Zen Fish: a Consideration of the Discordance Between Artifactual and Zooarchaeological Indicators of Thule Inuit Fish Use

Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 20, 3–72 (2001) doi:10.1006/jaar.2000.0368, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on

Zen Fish: A Consideration of the Discordance between Artifactual and Zooarchaeological Indicators of Thule Inuit Fish Use

Peter Whitridge

Department of Anthropology, University of North Carolina, 301 Alumni Bldg., CB# 3115, Chapel Hill, North Carolina 27599-3115

Received February 27, 1998; revision received February 4, 2000; accepted June 30, 2000

Despite fish bone being rare in even the best preserved Classic Thule Inuit (ca. A.D. 1000– 1400) faunal assemblages from the Canadian Arctic, it has often been assumed that fish played an important role in Thule economies. This is due to the prominent place of fishing in the harvesting practices of the Historic Inuit and the ubiquity of fishing implements in Thule artifact assemblages. Based on an evaluation of potential taphonomic, sampling, and interpretive biases and the artifactual and zooarchaeological evidence for harvesting of sea mammals, land mammals, fish, and birds, it appears that fishing was of generally limited importance in the eastern parts of the Canadian Arctic and before about A.D. 1400, likely due to resource scheduling conflicts. The nonetheless widespread occurrence of fishing gear invites consideration of alternative scenarios for the place of fishing in Thule society, in which a minor dietary role is not inconsistent with important cultural roles. © 2001 Academic Press Key Words: Thule; Inuit; economy; zooarchaeology; fish; taphonomy; site formation; Arctic, Nunavut.

I have ﬁshed everywhere; but I have not really ﬁshed at all.—Iglulingmiut hunter

INTRODUCTION ing the discordant evidence up to taphonomic and recovery biases, there has been Thule archaeologists are favored with a no review of the artifactual or zooarchaeo- tremendously rich faunal record, the re- logical evidence for fishing, nor any sus- sult of a conjunction between hunting so- tained consideration of the possibility that cieties that derived virtually their entire the faunal lacuna is really just an indica- diet from animals and a cold, dry arctic tion that fishing was much less important environment that ensures good preserva- for Thule than later Inuit groups. tion of near-surface faunal remains and The sample of sites with published fau- perfect preservation of any bone or soft nal and artifactual data now appears suf- tissue that becomes enclosed in perma- ficient to attempt a critical evaluation of frost. Despite fish bone being rare in even Thule fish use. This necessitates assem- the best preserved faunal assemblages, it bling data from later Inuit sites as well, has often been assumed that fish played since the conventional importance at- an important role in Eastern Thule econ- tached to fish is linked to the reliance on omies. This is due to the prominent place direct historic analogy for interpreting of fishing in the harvesting practices of the (and patching over gaps in) the Thule ar- Historic Inuit and the ubiquity of fishing chaeological record. Although the termi- implements in Thule artifact assemblages. nology in use is inconsistent, archaeolo- Although arctic archaeologists have often gists working on sites belonging to the briefly puzzled over this situation, chalk- Neoeskimo cultural tradition, spanning

FIG. 1. Canadian Arctic place names and historic distribution of major Inuit regional groups. ZEN FISH 5 the past millennium of Canadian Arctic protohistoric period that began close to prehistory, tend to recognize three major 1800 in many areas and represent an im- chronological subdivisions: the Classic portant chronological marker. Because Thule, Modified Thule (or, in the western Greenland and Labrador are not included Canadian Arctic, Late Prehistoric), and in this analysis, nor any archaeological Historic periods. The Classic Thule period components dating predominantly to the conventionally encompasses one or more 20th century (a period of accelerating so- phases of migration of North Alaskan cial and economic change), it is conve- groups into the Canadian Arctic and their nient to crudely delineate the major Neo- subsequent expansion throughout the eskimo chronological subdivisions for the Eastern Arctic (Fig. 1). However, the ear- remainder of the Eastern Arctic as follows: liest or “Pioneering” migration dating to Pioneering/Classic Thule, A.D. 1000–1400; around A.D. 1000 is poorly documented Modified Thule/Late Prehistoric, A.D. and may not represent the direct anteced- 1400–1800; and Historic, A.D. 1800–1900. ent of the widespread Classic Thule cul- This article considers the proposition ture, which appears to have become es- that fish use did not remain static over the tablished closer to about A.D. 1200 course of Neoeskimo settlement in the (Whitridge 1999, 2000a; one Pioneering Canadian Arctic. While this would seem Thule faunal assemblage is included in to be an almost absurdly straightforward the following analyses, but for termino- task, problems related to quantification, logical convenience it is subsumed within and the regional, temporal, and seasonal Classic Thule in the rest of this article). representativeness of available samples, Based on the most recent review of Thule seriously complicate the matter. There are carbon-14 dates (Morrison 1989), the ter- a host of taphonomic and sampling issues mination of Classic Thule occurred rather peculiar to the interpretation of icthyofau- abruptly around A.D. 1400, coincident nas and others that bear on the interpre- with the onset of the Little Ice Age (LIA). tation of harvesting gear assemblages. At- The subsequent Modified (sometimes tempting a relatively comprehensive “Developed” or “Postclassic”) Thule pe- evaluation of these problems for the Ca- riod may have begun slightly earlier in nadian Neoeskimo case exposes the depth some areas, but by A.D. 1400 is widely of the taphonomic predicament in zooar- evidenced by regional abandonments, a chaeological analysis and the difficulty of profound reorganization of subsistence- analytically conjoining faunal and artifac- settlement systems, and changes in mate- tual data sets. Following brief overviews rial culture. The Historic period techni- of Thule subsistence-settlement systems, cally begins at different times in different arctic fish resources, and historic fish use, parts of the Arctic, depending on local the potential effects of taphonomy, sam- contact histories. Greenland and Labrador pling, and artifact assemblage interpreta- Inuit experienced repeated contact with tion are outlined. Some factors that may explorers, whalers, traders, and mission- have promoted a low level of fish utiliza- aries in the 17th and 18th centuries, but tion by some groups are then advanced with the exception of ephemeral contacts and evaluated with respect to the assem- with Frobisher and later explorers, pro- bled faunal and artifactual data from Clas- longed Inuit–White contact generally be- sic Thule, Modified Thule/Late Prehis- gan in the mid- to late 19th century in the toric, and Historic Inuit sites. Although rest of the Eastern Arctic. However, Euro- meaningful trends can be discerned in the pean goods were increasingly incorpo- two datasets, there is lingering ambiguity rated into Inuit material culture during a with respect to the absolute importance of 6 PETER WHITRIDGE

