MA Thesis Defense: A Dental Metric Biodistance Analysis of the Rong and the A’chik.
Friday, April 29, at 3pm AK time
Little is known about the population history and genetic affinities of many of the
tribal groups of northeastern India, including the Rong and the A’chik. This study
employs tooth size allocation analysis to test hypotheses concerning their origins
and the impact of sex-biased post-marital residence patterns. Due to matrilineality
and matrilocality, A’chik females ought to express less variability than males and
be more isolated phenetically from members of other groups. The opposite should be
true for the Rong who are patrilineal and patrilocal. Despite patrilineality, Rong
females should share some affinities to members of other groups due to the widespread
practice of hypergamous marriages. Mesiodistal and buccolingual dimensions of the
permanent teeth were measured among 166 A’chik and 185 Rong individuals. These data
were compared to that obtained among 1151 members of seven ethnic groups from other
regions of South Asia. Group centroids from canonical variates were plotted in three
dimensions to assess similarities among samples. Canonical variates, from both sex-pooled
and non-pooled analysis, identify the Rong and A’chik as possessing closer affinities
to each other than to members of the other groups, thereby supporting the hypothesis
that members of these two tribal groups share a population history different from
that of ethnic groups of other regions of the subcontinent. The sex-pooled analysis
indicated a closer relationship between the Rong males and the A’chik and a more distant
relationship between the Rong males and the other groups than expected. Overall the
results support findings from genetic studies and population histories. ------ Please
join us Friday, April 29, at 3pm AK time, for the MA thesis defense by Mary Ashley
Stough. Please reach out to Mary Ashley at <mastough@alaska.edu> to receive the zoom
link.
Sled dogs as gifts: An ethnography of dog exchanges among kennels in Alaska
May 6th 9am-11am AKST
Allison Cruz
Anthropology MA Thesis Defense
Friday, May 6, 9am-11am AKST
Room 302 Bunnell Building and via Zoom
Sled dogs as gifts: An ethnography of dog exchanges among kennels in Alaska
Abstract:
This thesis investigates the social relationships that develop through the circulation
of sled dogs among Alaskan kennels. Drawing on multisited ethnographic fieldwork in
and around Fairbanks, AK, as well as on anthropological literature on kinship, personhood,
and gift-giving economies, it examines how sled dogs are acquired and exchanged in
Alaska. It also offers a novel perspective on the value of “bloodlines” and the “special
relationships” that unite breeders, mushers and sled dogs. A main argument is that
Alaskan sled dogs are exchanged as relational gifts (rather than commodities). Research
results reveal that the value of sled dogs as gifts reflects the bond that exists
in human-canine relationships. This relation stems from the specific forms of interaction
that are at work in the interspecies team. It is also characterized by a profoundly
spiritual dimension that reveals itself out on “the trail,” a liminal space cutting
across the Alaskan “wilderness.” The overall findings of this work determine that
sled dogs, as relational gifts, are central figures within the mushing community and
play a key role in creating multifaceted connections within and among kennels in Alaska.
2022 Archaeological Field School Deadline Extended
5-1-2022
Founded in 1902 on the north bank of the Tanana River,
The Chena Townsite was a bustling goldrush town home to
thousands of miners and settlers that flocked to the region
in search of prosperity. Chena rivaled its close neighbor
Fairbanks as the commercial center of mining operations
in the Alaska Interior. The rivalry lasted only a few short
decades, however, before Fairbanks emerged victorious.
Chena became a ghost town by 1920 and was all but
forgotten. Little remains of the once thriving town.
In the past two decades however, archaeologists have
mapped, surveyed, and begun to excavate parts of Chena
in hopes of better understanding its birth and abandonment.
This year we will continue this research by conducting
archaeological survey and excavations at the site where
Chena once stood.
The Chena Townsite is located just outside of Fairbanks, Alaska. Students will live
in their own accommodations and report to the site daily. Students will provide their
own lunches, but all tools and equipment will be provided. Participants will learn
the fundamental skills of archaeological fieldwork while
excavating and documenting historic structures and artifacts. They will examine artifacts,
botanicals, sediments, and faunal materials to learn analytical techniques while providing
insight into the lives of the traders, miners, and other members of this short-lived
historic community.
