与当地助理的密切合作，培训和参与项目口述历史和考古发掘部分的高中学生，以及为Kiana传统委员会的项目提供援助，以发展他们自己的文化遗产项目，该项目得到了大量当地社区的参与。这是研究小组继续致力于与当地居民合作，解释和展示有关该地区历史的信息的一部分。

This award is funded under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (Public Law 111-5).The proposed project, PI Anderson, will examine changing economic relations in northwestern Alaska over the past 3600 years. This research project will investigate changing social and economic relationships in northwestern Alaska over the past 3500 years through the regional integration of archaeological, oral historic, and geological data sets. The research team will trace changes in networks of exchange among the peoples of northwest Alaska by mapping distributions of raw materials from source to the archaeological site and by collecting oral histories of social-economic exchange. It is hypothesized by the researchers that changes in economic and social relationships that are implied by the direction and flow of raw materials appear to have been, at least in part, due to changing local environmental conditions; environmental changes that brought different social groups together during their annual subsistence harvesting and materials procurement rounds. One of the more exciting aspects of the project will be teasing out the meaning of common exotics (raw materials such as cherts and slates that have an origin outside of the region) in ancient households. The archaeologist, working closely with oral histories, hope to shed light on issues such as trade, conflict, and the evolution of identity in northwestern Alaska. Working on the assumption that annual subsistence rounds are closely tied to environmental conditions, any environmental or climatic change that favored one food-resource area over another could potentially require readjustments in the entire network of seasonal rounds and inter-group contacts in the region. To understand this web of relationships, this project incorporates four integrated research goals: 1)refining the regional chronological framework through the acquisition of new radiocarbon and tree ring dates, which will allow the research team to compare sites of the same age across the region; 2) archaeological excavation in one late prehistoric village site (on the Kobuk River) to complete the PI's sampling of northwestern Alaskan sites by sub-region and time period and to investigate differences in intensity of trade by family household; 3) obtaining an oral history of Kobuk River peoples that focuses on tales and recollections of inter-group contacts throughout the region; and 4)a geological component to identify source areas for the major raw materials, in particular slate, chert and to a certain extent obsidian, that were involved in exchange. The oral history portion of the research project will also investigate local knowledge about climatic change and how it impacts subsistence resources and annual food-gathering activities. Data collected on the local impacts of changing environmental conditions can potentially provide insight into past adaptations under similar conditions and provide information about local impacts of climate change that can be added to an emerging Arctic-wide data base on impacts of global warming.This project has substantial local community involvement through the close collaboration with local assistants, the training and participation of high school students in the oral history and archaeological excavation portions of the project, and assistance provided to the Kiana traditional council with their project to develop their own cultural heritage programs. This is all part of the research teams' continuing dedication to collaborate with local residents in interpretation and presentation of information about the history of the region.