fish in Classic Thule economies. This issue have been critical nodes in a larger inter- would likely be clarified by more detailed action sphere. Whaling helped to under- taphonomic analyses of fish bone assem- write settlement in nonwhaling areas, blages, but the hint that fish may be through the promotion of an interregional swamped by inadequately quantified sea trade that leveled some resource imbal- mammals leads us back into the analytic ances (Whitridge 2000b). cul-de-sac. One way of moving forward is Although faunal identifications are oc- to turn the problem over and consider casionally provided in earlier site reports, fishing in its social and cultural contexts. the details of Thule and Historic Inuit sub- In the final section, alternative scenarios sistence economies really began to for Thule fishing are proposed that em- emerge in the late 1970s (Schledermann brace not only variability in the availabil- 1975; Stanford 1976; Binford 1978; Mc- ity and relative utility of fish resources, Cartney 1979a; Staab 1979; Rick 1980), and but aspects of harvesting practice that are reporting of faunal analyses has now be- only partially or indirectly related to eco- come standard procedure. Zooarchaeo- nomic utility. It is thus ultimately possible logical investigations have variously fo- to argue that fishing may have made a cused on the harvesting of seals (Morrison negligible caloric contribution to diet 1983; McCullough 1989; Park 1989; Hen- while performing invaluable cultural shaw 1995, 1999), bowhead whales functions. (Savelle 1987, 1996, 1997; Savelle and Mc- Cartney 1988, 1991, 1994, 1999; McCartney THULE SUBSISTENCE and Savelle 1985, 1993; Whitridge n.d.), beluga and narwhal (Friesen and Arnold Beginning around A.D. 1000, the so- 1995; Savelle 1994) caribou (Morrison phisticated Neoeskimo open-water hunt- 1988, 1997a; Morrison and Whitridge 1997; ing technology introduced into northern Stenton 1989), and muskoxen (Will 1985), Alaska during Birnirk times spread and faunal data have been integrated into throughout the North American Arctic. ecological models of Thule and Historic While the southward, or Western Thule, Inuit harvesting systems (e.g., Sabo 1991; expansion appears to have involved Savelle 1987; Stenton 1989). Basic quanti- mainly the adoption of new technologies tative data (MNI and NISP) for assem- and artifact styles by aboriginal Eskimo blages containing abundant fish bone peoples in western and southern Alaska, have been reported recently for some Late the appearance of Eastern Thule material Prehistoric and Historic sites in the Mack- culture in the Canadian Arctic and Green- enzie Delta region (Morrison 1988; Friesen land represented a great migratory pulse and Arnold 1994; Friesen 1995; Swayze that ultimately resulted in the demise of 1994) but only Balkwill and Rick (1994) any surviving indigenous Dorset peoples. and Morrison (2000) have devoted much The most influential account of this event discussion to taphonomic and sampling (McGhee 1969/1970) links the migration to issues surrounding the interpretation of expanding opportunities for open-water Neoeskimo fish bone assemblages. bowhead whaling under the milder cli- Seasonality determinations of the ani- matic conditions of the Medieval Warm mals consumed at winter villages (McCul- Period. While Thule groups soon colo- lough 1988; Morrison 1983; Park 1989; nized regions where bowhead whales Whitridge 1992) indicate that relatively lit- were scarce or unavailable, clusters of tle active harvesting went on from these Classic Thule whaling settlements along settlements except during early spring, the Central Arctic channels appear to their occupants relying instead on stores ZEN FISH 7 put up during late summer and fall and marked but little investigated, beyond perhaps from a period spent sealing from cursory references to the likelihood of ta- snow house villages on the sea ice. The phonomic attrition and the occasional emergence of new mechanisms of alliance suggestion that biased recovery tech- formation, likely associated with the legit- niques (infrequent screening of deposits) imation of competition for wealth and have militated against their collection. prestige, facilitated large-scale harvesting The notion that fish were generally of for winter storage of bowhead, walrus, some importance in Thule economies ap- caribou, and beluga and appears to have pears to be widely held (but see McGhee been equal in importance to environmen- 1984). However, Taylor’s characterization tal change in promoting Thule economic of arctic fish resources springs from an expansion (Whitridge 1999). During the appreciation of the importance of fish to spring families began to scatter across the the Historic Inuit, who were largely occu- land in tents or semisubterranean, skin- pants of the arctic mainland and Low Arc- roofed qarmat for small-scale fishing, fowl- tic islands (Savelle 1981). For Classic ing, and caribou hunting, gathering into Thule occupants of the Central and High large tent or qarmat settlements during the Arctic islands, fish resources may not have late summer and fall open-water season been particularly dependable, wide- for cooperative harvesting of sea mam- spread, obtainable, or abundant. Further- mals, migrating caribou, or, perhaps, runs more, it is not clear that Thule diet is ad- of anadromous fish (see Savelle 1987; equately characterized as “omnivorous” Savelle and McCartney 1988 for discus- (at least, any more so than that of any sion and models of Thule subsistence-set- hunter-gatherers). Although species rich- tlement systems). ness tends to be high in large Thule faunal The ethnographic literature, on which assemblages, taxonomic evenness tends this generalized model of the Thule sub- to be low. Thule groups harvested most sistence round is partly based, is virtually useable species in their environment, but unanimous in assessing an important role normally only a few species made sub- for fish in most Inuit economies. It is thus stantial dietary contributions, and the pro- odd that fish have received so little atten- portional contributions of marine and ter- tion in the archaeological literature. Tay- restrial mammals are extremely skewed lor drew attention to this fact 20 years ago, (i.e., tend to be either very high or very in enumerating some of the unresolved low). This seems to be related in part to issues in Thule prehistory: the historical peculiarity of Thule models of economic practice. A distinctive con- And what about fish! Why, if one wishes to talk of subsistence, do so many ignore that nourish- stellation of social, ideational, and techno- ing, dependable, widespread, obtainable, abun- logical factors fostered a tendency for dant, and storable resource? Can it be simply Thule communities to preferentially tar- because we find so few of their bones and get species that could be procured in suf- scales? Their lack of fur, sinew and blubber? In ficient bulk to underwrite sedentary win- those omnivorous and flexible economies, just as the whale was oversold (and oversubscribed), ter settlement. Hence even in areas where the fish seem still underappreciated. But if this fish resources were historically important, celebration of fish is correct, how do we explain it cannot be assumed that Thule groups the remarkable absence of fish remains, even in relied upon them. Thule culture contexts with excellent preserva- If Taylor is correct in suggesting that the tion? (1979, p. iv) preservation of Thule faunal assemblages In the intervening years the scarcity of fish is such that fish remains should occur if bones on Thule sites has gone much re- fish were being harvested, then their scar- 8 PETER WHITRIDGE city would seem to be self-explanatory. spawners in parts of the Western and The reason that Thule fish use has re- Eastern Arctic, respectively (Morrow 1980; mained an open question, in the apparent Scott and Scott 1988). Arctic and starry absence of supporting zooarchaeological flounder occur in shallow waters as far data, relates not only to the seductive pull east along the Arctic Coast as Queen of the ethnographic subsistence model, Maud Gulf, and useful species potentially but to the fact that fishing gear is wide- available in deeper waters of the North spread, and even abundant, on Thule Atlantic include various flatfishes, sharks, sites. Fishing implements occur in 88% of and Atlantic cod. Because there appears to the Classic Thule components listed in Ta- have been very limited aboriginal use of ble 1 and account for up to 46% of all types marine species in the Canadian Arctic, and 62% of all specimens of harvesting and at the risk of circularity, they are dis- gear, with means of 17 and 12%, respec- cussed briefly in the next section and not tively. This contrasts with a mean dietary considered further. contribution of fish of just .04% for the 25 Arctic freshwater ecosystems are much Classic Thule components with quantifi- less productive than those in temperate able faunal data (Table 1; see below for latitudes. The major controls on primary derivation of these values). Herein lies the production are the availability of sunlight Thule fish paradox, encapsulated in the and nutrients. Insolation is nil for several epigraph to this article: as the ethno- months of the year at high latitudes, and graphic evidence would lead us to expect, even during the summer period of avail- Thule artifact assemblages appear to re- ability light penetration is inhibited by flect widespread fishing, and yet the fau- snow and ice cover for all but 2 or 3 nal evidence suggests little serious reli- months. This, together with limited nutri- ance on this taxon. It seems inescapable ent transfer from the impoverished terres- that either fish are underrepresented in trial ecosystem, results in primary pro- faunal collections or Thule archaeologists duction in arctic lakes that is only about are misinterpreting the artifact assem- 10% of that in boreal forest lakes, them- blages (or both). Before examining these selves considered of very low productivity possibilities, it is important to consider (McCart and Den Beste 1979). However, geographic variability in arctic fish re- because many arctic fish species are sources. Because sites assigned to partic- anadromous, freshwater ecosystems re- ular periods are not evenly distributed ceive a substantial “marine subsidy” in within the study area (Fig. 2), it may be the biomass (McCart and Den Beste 1979:4). case that variability in the extent of fish Nutrient availability is generally higher use indicated by ethnographic and ar- for lakes and rivers in the Mackenzie Val- chaeological sources may be related to re- ley, along the Arctic Coast west of Boothia gional fish productivity. Peninsula, and in parts of the Arctic Is- lands than for those within the Canadian ARCTIC FISH RESOURCES Shield, since the former are underlain by relatively soluble sedimentary bedrock. Taxonomic diversity is generally low for The Mackenzie Valley and Arctic Coast arctic marine fishes, although seasonal additionally benefit from fluvial transport availability may be tremendously high for of nutrients from more productive south- some species. Small cod species and var- ern latitudes and during deglaciation be- ious sculpins are widely distributed in came available for colonizing fish popula- arctic waters, and Pacific herring and tions much earlier than the Arctic Islands capelin are locally abundant in shore and Hudson Bay drainage (indeed, parts TABLE 1 Thule and Inuit Sites Included in Analysis E FISH ZEN 9 10

TABLE 1—Continued EE WHITRIDGE PETER ZEN FISH 11 12

TABLE 1—Continued EE WHITRIDGE PETER E FISH ZEN

FIG. 2. Thule and Inuit sites included in the analysis. 13 14 PETER WHITRIDGE of the Yukon and northwestern NWT did water bodies (Johnson 1994) or study not experience Wisconsinan glaciation). transects (Sekerak and Graves 1975), the The net effect of this variability is a comprehensive population data one much greater diversity of economically might prefer are unavailable at this spatial useful anadromous and freshwater spe- scale for any species, necessitating the use cies for the Mackenzie drainage and Beau- of species richness as a proxy for produc- fort Sea coast, and along the Arctic Coast tivity. A lack of taxonomic diversity does as far east as Bathurst Inlet, than for other not mean that some species are not locally parts of the Canadian Arctic. A composite abundant, but it does imply that spatially map of the distributions of 23 species averaged productivity across a region is fished aboriginally by Inuit and Dene (Fig. less than that in areas with numerous spe- 3 and Table 2) reveals that the Mackenzie cies. In addition, impoverished fish faunas Delta is a hotspot of fish biodiversity, as it translate into temporally restricted avail- is for terrestrial mammals and birds (Balk- ability of productive spawning migrations will and Rick 1994:113). Chum and pink and aggregations. Whereas one or more salmon are found in small numbers at the useful species is readily accessible during northeastern limit of their distribution in all seasons in the Mackenzie Delta region the Mackenzie Delta, while coho and chi- (e.g., winter: burbot; spring–summer: nook salmon occur in the Yukon drainage smelts and northern pike; summer/fall: and would not have been directly avail- herring, whitefishes, and char), in other able to Canadian Inuit. Several white- areas char runs sufficiently productive to fishes, burbot, northern pike, and Arctic allow a community to put up substantial grayling are among the more significant winter stores occur for only a few weeks of species accounting for the zone of fish di- the year. The presence of few taxa also versity extending east along the Arctic results in high interannual variability in Coast. Lake trout are available every- total yields. The upstream char run in late where on the mainland except northern summer/early fall in a river draining into Boothia Peninsula (Sekerak and Graves western Hudson Bay declined by 60% be- 1975) and on some of the Low Arctic is- tween 1973 and 1975, while the run at an- lands. The ranges of some freshwater other river in the region increased by sculpins and sticklebacks also extend into 199% in the same period (Johnson 1980: the Arctic Islands, but these and other 56). Beyond ephemeral and highly local- small species are mainly important as for- ized occurrences, the fishes of most of the age for other fish and are not included in Arctic Islands appear to be significantly Fig. 3. Across most of the Arctic Islands, less attractive as a staple resource than Arctic char is the only notable species fre- those of the mainland, and the Mackenzie quenting fresh water. Populations of resi- Delta region significantly more productive dent and sea-run char are large in some than the rest of the mainland. lakes and rivers, but because they repro- duce and mature slowly can be easily de- ETHNOGRAPHIC FISH USE pleted. This brief overview of species distribu- Anadromous fish, especially Arctic char tions is intended to provide a rough index and various species of whitefish, are of local resource availability for all regions widely reported to have been important of the Canadian Arctic. While extensive subsistence staples of the Historic Cop- biological data have been assembled for per, Netsilik, and Caribou Inuit (see, e.g., some regions, such as the Mackenzie Jenness 1922; Birket-Smith 1929; Rasmus- Delta (Martell et al. 1984), and particular sen 1931; Damas 1969; Balikci 1980; over- E FISH ZEN