Instructor: Dr. Justin Cramb
Email: jecramb@alaska.edu
2022 Summer Session II - June 27th - August 5th
ANTH: F490 Archaeological Field School (6 credits)
Application Deadline: May1st, 2022
Materializing Haa Aani: Tlingit Beading Practices and the Land
3/4/2022
Megan Smetzer
Acting Curator of Western Ethnology
Canadian Museum of History
Lecturer of Art History
Capilano University
--The increasingly rich array of cultural expressions created by contemporary women
artists for use in communities as well as for display in museums and galleries results
directly from the resilience of previous generations of Tlingit women. The mothers,
grandmothers, and aunties of the four artists introduced in this seminar persisted
through the darkest years of settler colonialism, making and selling beadwork that
set the stage for the revival of expansion of weaving, carving, painting, installation
and other cultural and artistic practices. Though the work of revitalization is far
from over, Tlingit women are, as they have always been, the backbone of this cultural
shift –making tangible haa aani (honoring and utilizing the land), acknowledging and
representing latseen (strength of body, mind, and spirit) and haa shuká (honoring
ancestors and future generations), all of which contribute to the assertion of wooch
yáx (maintaining social and spiritual balance and harmony). - FOR ZOOM ACCESS INQUIRIES,
PLEASE EMAIL
DR. BRIAN HEMPHILL BHEMPHILL@ALASKA.EDU
The 2022 Otto William Geist Fund Grant Application is now open!
2/21/2022
The O. W. Geist Fund was established by Otto Geist in 1963 for the purposes of:
• Acquisitions of archaeological or paleontological material for the University.
• Financing in whole or in part expeditions for archaeological or paleontological
field research.
• Fellowship grants for students majoring in anthropology (archaeology) or paleontology.
The application deadline is March 18th, 2022.
Film Showing - - “A Thousand Years Unfolding Archaeology at the Cape” A film by
Sarah Betcher
02-25-2022
Located on a spit of the Seward Peninsula, excavations conducted at the Cape Espenberg
site since 2016 have yielded the remains of a well-preserved wooden house. Interpretive
analyses of these remains alongside local Inupiaq historical narratives of Shishmaref,
have generated a richer and deeper understanding of this region’s heritage. - - FOR
ZOOM ACCESS INQUIRIES, PLEASE EMAIL
DR. BRIAN HEMPHILL BHEMPHILL@ALASKA.EDU
Christian Thomas - Special Projects Archaeologist, Government of the Yukon What
is an Arrow? What are we Hunting? Insights in ancient Dene hunting technologies from
the Yukon Ice Patch Project
January 28th 3-5pm
Every year for millennia, in the mountainscapes of the southern Yukon, hunting groups
set out into their traditional hunting territories to harvest mountain caribou and
thinhorn sheep. Today, hunting weapons that were lost in the snow are melting free
from ancient ice. In this talk, Christian Thomas of the Yukon Ice Patch Research group
discusses the many layered insights these discoveries have evidenced about the materials
and crafting techniques used to sustain this outstanding hunting tradition.
ANTHROPOLOGY COLLOQUIUM
JANUARY 28TH 3-5 PM
via Zoom (email Dr. Brian Hemphill at bhemphill@alaska.edu for Zoom link)
Northern Dene Astronomical and Sky-Related Knowledge: A Comparative Anthropological
Study
September 17th
Abstract
The sky and its contents are routinely overlooked in Northern Dene ethnology as a
meaningful part of linguistic and cultural knowledge. However, more than 11 years
of primary fieldwork learning with and from Dene elders, speakers, and culture bearers
from 12 ethnolinguistic groups across 32 communities in Alaska and Canada has shown
that astronomical knowledge is deeply rooted in both practical and sacred ways of
knowing. With a focus on detail and breadth, this comparative ethnological study utilized
an experience-based approach to investigate the ways in which Northern Dene peoples
perceive, conceptualize, and integrate the sky and its contents into systems of knowledge,
practices, worldview, cosmology, and spirituality. At the center of these knowledge
systems is a principal constellation often identified as the incarnated spirit of
a Traveler-Transformer figure who circled the world in Distant Time. Although this
Traveler is widely known in Dene mythology as the one who instilled balance and order
in the world, his enigmatic transformation to the sky was traditionally known by spiritually
gifted people. The “Traveler” constellation is not only a world custodian and archetype
of an idealized medicine person, but it is also a teacher, ally, game keeper, and
the embodiment of the world. Taken together, the Traveler on earth and in the sky
provides a powerful conceptual model for behaviors and actions as a central organizing
principal and locus of indigenous Northern Dene worldview, cosmology, and spirituality.
