MOLLY LEE

University of Alaska Museum, Department of Anthropology, University of Alaska Fairbanks

Boasts and Baskets: The Yup'ik Eskimo Mingqaaq as Political Symbol

Recent decades have brought radical changes to Yup’ik Eskimo culture including art and artifacts. Formerly, men’s ivory carving was the most popular market art, but today, women’s coiled-grass baskets (mingqaaq sing. –at plu.) have replaced them.

One indication of the baskets’ growing importance is they now appear in various media when a totalizing image of "Yup'kness" is needed. For instance, at the 1999 summit on subsistence rights, Alaska Federation of Natives President Julie Kitka delivered her speech with a Yup’ik basket placed prominently on the podium beside her.

In this paper, I will document the growing popularity of the coiled-basket image and consider the social, economic and political implications for this change. I will suggest that the transformation objectifies changing power relations between Yup'ik and non-Native, men and women, and other important power hierarchies that are challenged by the impact of globalization on small-scale groups in the 21^st Century.