FIG. 3. Composite distribution of 23 freshwater and anadromous ﬁsh species utilized aboriginally (species listed in Table 2). 15 16 PETER WHITRIDGE

TABLE 2 Freshwater and Anadromous Fish Species of the Canadian Arctic Utilized Aboriginally (Composite Distribution Mapped in Fig. 3)

Family common name Family latin name Species record subfamily common name subfamily latin name from site in common name latin name study area

Salmon family Salmonidae sp. Salmons, trouts, chars Salmoninae sp. Pink salmon Onchorhynchus gorbuscha ? Chum salmon Onchorhynchus keta ? Coho salmon Onchorhynchus kisutch Chinook salmon Onchorhynchus tshawytscha Atlantic salmon Salmo salar Arctic char Salvelinus alpinus X Brook trout Salvelinus fontinalis Lake trout Salvelinus namaycush X Whitefishes Coregoninae sp. Lake cisco Coregonus artedii ? Arctic cisco Coregonus autumnalis X Least cisco Coregonus sardinella X Lake whitefish Coregonus clupeaformis X Broad whitefish Coregonus nasus X Round whitefish Prosopium cylindraceum X Inconnu Stenodus leucichthys X Graylings Thmallinae sp. Arctic grayling Thymallus articus X Smelts Osmeridae sp. Pond smelt Hypomesus olidus Rainbow smelt Osmerus mordax Mooneyes Hiodontidae sp. Goldeye Hiodon alosoides Pikes Esocidae sp. Northern pike Esox lucius X Suckers Catostimadae sp. Longnose sucker Catostomus catostomus X Cods Gadidae sp. Burbot Lota lota X Perches Percidae sp. Walleye Stizostedion vitreum views in Freeman 1976; Damas 1984). populations are also available year-round Many families spent late spring and sum- in some lakes, but tend to be much mer in temporary tent camps positioned smaller in body size than anadromous in- next to rivers and lakes with large popu- dividuals. Mature nonmigratory char in lations of char, whitefishes, or lake trout. the Central and Eastern Arctic consis- The upstream migration of sea run char in tently average less than .5 kg, while ma- late August or early September was con- ture anadromous char average 1–3 kg sidered particularly important, since the (Johnson 1980; McCart and Den Beste fish are larger, fatter, and more abundant 1979). Knud Rasmussen stayed with a than during the downstream run in late small group of Netsilingmiut (about 25 June or early July (Brice-Bennett 1976:68; people) relying on landlocked char at Am- Johnson 1980; Mathiassen 1928). Resident itsoq, “the most famous of all fishing ZEN FISH 17 places on King William’s Land” (Rasmus- well-preserved faunal assemblage from sen 1931:61), during early August 1923. Nugarsuk in the northern Upernavik Dis- They harvested 15–30 “medium-sized” trict, dating to about A.D. 1650–1850, con- char daily, spearing the fish with leisters tained not a single fish bone among the at a stone weir, or saputit, with the result 27,000 identified specimens, despite the that the group “lived no more than from fact that fish are an important part of win- hand to mouth” (Rasmussen 1931:62). ter subsistence in the area today (Møhl However, “later on in the summer season, 1979:388). While capelin harvesting is well or the beginning of autumn, there is often attested from at least the late 16th century such a wealth of fish at Amitsoq that, in (Hakluyt 1985:299) and char fishing gear is the course of fourteen days, every family widespread prehistorically, it is possible can catch so much that they are able to that marine fishes were generally much make three or four caches of good, fat less important before the appearance of trout [Arctic char] for the winter. Each European technology and trading oppor- cache represents between two and three tunities. In Labrador, the introduction of hundred kilogrammes” (Rasmussen 1931: gill nets by Moravian missionaries in 1772 65–66). Central Arctic groups often sup- rapidly resulted in the near-abandonment plemented these stores (which included of weir fishing, as families began to fish whitefishes in many areas) by late fall/ char and salmon at sea during the sum- early winter fishing with hooks or lures mer (LeDrew 1984:540). and leisters. Polar and Greenland cod, Among Eastern Arctic groups, Baffin- char, whitefishes, and spawning lake trout land Inuit and Iglulingmiut appear to were harvested in this fashion through have been the least reliant on fishing (e.g., thin ice along the coast and on rivers and Stevenson 1997:44). Open-water sea mam- lakes. Ice fishing was also practiced dur- mal hunting and harvesting of caribou ing late spring/early summer, before the when their hides were prime were the move to major char fishing localities major summer/fall activities for the Iglul- (Damas 1969; Jenness 1922; Brice Bennett ingmiut, although saputit fishing of char 1976). Fish catches among these groups, runs occurred during the summer and especially during the important fall runs, there was some ice fishing for char and increased dramatically following the lake trout. Additionally, on northern Baf- adoption of netting gear in the early 20th fin Island sculpin and polar cod were ca- century (Arima 1984:448; Brice Bennett sually jigged through the sea ice by 1976:80; Farquharson 1976:36). women and children and sharks were The Labrador and Greenland Inuit ar- sometimes killed when they congregated eas largely fall outside the scope of this at narwhal kills, but were only used as dog article, but provide instructive cases. The food (Brody 1976). Baffinland Inuit fished West Greenland Inuit were among the char in the context of late summer/early few Eastern Arctic groups to make abun- fall caribou hunting and through lake ice dant use of marine species. Oil-rich cape- in winter and spring (Kemp 1976; Wenzel lin spawn inshore (sometimes on the 1991; Stevenson 1997). beach) in vast numbers during early sum- In the Western Arctic, fishing tended to mer and were scooped up in dip nets and be a much more important component of dried for winter consumption. Atlantic the annual subsistence round. The Inuit of cod, halibut, and sharks (the latter for dog the Mackenzie Delta region relied heavily food) are also reported to have been taken in all seasons on aboriginal seine, gill net, with hooks in open water and through sea and hook technology to obtain a wide va- ice in winter (Kleivan 1984). However, a riety of freshwater and anadromous spe- 18 PETER WHITRIDGE cies, and at least one inshore-spawning the event the caribou harvest failed marine species (herring), to supplement (Balikci 1980; Brice-Bennett 1976). In both the harvest of marine mammals, caribou, areas, women, children, and the elderly and small game. Settlement systems were were actively involved in saputit fishing, very different than those in the Eastern allowing the men to concentrate on cari- Arctic. Winter camps frequently consisted bou hunting. Overall, caribou was a more of one or a few large sodhouses scattered important resource than fish as a source widely across the outer coast, some posi- not only of meat but of hides, fat, sinew, tioned for winter ice fishing or early bone, and antler. Caribou also tends to spring harvesting of fish leaving tundra rank slightly higher than fish in Inuit di- lakes on sea-bound or spawning migra- etary preferences (e.g., Freeman et al. tions. Late summer/early fall settlements 1992). As long as caribou could be pro- consisted of both large tent camps at cured before, during, or after the up- which beluga or bowhead whaling was stream char run, both of these resources the major subsistence activity and smaller were embraced as complementary com- interior fishing, fowling, and caribou ponents of the inland, warm-weather por- hunting camps (McGhee 1974; Morrison tion of the subsistence-settlement round. 1994, 1997b; Swayze 1994). Fishing was In parts of the Canadian Arctic, how- also an important supplement to sea ever, an additional conflict existed be- mammal harvesting on northern Alaska cause late summer/early fall was the sea- coasts, and the principal subsistence ori- son for open-water sea mammal hunting. entation for riverine Inupiat populations Historic Copper Inuit and Netsilingmiut of Northwest Alaska (Burch 1981; Gid- did not practice much open-water hunt- dings 1952; Foote 1965). The Yupik occu- ing, and the season ran through spring pants of western and southern Alaska and summer along much of the east and were so reliant on fish, including large south coasts of Baffin Island. The open- marine fishes and several species of water season also began early enough on salmon, that their economies bear little Hudson Bay that Caribou Inuit of the resemblance to those conventionally asso- south Keewatin coast were able to cache ciated with Eskimo peoples (Fienup-Rior- seals, walrus, and beluga during summer dan 1990). and then move inland during the fall, dur- An important feature of historic fish use ing which time women fished and put up is the scheduling conflict that existed in winter caches while the men hunted car- many areas. The most productive late ibou (Welland 1976:87). The Iglulingmiut summer/early fall season for salmonid scheduling dilemma was resolved in some harvesting often coincides closely with the areas by dividing into groups of older and period of maximum utility of caribou younger hunters, the older ones staying hides. Caribou hides harvested at this on the coast to hunt walrus and whales time were considered essential for manu- and the younger heading inland with their facturing winter clothing (Hatt 1969; Sten- families for caribou hunting and fishing ton 1991) and were obtained at some ex- (Damas 1969). This three-way conflict pense through trade by Western Arctic probably accounts for the reduced impor- groups with restricted access to caribou tance of fishing in Iglulingmiut econo- herds. Copper Inuit groups appear to mies. Morrison (1988, 1994) suggests that have alternated uneasily between caribou the Mackenzie Inuit solved the problem hunting and fishing during this season through a status-based division of labor (Farquharson 1976), while the Netsilik analogous to that employed by the Iglul- considered stored fish to be insurance in ingmiut, with the less prestigious option ZEN FISH 19 being fishing and caribou hunting in the pretation of the faunal and artifactual as- near interior while beluga and bowhead semblages on which the assessment of whalers assembled on the coast. The effi- Thule fish use must ultimately rest. Ta- ciency of gill netting must have reduced phonomic factors may have reduced the the potential conflict between fishing and zooarchaeological visibility of fishing, caribou hunting for the former. An even while sampling problems at the level of more complex status-linked pattern of re- regions, sites, and deposits may have bi- gional economic differentiation and inte- ased the faunal assemblages at our dis- gration appears to have characterized posal. Neither are the artifact assemblages North Alaskan economies from Thule immune to misinterpretation. Functional times (Sheehan 1995, 1997; Burch 1981) identifications of harvesting gear may be and contrasts with the sequential use of in error, or biases in assemblage forma- resource zones predominant in the East- tion processes inadequately understood. ern Arctic (Morrison 1994). These factors are considered in turn be- In general, it can be observed that fish low. were universally in use among Historic Inuit, but to significantly different de- Taphonomic Deletion of Fish Bone grees. The degree of usage depended on the diversity and productivity of fish spe- Poor preservation. The explanation cies, available technology, allowance for most often offered for the scarcity or ab- socially differentiated occupational spe- sence of fish in Thule and Inuit faunal cialties, and especially the opportunity assemblages is a generally heightened costs when other resources are consid- susceptibility of fish bone to destruction ered. Caribou were ranked higher than by taphonomic processes (e.g., McGhee fish and so too were large marine mam- 1972:44; Henshaw 1995:168). Fish bones mals such as beluga, walrus, and bowhead are considered too small or fragile to sur- whales, where they were accessible (and vive even, apparently, where preservation where the organization existed to harvest of other taxa is excellent. While it is widely them) during the open-water season. surmised that fish bone preserves more With respect to prehistoric harvesting pat- poorly than the bones of mammals (Colley terns, it can be predicted that fish utiliza- 1990; Lyman 1994; Jones 1990; Wheeler tion will have been restricted where spe- and Jones 1989), there do not appear to cies diversity and productivity are low and have been any controlled comparisons of where large mammal hunting conflicted their relative preservation potential. with the peak of fish availability, although Bone density has come to be recognized the conflict may have been eased by spe- as a useful predictor of mammalian bone cial technological or organizational solu- survivorship in assemblages subjected to tions. density-mediated attrition (Lyman 1984, 1994). Butler and Chatters have reported FACTORS CONTRIBUTING TO THE determinations of bone mineral content INTERPRETIVE DILEMMA (BMC), linear density (LD), and bulk or volume density (VD) for salmonid bones, Before evaluating the basic ecological allowing estimates of the relative survi- and economic factors that may have con- vorship potential of these taxa (Table 3). trolled the attractiveness of fish resources, Linear (or, more properly, areal) density it is necessary to consider issues of a (measured in grams per square centime- purely archaeological nature. These relate ter) divides the measured bone mineral to the preservation, collection, and inter- content (in grams) at a photon absorpti- 20 PETER WHITRIDGE