Two other subsequent chapters focus on general concepts of stars, minor constellations,
and the use of stars in time-reckoning, weather forecasting, and wayfinding. These
are followed by a chapter pertaining to the sun and moon as highly animate and personified
beings that also embody fundamental models for proper behaviors and actions. The final
chapter, prior the conclusion, centers on socio-cosmic relationships between the Dene
and a host of highly sentient atmospheric phenomena that bridge the divide between
the upper cosmos and the lived world of humans. Collectively, this work underscores
that the earth and sky are not exclusive to one another but are part and parcel to
a unified Northern Dene cosmology and worldview that are deeply rooted in relational
significances. This is among relatively few book-length studies in anthropology on
the indigenous astronomical knowledge, perceptions, and practices of any extant culture
in the world.
The Making of Alaskan Pastoral Traditions: Colonial encounters of the Sámi reindeer
herders in Alaska
May 7, 2021
Abstract: In the late 1800s, two groups of Sámi people came to Alaska to teach reindeer
herding to Alaska Native peoples. Thus, they became entangled with colonization and
cultural assimilation schemes of the U.S. government. The immigrants’ contribution
to the development of reindeer herding, as well as their experiences as Indigenous
and colonized people, has not been fully addressed in the literature regarding reindeer
herding in Alaska. The proposed research sheds light on the little-known stories of
Sámi reindeer herders in Alaska by examining archival and bureaucratic materials and
through photographic elicitation fieldwork in Alaska and northern Fennoscandia. A
main objective is to build a nuanced understanding of the colonial encounters between
the Alaska Sámi and the Native and non-Indigenous peoples who were involved in the
Alaska Reindeer Project (ARP). In contrast to earlier essentializing narratives about
the Alaska Sámi, this research focuses on their lived experiences within a nexus of
colonial encounters. Methodologically, it applies the New Rhetoric textual analysis
framework onto written materials to elucidate the cultures of colonialism. An important
aspect of the research is its collaborative dimension: Preliminary findings as well
as archival photographs will be discussed with Sámi local knowledge experts in Guovdageaidnu
(Kautokeino), Norway, during fieldwork. Along similar lines, another objective is
to share the archival materials that are examined in the context of this research
with contemporary Sámi communities.
Dr. Justin Cramb receives an URSA Innovative Technology and Education (ITE) Award.
April, 16, 2021
Dr. Cramb of the UAF Department of Anthropology received a 2021 URSA ITE award for
his proposal titled Zooarchaeology Teaching Collection Improvement and Database Integration.
The funding for this award will be used to purchase new curation materials for the
skeletal comparative collection housed in Bunnell 408 and to integrate the collection
into the Arctos online database management system. The collection of hundreds of comparative
animal skeletons housed in the Zooarchaeology Laboratory is used to train students
to correctly identify animal bones found at archaeological sites. The end goal of
this project is to improve the accessibility of the collection for students and researchers.
The integration with Arctos, a large international online database for cultural, biological,
and archaeological collections, will allow students and other researchers to browse
the collection remotely and to easily find, access, and engage with specimens in the
physical collection. This will improve the teaching and research capabilities of the
lab.
Dr. Elaine Drew receives UAF Honors College's 2021 Robert Piacenza Outstanding Teaching
Award!!
April 13th
Dr. Elaine Drew is the recipient of the UAF Honors College's 2021 Robert Piacenza
Excellence in Teaching Award! The award is facilitated through a process driven by
the Honors Student Advisory Council, and the awardee is selected based upon student
testimonials. We are swelling with pride in congratulating our esteemed colleague
on this well-deserved recognition! We are also pleased to share these photos of Dr.
Drew and her students at the Medical Anthropology Lab she has established at UAF;
at the session on undergraduate research she led at the 2020 meeting of the Alaska
Anthropological Association; as a guest of the student-run KSUA Speaking of Anthropology
show; and hosting a raffle at the celebration of the World Anthropology Day. Congratulations,
Elaine! Thank you for all you do as a mentor, scholar, and caring generous contributor
to the life of the UAF Anthropology Department.