TABLE 3 Measures of Bone Density for Various Fish and Mammalian Taxaa

n scan Mean BMC Mean LD Mean VD Taxon Genus species sites (g) (g/cm2) (g/cm3)

Chinook salmon Onchorhyncus tshawytscha 16 0.11 0.26 Coho salmon Onchorhyncus kistuch 51 0.06 Large-scale sucker Catostomus macrocheilus 10 0.65 Pronghorn Antilocapra americana 39 0.29 Vicuna Lama spp. 28 0.33 Domestic sheep Ovis aries 73 0.34 Guanaco Lama spp. 28 0.40 Deer Odocoileus spp. 95 2.11 0.81 0.40 Bison Bison bison 101 0.48 Seal Phoca spp. 57 0.56 Marmot Marmota spp. 60 0.65 Mammal mean 0.43

a Abbreviations: BMC ϭ bone mineral content; LD ϭ linear (areal) density; VD ϭ volume (bulk) density. Sources: Lyman 1984, 1994; Butler and Chatters 1994. ometry scan site by the area scanned, survivorship potential for mammals 2.5 while volume density (in grams per cubic times greater than that for salmon if VD is centimeter) divides BMC by an estimate related to survivorship in a simple linear of the volume of the scan site. Mean LD fashion. for 95 deer bone scan sites is .81 g/cm2 The relationships between the different (Lyman 1984:276–279) and .06 g/cm2 for measures of bone density and survivor- the 51 coho salmon elements in Butler’s ship are not well understood and are sample (Butler 1990, cited in Lyman 1994: likely not simple ones. Given the highly 442), suggesting a survivorship potential variable size and shape of scanned bones, for deer bone an order of magnitude it is generally argued that VD is a more greater than that for salmon. Mean VD for effective measure of survivorship poten- the same 95 deer bone scan sites is .40 tial than LD (Lyman 1984; Kreutzer 1992; g/cm3 (Lyman 1984:276–279), close to the Butler and Chatters 1994), but this is not average of .43 for eight mammalian taxa always the case. A study of human bones (Table 3), and .26 g/cm3 for 16 chinook subjected to density-mediated attrition re- salmon elements (Butler and Chatters vealed a much stronger correlation be- 1994:417), which suggests only slightly tween element portion frequency and LD poorer survivorship potential for salmon. than VD (Spearman’s ␳ of .827 and .096, However, the sample of 16 elements may respectively; Willey and Snyder 1997). LD not be representative of the average VD of actually appears to perform better than salmon bone, since the mean LD of this VD in picking up posited density-medi- group of elements for the anatomically ated attrition in the salmon bone assem- similar coho salmon is .09, or 50% greater blages reported by Butler and Chatters than the average for the full sample of 51. (Table 4). Taking into account frequent Scaling mean VD to the differences ob- anecdotal comments on the poor relative served in LD results in an estimate of survivorship of ﬁsh in the zooarchaeologi- mean salmon bone VD of .17 for the ex- cal literature, the values for LD (or even panded scan site sample, suggesting a BMC) would appear to be the better index ZEN FISH 21

TABLE 4 Rank Order Correlation (Spearman’s Rho) of Bone Density and Salmon %MAUa

DO-211 Duwamish Keatley Creek Bone density

index r s Two-tailed prs Two-tailed prs Two-tailed p

BMC Ϫ0.102 0.708 0.067 0.806 Ϫ0.319 0.229 LD 0.636 0.008 0.604 0.013 0.372 0.157 VD 0.762 0.001 0.532 0.034 0.159 0.556

a Based on BMC, VD, and %MAU data from Butler and Chatters (1994:417–418) and LD data from Butler (1990, cited in Lyman 1994:442). of relative preservation potential for fish suppressed. The rate of chemical weath- and mammal bone than those for VD. ering is largely controlled by temperature Without direct experimental comparisons and humidity and is generally low in arc- of taxonomic survivorship, however, it is tic environments. Microbial activity is also impossible to accurately gauge the mag- much reduced. Depending on soil or sub- nitude of the difference in survivorship strate chemistry (Merbs 1997), the remains potential for mammals and fish, though of large vertebrates can easily survive for the gap may be substantial in many situ- millennia on or near the ground surface in ations. the Central and High Arctic, with preser- Based on the comparison of various vation declining substantially as one density measures for Atlantic cod (Gadus moves into warmer and wetter Low Arctic morhua) elements to experimentally contexts, along north–south and north- abraded and archaeologically recovered west–southeast gradients, respectively assemblages, Nicholson (1992b) has ar- (Fig. 4). However, there is no limit on the gued that shape is a more important de- survival of animal tissue in permafrost determinant of fish bone survivorship than posits (Sutcliffe 1990). Depending on density. Element morphology may control ground moisture and matrix composition, the nature and extent of fracturing of as little as 25 cm of dense overburden bones subjected to mechanical weather- (e.g., midden accumulation, the collapsed ing. Clearly, the unique suite of tapho- walls and roof of a sod house) can insure nomic processes operative at a site must that the deposits in which faunal remains be taken into account in evaluating ele- occur will not thaw during the year. Such ment and taxon frequencies. While de- remains are effectively stable, barring dra- composition, chemical weathering, tram- matic changes in the climatic regime or pling, and carnivore ravaging (the latter disturbance of surrounding deposits. Per- considered separately below) may all re- fectly preserved soft tissue, including sult in density-mediated attrition of bone flesh, hair, sinew, hide, and feathers, are assemblages and the reduced survival of thus routinely encountered in well-buried fish bone relative to other taxa, the partic- deposits associated with semisubterra- ular patterns of element and species sur- nean sod winter houses in the Central and vivorship likely vary according to the na- High Arctic. Because warm-weather ture and intensity of the taphonomic dwellings frequently consisted of tempo- agents that have affected a sample. rary tent structures or shallowly excavated For the arctic assemblages of concern qarmat and soil formation may be slow or here, many of the natural attritional pro- nonexistent at such sites, spring/summer/ cesses common on temperate sites are fall assemblages tend to be more poorly 22 PETER WHITRIDGE

FIG. 4. Climatic controls on bone preservation in the Canadian Arctic. (Upper) Mean annual number of frost-free days. (Lower) Mean June–August precipitation in millimeters (after Fletcher and Young 1976). preserved than winter assemblages. The posits occurring within the active layer former are also more heavily exposed to which thaws most summers. The preser- carnivore ravaging, freeze-thaw, and vation of near-surface bone varies from other mechanical disturbances. site to site depending on the extent of In general, portions of the faunal as- chemical, mechanical, and biological semblages from most Thule winter house weathering, hence especially the temper- sites have effectively suffered no post- ature and moisture regimes. Among the depositional attrition, while the overall winter house assemblages, only those level of preservation is high even for de- from southern Baffin Island appear to be ZEN FISH 23 have suffered severe weathering (Sabo ple seem to have reasonably good organic 1991; see also Henshaw 1995, 1999) and preservation and indeed, with the excep- potentially high loss of the more perish- tion of the heavily weathered tent ring able fish bone. This problem is even more assemblages from PaJs-3 (Whitridge severe at Thule winter sites in Labrador, 1992), all produced fish bone. Fish bone outside the scope of the current study, preservation was particularly good at in- which may have negligible organic pres- tensively utilized Low Arctic sites in the ervation (e.g., Fitzhugh 1994). Fish bone is Mackenzie Delta region, where assem- likely underrepresented to some degree blage burial was probably relatively rapid, in all winter house assemblages that in- but based on the weathered state of win- clude material from near-surface contexts, ter house assemblages from southern Baf- but because faunal remains are rarely re- fin Island and Labrador, comparable pres- ported by preservational context this is ervation may be rare at the eastern impossible to quantify. However, the gen- margins of Thule settlement. Deletion of erally excellent condition of larger verte- fish bones at warm-weather sites likely brate remains suggests that fish bone de- ranges from moderate to severe, but given letion due to weathering is normally not that the most heavily weathered of such severe on winter sites. assemblages have been deliberately The situation at warm weather encamp- avoided by Thule archaeologists, poor ments is very different. The excavated de- preservation cannot account for the im- posits at such sites normally occur within pression of fish scarcity in the literature, the active layer, and faunal remains are as Taylor suggested: quantitative faunal thus regularly exposed to a variety of at- data were only located for four Classic tritional processes. Particularly at the tent Thule warm-weather assemblages versus ring sites frequently situated on beaches 23 winter assemblages. or rock outcrops, the lack of much of an What is most sorely lacking, however, is insulating and protective vegetation mat consistent reporting of details relevant to means that organic preservation is often poor, resulting in impoverished organic the reconstruction of assemblage tapho- artifact assemblages and the likely dele- nomy for all taxa. Element frequencies tion of less dense faunal elements and (MNE and/or MAU) are increasingly be- taxa. This accounts in large part for the ing reported for seal and caribou (e.g., slight interest in excavating these features Morrison 1997a; Henshaw 1999), but are expressed by Thule archaeologists; few never provided for fish in sufficient detail have been reported in the literature. to assess the scope of density-mediated Heavier dwelling forms (especially certain attrition through comparison with densi- varieties of qarmat as opposed to tent ty-based survivorship indices. Similarly, rings), rapid cultural deposition, and rel- information on degrees of weathering and atively rapid soil formation and vegeta- fragmentation are rarely provided. Until tion growth can lead to sufficient burial of taphonomic analyses become available for faunal materials that the level of preser- a seasonal, chronological, and regional vation of winter houses is approached. Ex- range of assemblage types, it will be dif- treme polar desert conditions, or burial ficult to securely estimate the extent of beneath perennial snow drifts, may also fish use from faunal remains, except produce this effect. where preservationally pristine perma- Based on the range and condition of frost deposits (e.g., winter house floor as- recovered organic materials the warm- semblages) are reported separately from weather sites included in the present sam- active zone deposits. 24 PETER WHITRIDGE

Consumption of bones by dogs/scavengers. mains disposed of on the surface at all Another mechanism that can generate seasons. density-mediated attrition is the activity In addition, Inuit frequently fed fish to of dogs and other bone consumers. The dogs directly, either whole or merely the degree of bone destruction by dogs (and portions (heads, backbones, and viscera) occasionally other carnivores, rodents, not always consumed by people (Binford and ungulates) at Arctic sites was likely 1978:256; Farquharson 1976; Ferguson controlled by a number of variables. The 1961:16; Brice-Bennett 1976; Giddings number of dogs kept by the site occu- 1967; Gubser 1965). Jenness (1922:105, 240) pants, the food they received, the nutri- states that Copper Inuit sometimes fed tional composition of discarded bones, dogs solely on fish bones and a daily cup and the length of time bone assemblages of fish broth during late spring/early sum- lay exposed on the surface may all have mer. Although caloric requirements vary contributed to anatomical and taxonomic with the size of the dog, the season, and its patterns of bone survival. Since decompo- workload, Foote (1965:270) suggests an sition is slow in the Arctic, fish remains (ideal) average daily ration of about 2 kg would have been attractive to dogs and of whole fish per working dog. At this rate, other scavengers for some time after dis- a 250-kg cache of char like the ones put up card, and as Foote (1965:270) notes: “Eski- by the Netsilingmiut at Amitsoq, referred mo dogs will eat all portions of animals to above, would only feed one dog for 4 months. An experimental study by Jones familiar to them, bones and all.” Carni- (1986:57) revealed that 11.8% of the bones vore access to discarded bones appears to of medium-sized (25–34 cm) fish ingested be heightened at warm-weather sites, per- by a dog were excreted in identifiable haps because animal remains are less form, with an additional 11.8% unidentifi- likely to be frozen or concealed by snow. able fragments, while only a single frag- The %NISP of identified mammalian ele- mentary skeletal element survived of a ments with evidence of carnivore gnawing salmon fed to a dog by Butler (Butler and was 17.2% (295/1,718) for Thule qarmat and Schroeder 1998). Furthermore, Foote tent ring assemblages on southeast Som- (1965:270) notes that sled dogs will eat erset Island and 10.4% (1,173/11,234) for their own feces 2–3 times in succession. the winter house assemblages (Whitridge Presumably, little if any identifiable fish 1992). Because of the relatively small size bone would survive multiple ingestions. It of the bones, fish parts or carcasses, unlike is thus not unlikely that a substantial pro- those of larger vertebrates, could easily portion of the bones generated by Thule have been consumed whole. Hudson fishing were ultimately fed to, or scav- (1993:309) provides ethnoarchaeological enged by, dogs and that the vast majority support for the argument that prey body of consumed fish bones were destroyed. size is positively correlated with bone sur- Destruction of fish bone by dogs was vivorship (measured as NISP/actual num- probably heavy at winter sites and very ber of individuals) in dog-ravaged faunal severe at warm-weather sites, in all peri- assemblages. Although Inuit dog teams ods and regions, and has thus introduced were much smaller prior to the historic a bias against fish in tabulations of taxo- shift to a mobile trapping economy and nomic relative frequency. Likely dog the introduction of rifles, nets, and market coprolites appear to be common in per- foods (Farquharson 1976:51–52), it can be mafrost deposits at Thule winter sites, de- expected that dogs would have consumed riving either from animals housed indoors a substantial proportion of any fish re- (especially in the entrance tunnel) or from ZEN FISH 25 postabandonment processes, so it is pos- Inuit ethnographic literature. There are sible to directly investigate the diet of sled numerous references to fish being split, dogs, though this has not been attempted. gutted, and hung up to dry (e.g., Mathia- Consumption of bones by humans. Inuit ssen 1928:206; Rasmussen 1931), but little sometimes consumed the bones of fish information on the specific disposition of and other small vertebrates. The long the bones. Jenness provides one of the few bones of ptarmigan were traditionally detailed accounts of traditional char dry- chewed and swallowed at Clyde River, ing, by Copper Inuit: and for the Mackenzie Inuit Stefansson (1914:156) reports the same treatment for Fish that are intended for drying are split from the anal [sic; probably pectoral] fin to the anus, fish vertebrae, while fish ribs were spit then from the gills along each side of the spine; out. Jenness (1922:99) notes that Copper finally they are severed at the root of the tail. Inuit ate small fish whole, “not even ex- This leaves the two sides hanging from the tail cepting the bones.” Calcium appears to be ready to be laid across a pole to dry, while the scarce in the traditional Inuit diet (Mann head remains attached to the spine. The next step is to cut off the head for the daily meal, and et al. 1962), so there may have been a to lay the spine out to dry on a stone or a seal- nutritional imperative behind this prac- skin, together with any roe the fish may contain. tice. Certainly, mastication would appear The spines of small fish not particularly rich in to be intended to maximize the nutritional oil may be thrown to the dogs with other scraps. benefit of consuming fish bones; un- (Jenness 1922:105) chewed or lightly chewed bones will Presumably the dried backbones of larger sometimes pass through the human di- fish were treated as provisions like any gestive system relatively intact (Butler and dried meat. Fillets for immediate con- Schroeder 1998). Jones (1986) also consumption were prepared in a similar fash- ducted experiments with human con- ion by Polar Inuit, but without leaving sumption and excretion of fish bones, re- them attached at the tail: sulting in 2.5% identifiable fragments and an additional 16.3% unidentifiable frag- The truly proper way to eat them [char] is indi- ments, while Butler and Schroeder (1998) cated by the following: First the fins are cut off and four lengthwise cuts made so the skin can found 26% survivorship for small fish con- be pulled off. Some eat the skin, others discard sumed by a human. Again, Foote (1965) it. Thereupon the long, meaty part of the back is and others (Murdoch 1892; Leechman cut off, beginning at the tail and carving close to 1945; Matthiasson 1992) note that sled the spin down along the fish. Thereafter the dogs regularly consumed human feces, so balance of the meat is split off the sides while bones and entrails remain hanging by the head few of the fish bones occasionally con- and are thrown away. (Holtved 1967:142–143) sumed by humans are likely to be identified in faunal assemblages. An account of fish processing in the Mack- Culling. Processing can result in the enzie Delta region in the late 1950s is con- deletion of skeletal portions from car- sistent with Jenness and the fragmentary casses transported to points of consump- reports from other areas (e.g., Birket- tion. Fish intended for storage were either Smith 1929:44): “Drying is done by split- dried or frozen, depending on the season. ting the fish, removing the backbone, During productive periods of summer head and ribs, scoring the inside of the fishing the fish would not preserve well if fillets then hanging them from a rack in cached whole, even in ice cellars (Fergu- the sun” (Ferguson 1961:16). Large fish son 1961:16), and so were frequently prepared for drying or cooking in this dried. Details of the preparation of dried fashion may thus be virtually bone free, salmonids are frustratingly scarce in the except for the entire dried vertebral col- 26 PETER WHITRIDGE umns saved by the Copper Inuit. The fish consumed immediately at summer/ heads were frequently made into soup fall sites, or caught during fall/winter, (Mathiassen 1928; Jenness 1922) and ulti- would be potentially available to enter mately fed to dogs or discarded, often house and kitchen midden assemblages, along with the rest of the bones (Binford although many were fed to dogs. Bones 1978:256). culled during summer processing pre- Small fish received different treatment. sumably ended up in middens close to They were sometimes eaten immediately harvesting locations (e.g., Chang 1988) or in their entirety, as noted above, or cached were fed directly to dogs. Unfortunately, whole, as among groups along the lower the archaeological determination of the Selawik River of Northwest Alaska: “The extent of bone loss from culling runs up smaller fish were simply placed whole in a against the same obstacle as the assess- large round hole dug in the ground. When ment of density-mediated attrition: lack of the hole was full, it was covered with grass reporting of element frequencies. These and dirt. Later, during the winter, the par- data, together with frequencies of cut tially decomposed but by then frozen fish marks (see, e.g., Barrett 1997; Barrett et al. were dug up and eaten raw. This kind of 1999), are necessary to reconstruct the pat- food was known as auruq, rotten fish” terns of butchery, transport, and discard (Burch 1998:235). A similar practice of be- that would allow estimates of the true eco- low-ground storage of herring in log-lined nomic importance of fish. On average, or earthen pits (for human and dog con- however, the bones of larger vertebrates sumption, respectively) is indicated his- would probably have been discarded at torically for the Mackenzie Inuit (Nagy processing locations at an even higher 1994:77) and apparently involved caching rate than those of fish because of their whole fish (Smith 1984:341). The “tiny” much greater bulk. With the exception of herring reported to have been preserved a potential for zero visibility at winter sites in beluga oil by Mackenzie Inuit were also of fish caught, filleted, and dried in sum- likely whole (Savoie 1971:185). Subject to mer, fish should have regularly entered preservation and recovery biases, the assemblages of food refuse alongside the bones of small summer-caught fish may bones of mammals and birds. thus be better represented than those of Destructive preparation techniques. Boil- large summer-caught fish in faunal as- ing, even at relatively low temperatures, semblages associated with residential can produce significant structural damage sites. in fish bone (Richter 1986), so cooking may By late summer fish were being cached contribute to its poor survivorship. whole, at least in the Netsilik area (Ras- Freshly caught fish were usually boiled as mussen 1931:485), and fish caught in win- steak sections (Jenness 1922:104) and oc- ter in all areas were frozen whole (Jenness casionally roasted. Fish were sometimes 1922; Rasmussen 1931). There is thus a eaten raw, and more rarely slightly fer- potential for seasonal differences in the mented, but generally only frozen fish transport of fish bones from processing were consistently eaten uncooked (Jen- areas/sites to residential areas/sites. Sur- ness 1922:98). Heads of large fish were plus fish harvested in summer would have almost always cooked, and even dried fish been consumed at winter sites as boneless were sometimes rehydrated by boiling dried fillets (and perhaps some vertebral (Birket-Smith 1929; Mathiassen 1928). An columns), whereas fish harvested in fall unusual and even more destructive prep- and winter would have been transported aration technique among some Alaskan whole to residential sites. All the bones of Yupik groups involved fermenting the ZEN FISH 27 heads of salmon in grass-lined pits: “They such a way as to prevent dogs from con- are kept there during summer and in the suming them (Lantis 1947:44), but no ref- autumn have decayed until even the erences to ritual treatment of fish remains bones have become of the same consis- by Inuit or Inupiat groups have been lo- tency as the general mass. They are then cated. A unique example of four char ver- taken out and kneaded in a wooden tray tebrae strung on a baleen cord from a until they form a pasty compound and are Thule house at Cape Kent in northern eaten as a favorite dish by some of the Greenland (Holtved 1944:276) may repre- people” (Nelson 1983:267). sent the use of fish bone for an amulet. All bones of fish caught and immedi- However, the sort of systematic ritual ately consumed in summer, and heads at treatment of fish bones (burning, suspen- all seasons, are thus vulnerable to degra- sion on trees, or disposal in water) re- dation from heating. Head bones are ported for Athapaskan groups does not about twice as abundant in the salmonid appear to have been practiced by Inuit skeleton as vertebrae (Wigen and Stucki, (Hall 1971:53). 1988) and at least for salmon are signifi- Artifactual use of fish bone. Although cantly less dense than postcranial ele- fish skins were used in some areas for ments (Butler and Chatters, 1994), so un- manufacturing waterproof articles of der poor preservational conditions it is clothing (Hatt 1969), Inuit made little arti- conceivable that fish NISPs could be sig- factual use of fish bone. Enigmatic objects nificantly depressed (and element abun- made of interlocking fox, seal, or bird dances skewed) by selective cooking of bones are common on Thule sites and are heads. As discussed above, generically often interpreted as children’s playthings. poor preservation (due to decomposition The strung char vertebrate from Cape and weathering) is probably not a major Kent might be interpreted as such or as an determinant of fish bone survivorship in ornament. Jenness (1922:104) notes that sod house assemblages, but is likely im- Copper Inuit had names for the various portant at warm-weather sites. The more cranial bones of fish based on their spe- frequent consumption at the latter of en- cific resemblances to animals. Since seal tire cooked carcasses, as well as heads, flipper bones were also named for their may thus be associated with heightened resemblances to animals, people, and ob- attrition of fish bones relative to those of jects and are widely reported to have been other taxa, although it seems likely that used in Inuit children’s games, this possi- access to discarded fish remains by dogs is bility might be entertained for fish cranial ultimately more important in determining bones. In fact, Birket-Smith (1945:124) re- survivorship. ports a Netsilingmiut “toy” consisting of Ritual disposal. Ritual disposal of food 13 fish cranial bones, but provides no fur- refuse is widely reported for the southern ther information. He also illustrates a neighbors of Inuit, from the Pacific to the men’s brow band made of 43 fish otoliths Atlantic seaboards. Various Inuit groups strung on a sinew line (Birket-Smith:46– also accorded the bones of prey species 47), and Issenman (1997:191) notes that ceremonial treatment, ranging from dis- capelin vertebrae and cod otoliths were posal of bones in the ocean to the arrange- used as decorative clothing attachments ment of animal skulls in long lines on land by some Greenland Inuit. Giddings re- (see review in Soby 1969/1970). There is at ports a cluster of “sharp” fish bones from least one instance, from the Yupik area, of a subfloor cache in an early Western the bones of fish caught in traps (but not Thule house at Cape Krusenstern in asso- netted fish) being ritually disposed of in ciation with sewing equipment. He tenta- 28 PETER WHITRIDGE tively suggests that the fish bones were success with wet than dry screening at “intended for some special use” (1967:93), Modified Thule/Historic sod house and presumably as awls or pins for very light qarmat sites on southeastern Baffin Island. sewing work. Such uses are unlikely to Many Thule archaeologists appear to have have diverted a significant proportion of arrived intuitively at the position that the fish bone. slim potential return makes screening an inefficient use of precious hours in the Sampling Bias against Fish Bone field, but the circularity of this belief warrants controlled field experiments with Poor recovery. Next to poor preserva- the productivity of screening in a variety tion, poor recovery is the most commonly of field situations. Screening, especially of cited reason for the absence or underrep- house floor deposits, is now common on resentation of fish bones on Thule and late prehistoric and historic excavations in Inuit sites (e.g., Savelle and McCartney the Western Arctic (e.g., Friesen and Ar- 1988:30; Friesen and Arnold 1995:28; Balk- nold 1994; Friesen 1995; Morrison 1988, will and Rick 1994:114). This seems to be a 1994), largely because of the high potential particular problem with assemblages col- for encountering fish bones and, latterly lected before the mid 1970s, when re- trade beads. search designs began to explicitly address It would thus appear that a systematic issues related to the subsistence economy. recovery bias against the bones of fish and Early investigations of Western Arctic other small taxa may afflict many Thule sites failed to fully incorporate fish bones faunal assemblages. However, fish bones in the then-standard field identifications, are present in small quantities at many even when they were encountered during Thule sites, along with remains of small excavation (see discussion in Balkwill and birds and rodents and very small artifacts. Rick 1994). In fact, representative faunal The bones of lemmings (average adult collections of any kind are virtually non- weight, 73 g; Banfield 1974) outnumber existent for arctic sites excavated before fish 70:1 at Cape Garry (Rick 1980) and the mid 1970s. 11:1 at PaJs-13 (Whitridge 1992), although The systematic bias against fish bone the lemming elements are on average sig- (especially of small species) produced by nificantly smaller than the fish elements. large mesh screening is well documented Even before the enthusiasm for subsis- for other regions and through experiment. tence-related research problems, arctic ar- Since at least 75% of herring-sized fish chaeologists were attentive to the possi- bones can be lost through 1/4Љ mesh bility of encountering fish bone and found (Singer 1987:85) screening through 1/8Љ its scarcity remarkable (Hall 1971; mesh may be necessary to recover a rea- McGhee 1972; Taylor 1981). Given the sonably representative fish sample when sheer size of some hand-collected Thule smaller taxa are present. Deposits are not faunal samples [e.g., fish NISP’s of 108/ consistently screened on Thule excava- 18,318 at Silumiut (Staab 1979), 0/19, 275 at tions. This is due mainly to the slow pace B-1 (Schledermann 1975), and 14/11, 305 at of excavation where permafrost is in- PaJs-13, House 2 (Whitridge 1992)], it volved, which frequently necessitates seems unlikely that the actual relative fre- troweling through a few thawed centime- quency of fish in the sampled deposits is ters of mucky, organic matrix per day in very substantial. Fish bones occur in high any given unit. Wet screening would seem relative frequencies in some samples, to be appropriate for these saturated de- such as Paleoeskimo faunal assemblages posits, but Henshaw (1995) reported less from northern Boothia Peninsula, col- ZEN FISH 29 lected with the same techniques common perspective, and again excluding the pos- on Thule sites (Whitridge 1990 field obser- sibility of taphonomic biases, the absence vations). Furthermore, Butler (1993:10) of fish bone from an assemblage with an found that salmon bone samples gener- NISP of 100 only indicates that the true ated by careful hand collection were iden- proportion of fish in the population is tical in terms of element frequencies to probably less than 3% if the collection can screened samples, so significant bias be considered a random sample of that against smaller elements was presumably population. The faunal samples listed in absent. Given that the taxa of greatest po- Table 1 have total NISP values ranging tential interest in most Thule assemblages from 102 to 69,269 for the taxa under con- are moderately large (Ͼ1 kg) salmonids sideration (nonfood species have not been (anadramous char, lake trout, and the tabulated, and samples smaller than 100 larger whitefishes), it cannot be assumed were not included in this study), with a that the lack of screening is primarily re- mean of 6,130 and a median of 2,262. sponsible for the overall scarcity of fish Whatever the reasons for the absence of bone, where attention was paid to bone fish bone from some collections, from a recovery (see discussion in Hall 1971:53). sampling perspective most assemblages Although difficult to demonstrate without are theoretically large enough to pick up experimental data on potential recovery even very low proportions of fish in the bias, excavation procedures on most population. However, where the fish NISP Thule sites appear to be adequate to esis very low, the precise proportion of fish tablish the presence and approximate rel- in the population has not been securely ative abundance of large fish bones in estimated. To take an extreme case, the sampled deposits. On the other hand, the %NISP of fish bone in the hypothetical virtual absence of polar cod [maximum population of bones from Lady Franklin weight, approximately 150 g (Scott and Point, where a single fish bone occurred in Scott 1988), average adult length 15 cm a sample of 5,872, can only be estimated at (Morrow 1980)] and comparably-sized between .05 and .006%, or to within 2 or- sculpins from Eastern Arctic assemblages ders of magnitude. and the scarcity of herring in most sam- Intrasite variability. Part of the reason ples from the Mackenzie Delta region for the scarcity of fish bone could be the should perhaps be considered ambigu- focus of Thule archaeologists on the exca- ous, since recovery techniques may not be vation of dwellings and immediately ad- adequate for the smallest taxa. joining middens. Stenton and Park (1994) Small sample size. Another problem have discussed the variability in deposi- with evaluating relative abundance in tional processes associated with Thule zooarchaeological assemblages is the ef- winter sites that complicates the assign- fect of sample size on the representation ment of particular deposits to particular of the rarest taxa. For example, tapho- house occupations (see also McCartney nomic factors aside, to obtain a 95% like- 1979b). Because the analyses that follow lihood of recovering at least a single spec- rely predominantly on the gross aggrega- imen of a taxon whose true proportion in tion of assemblages by broad temporal the population is 1%, it would be neces- period, rather than the fine-grained dis- sary to draw a random sample of 300 crimination of household assemblages, based on binomial probabilities. The ab- these problems are largely circumvented. sence of the taxon from a smaller sample Chang’s (1988) ethnoarchaeological study could not be said to be significant at the of the North Alaskan fish camp of Nauy- standard confidence level. From another alik indicated that fish bones and other 30 PETER WHITRIDGE refuse resulting from bulk processing son’s (1994) data on the distribution of were placed in a midden area at least 40 m ringed seal age classes at PaJs-13 appear from the nearest dwelling. Fish that were to indicate intracommunity differences in butchered in processing areas removed access to prime sealing territories. A com- from dwellings may have had some of parable situation with respect to char fish- their remains discarded in discrete ing weirs could conceivably result in sig- dumps, as at Nauyalik, but the traditional nificant interhousehold variability in fish injunction (and necessity) to make use of consumption. This is further suggested by all parts of a fish (Jenness 1922:104) prob- the seasonal division of harvesting labor ably resulted in little wastage of this sort among the Mackenzie Inuit and Igluling- prehistorically, with most bone ending up miut noted above and by observed vari- in soups and/or being fed to dogs. There is ability between Thule qarmat assemblages no ethnographic suggestion that the at PaJs-3 (Whitridge 1990 field observa- refuse from human meals of fish was dis- tions). However, it is impossible to prop- posed of at a greater distance from dwell- erly evaluate this proposition with the ings than that of other taxa, and so the current site sample because fish bones are remainder from consumed fish parts absent or extremely rare at the few sites should probably occur alongside other (e.g., Skraeling Island, RbJr-1) where a small faunal remains. At one of the few large number of individually reported sites where both dwellings and various house assemblages is available. exterior activity areas have been exca- Seasonal intersite variability. Based on vated, fish bone was only abundant in the the ethnographic patterns of fish process- kitchen midden, house floor, and house ing and transport noted above, stores of fill deposits (Morrison 1988). This pattern dried fish harvested in summer and con- is complicated by the fact that only house sumed at winter sites would normally floor deposits were screened, but the ex- have been boneless. The only major excavator is confident that the scarcity of fish ception is herring, which occasionally ap- bone in most outdoor contexts is real pears in Late Prehistoric and Historic as- (Morrison 1988:65). Archaeological em- semblages in the Mackenzie Delta region. phasis on roofed spaces and adjacent mid- Otherwise, fish may have made a substan- dens may actually result in the overrepre- tial contribution to winter diet and yet be sentation of fish bone in Thule and Inuit poorly represented in bone assemblages. faunal collections relative to its site-wide To obtain an accurate picture of Thule fish distribution. use it would be necessary to have samples Because of the complete excavation of from the full range of seasonal site types, most Thule houses, any intramural vari- including those at which any initial pro- ability in the disposal of fish bone is prob- cessing occurred. Thule archaeologists, ably not a serious concern. However, it however, have focused their energies on has often proved difficult to reach the winter settlements (Savelle 1987; Stenton floor levels of the entrance tunnel of win- 1989 are exceptions) because they produce ter houses, due to permafrost or flooding, much larger artifact and faunal assem- so these deposits are somewhat underrep- blages than warm-weather camps (Table resented. Since dogs were frequently 5). Coastal qarmat sites account for most of housed in the entrance tunnel, this may the components labeled “spring/summer/ not be insignificant. It is also possible that fall.” Although the precise season of occu- foodways varied between households and pation is often difficult to determine for that relatively abundant fish bone occurs any site, due in part to multiseason use of in unexcavated dwellings at a site. Daniel- some dwellings, on architectural, artifac- ZEN FISH 31

TABLE 5 Summary of Sample Distribution by Region, Period, and Season

Period

Classic Modiﬁed/ Region Season Thule Late Historic Total

Harvesting gear Western Spring/fall 0 4 2 6 Winter 1 9 2 12 Central Spring/fall 1 2 1 4 Winter 9 2 0 11 Eastern Spring/fall 2 1 0 3 Winter 12 4 3 19 Total 25 22 8 55 Faunal remains Western Spring/fall 0 6 3 9 Winter 1 5 1 7 Central Spring/fall 1 2 1 4 Winter 9 0 0 9 Eastern Spring/fall 3 1 0 4 Winter 11 5 3 19 Total 25 19 8 52 Harvesting gear and faunal remains Western Spring/fall 0 4 2 6 Winter 1 4 1 6 Central Spring/fall 1 1 1 3 Winter 7 0 0 7 Eastern Spring/fall 1 1 0 2 Winter 7 3 2 12 Total 17 13 6 36

tual, and zooarchaeological grounds these summer reliance on fish cannot readily be qarmat appear to represent predominantly discounted based on the existing site sam- late summer/fall occupations by groups ple. engaged in open-water sea mammal However, the evidence reviewed above hunting, caribou hunting, and sometimes suggests that fish consumed during win- fishing. During summer in all regions ter would have been harvested mainly in most people normally occupied tents, ei- late summer/early fall, since this is widely ther on the coast or adjacent to lakes and reported to have been the most produc- rivers in the interior, but tent ring assem- tive fishing season for char and white- blages and inland components of any kind fishes. Given that fish procured at this have been infrequently reported. Since time were generally cached whole, not fil- most summer and some early-fall fishing leted and dried (Rasmussen 1931:485), in- appears to have occurred from tent tensive late summer/early fall fish har- camps, the scarcity of fish may be attrib- vesting should be reflected at winter sites utable to a biased sample of seasonal site by the bones of fish transported whole. types, along with attritional biases in the Extensive fall and winter ice fishing few reported tent ring assemblages. This should be conspicuous at winter sites for is undoubtedly part of the larger dilemma; the same reason. Because winter settle- 32 PETER WHITRIDGE ments were occupied for longer periods in parts of the outer Delta through zooar- (6–8 months, less any time spent in snow chaeological data, it is significant that house settlements) than any other site traces of Thule settlement have so far type, and since the seasonality evidence proved elusive in the best inner Delta frequently suggests relatively little active fishing locations. harvesting from them, winter sites consti- The lack of Thule fishing sites in the tute zooarchaeological “sinks” for animals western Canadian Arctic thus cannot be harvested at other times of year. In most considered purely a sampling problem, areas, the immediately preceding late but rather appears to be part of a larger summer/fall season was the period during shift in settlement patterns over the past which the vast bulk of sea mammals, car- millennium. The most profound period of ibou, and fish were procured (e.g., Savelle settlement system reorganization coin- 1984:510). Density-mediated attrition cided closely with the onset of the LIA, the aside, the scarcity of fish in winter site most severe climatic downturn of the past assemblages thus implies both little ice 4000 years (Kreutz et al. 1997:1294), fishing during late fall and winter and lit- around A.D. 1400. In the central and east- tle surplus harvesting of fish during the ern parts of the Canadian Arctic this late summer/early fall period when fish marks the Classic-Modified Thule transi- were being cached whole. tion and in the west the Thule-Late Pre- Interregional variability. Another possi- historic transition. There was little human bility, mentioned briefly here and devel- occupation of the Central and High Arctic oped in greater detail in later sections, is islands during Modified Thule and early that the intensity of fish harvesting varied Historic times, and depopulation in the significantly between regions, and these north is mirrored by settlement expansion regions have not been representatively in Low Arctic regions. Based on the cali- sampled. The assemblages listed in Table brated carbon-14 dates assembled by 1 are scattered throughout the Canadian Morrison (1989), many Modified Thule Arctic, with only arctic Quebec and Labra- sites in the east, and Late Prehistoric sites dor excluded from the present site sam- in the west, appear to have been first set- ple. However, as the distribution of as- tled during the 15th century (suggesting semblages by period in Table 5 reveals, that the Thule “return migration” hypoth- useable faunal data are not available for esis warrants revisiting). The region of or- any site or site component dating pre- igin of faunal samples is partly correlated dominantly to Classic Thule times in the with the period of site occupation, making western part of the study area, precisely it difficult to distinguish the effects of the region where fish resources are great- changing subsistence-settlement systems est (Fig. 3). This is likely due in part to the from interregional variability in fish avail- loss of early Thule sites to coastal erosion. ability or utility. The question of Thule Pioneering and Classic Thule components and Inuit fish use is thus partly a question at important sites such as Nuvurak and of High versus Low Arctic fish use. Washout have been destroyed in recent Restricted access to fishing sites. The decades (McGhee 1974; Friesen and Hun- most productive late-summer char fishing ston 1994). However, erosion is not nearly locales were major points of population as severe at sites away from the open aggregation in historic subsistence-settle- coast, where most of the Late Prehistoric ment rounds (Rasmussen 1931). If cached and Historic sites with abundant evidence fish were later transported over great dis- of fishing are located. Although it is no tances, this could potentially result in a longer possible to address Thule fish use wider consumption of fish at winter set- ZEN FISH 33 tlements than the distribution of impor- gear identified by Mathiassen have not tant fishing locales would suggest. On the been recognized in subsequent collections other hand, proprietary access to fishing and indeed some of the original identifi- sites of the sort widely reported for North- cations were considered tentative. The west Coast groups could result in geo- most commonly reported items include graphically restricted fish bone distribu- the side prongs, center prongs, and side tions. Few data are available to seriously barbs of leisters (kakivak); the self-barbed address territoriality during Classic Thule side and center prongs of fish arrows or times. However, Danielson’s (1994) data trident-type fish spears (nuyakpak); on intracommunity differences in sealing zoomorphic lures; and fish stringing nee- territories raise the possibility that analo- dles (Fig. 5). Hand-held ice picks and ice gous differences may eventually be recog- scoops are reported in the western re- nized between neighboring communities gions, and heavy prongs for gaffs or fish at Hazard Inlet. Although there is no di- rakes occur occasionally in the Copper rect supporting evidence, proprietary Inuit area (Morrison 1983). Specimens community access to char fishing weirs Mathiassen reported as a fishing harpoon could generate intersite variability in fish head (1927:plate 12.7) and foreshaft have bone deposition. A similar effect could rarely been identified as such at other also be produced by a more likely sce- sites (Vanstone 1962:plate 8.17 is an excep- nario, in which large communities with tion), and the identifications of baleen the capacity to assemble multiple whaling specimens as a fish trap (Mathiassen 1927: boat crews (Whitridge 1994) would have plate 60) and fragments of fish nets tended to neglect char fishing during the (Mathiassen 1927:plate 59) have not been open-water season, while smaller com- duplicated. Based on the published pho- munities may have found this late sum- tograph and descriptions (Mathiassen mer/early fall scheduling option more at- 1927:189–190), the latter identification in tractive. particular is highly implausible and is not generally accepted. In fact, fish netting Misinterpretation of Artifact Assemblages gear (net floats, net sinkers, net gauges, and netting shuttles) occurs quite widely Half of the interpretative dilemma sur- on sites in the Western Canadian Arctic rounding Thule fishing relates to the from at least the 15th century A.D. ubiquity and occasional abundance of (McGhee 1974), but can be considered ab- fishing gear, so incorrect attributions of sent from the Eastern Arctic prehistori- artifact function could be a contributing cally (Morrison 1990:62–63). Morrison fur- factor. It is also possible that fishing gear ther notes that the easternmost differed from other kinds of harvesting Mackenzie Inuit group, the Iglulualumiut, gear in the extent to which it was curated were aware of fish netting technology but and the way in which it moved through did not employ it and that no firmly iden- the annual settlement round and was tified prehistoric netting gear has been eventually discarded. It is thus necessary reported east of Cape Bathurst peninsula. to review fishing gear function and assem- Bone and antler objects tentatively identi- blage formation. fied as net sinkers from Brooman Point Fishing gear misidentified. Mathiassen (McGhee 1984) and Talaguak (Sabo 1991) (1927) established the functional identifi- do not resemble any of the varieties of cations of most Thule artifact types that stone net sinker that occur in the Mack- have continued in use to the present. enzie Delta and North Alaska. In the ab- However, several of the items of fishing sence of any independent supporting ev- 34 PETER WHITRIDGE

FIG. 5. Some major varieties of Thule and Inuit fishing equipment. idence for fish nets, alternative sent east of Amundsen Gulf, are several identifications (e.g., maul heads for the distinctive classes of composite fish hook Brooman Point specimens; similar end- with a single obliquely inserted barb and battered pieces occur at the Hazard Inlet often holes for decorative inlays. Various winter village of Qariaraqyuk) are proba- styles of shanks, barbs, and (more rarely) bly more appropriate. line sinkers occur at most sites in the Common in the Western Arctic from Mackenzie Delta region and westward but Thule to Historic times, but virtually ab- are rare in the Eastern Arctic. A single ZEN FISH 35 shank from Malerualik (Mathiassen 1927: ing implements are probably accurate. plate 83.6) is relatively thick in cross sec- Many of the smaller barbed prongs may tion, slightly curved, and has extra holes actually be parts of multipronged fish ar- that might have held inlays or small spin- rows (e.g., Nelson 1983; Vanstone 1980), ner attachments, but resembles Western though they are rarely specifically identi- Arctic forms. A second fish hook shank fied as such. Although the frequent mis- illustrated by Mathiassen (1927:plate 34.5), identification of bird dart prongs as fish from Naujan, is unique in the literature spear prongs seems unlikely, it cannot and bears a closer resemblance to a gull easily be refuted. Secure identifications of hook shank, although made of ivory leister side barbs and center prongs are rather than wood. Another simple hook also sometimes difficult, although these type, in which a curved copper barb is artifacts are occasionally highly distinctive inserted into the base of a blocky sinker or (especially a variety of leister barb with shank, occurs mainly in the Copper and drilled lashing holes). A more thorough Netsilik Inuit areas (e.g., Gordon 1994; comparison of ethnographic fishing gear Vanstone 1962). Idiosyncratic shanks with with archaeological examples of all types multiple oblique barbs resemble historic is called for. In general, there does not cod jigging hooks and are reported from appear to be any systematic bias promoting Talaguak (Sabo 1991). From the Belcher the identification of fishing gear, although Islands, outside the present study area, some such identifications are prone to er- unusual stone objects identified as fish ror. hook shanks (Benmouyal 1978) appear Fishing gear expedient, more frequently dis- unrelated to any Western Arctic forms, as carded. The highly variable appearance do distinctive wooden and double-barbed of barbed prongs may be attributable to bone shanks from western Greenland expedient manufacture. There has been (Gullov 1997). Gorges are widely reported little detailed analysis of this artifact cate- ethnographically, but rarely identified ar- gory, but specimens illustrated in the lit- chaeologically, and perhaps would be fre- erature and present in the Qariaraqyuk quently indistinguishable from gull hook assemblage encompass a great deal of barbs. variability in the number, location, shape, A more serious problem than such oc- and size of barbs. This variability is not casional ambiguous specimens is the po- typical of most Thule artifacts, which tend tential misidentification of commonly oc- to exhibit a high degree of stylistic unifor- curring barbed objects as fish spear mity across vast geographical areas. It is (nuyakpak) prongs. Thule archaeologists possible that this variability reflects un- are very inconsistent in their identifica- usual manufacturing contexts or social or tions of these pieces, alternately reporting ideological prescriptions (or lack thereof). them as bird dart and fish spear prongs For many Inuit groups summer was a and occasionally declining a specific func- period during which social rules were tional identification. Given that generic relaxed (Mauss and Beuchat 1979). Eth- darting technology (throwing boards, nographic accounts emphasize the joy- throwing board hooks, and dart butt fulness of summer fishing camps (Ras- pieces) is much less common than se- mussen 1931), which represented part of curely identified fishing gear (leister parts, a welcome interlude between the bore- lures, and fish needles), and that most dom and scarcity of late winter/early securely identified bird dart side prongs spring and the hard work of late sum- are morphologically distinctive, the iden- mer/early fall, when much of the year’s tifications of many barbed objects as fish- food production occurred. This general 36 PETER WHITRIDGE easing of social conventions may have game. However, some categories of fish- been expressed in the production and ing gear were very well made and highly use of idiosyncratic implements. This curated, most notably lures in all regions could account for the contrast between and post-Thule composite fish hooks in relatively standardized leister parts and the western region. Expediency may thus the relatively variable trident or fish ar- result in slightly exaggerated relative fre- row parts. Multibarbed tridents and fish quencies of some categories of fishing arrows appear ill-suited to the rapid gear within harvesting assemblages, par- harvesting of large numbers of fish dur- ticularly in the eastern regions where nuy- ing brief periods described for coopera- akpak parts are common, fish hooks rare, tive saputit fishing (Rasmussen 1931; Jen- and nets absent, but probably does not ness 1922:156), since it would be difficult account for the general ubiquity of fishing to rapidly extract the fish from the barbs. gear on Thule sites. However, they may have been suitable Differential accumulation of fishing gear at for more leisurely harvesting of individ- winter sites. Because winter sites are ual fish in shallows, outside the periods overrepresented in the site sample, any of saputit use. Jenness (1922:152) refers to mechanism which leads to the overrepre- the use of “improvised spears” for this sentation of fishing gear at these sites kind of fishing, elsewhere noting that could contribute to a false impression of sculpins were occasionally sought with Thule fishing activity. It may at first ap- spears made by attaching any barbed pear unusual that fishing gear is abundant implement at hand to a shaft. The latter on winter sites at all, given that winter was “were dismantled again as soon as the not a major fishing season for most Inuit need for them passed” (Jenness 1946: groups. However, in the same manner 111). that winter sites constitute sinks for much Women and children are reported to of the annual harvest, harvesting equip- have done much of the small-scale fishing ment of all sorts occurs more abundantly and small-game harvesting ethnographi- in winter house assemblages than in any cally (Giffen 1930) and may have been other functional context. This is attribut- involved in the manufacture of the asso- able to the longer period of seasonal ciated gear. Jenness cites an instance of a dwelling use, and better preservational woman manufacturing an expedient ice- conditions, of sod houses relative to qar- fishing gorge out of a caribou long bone mat and tent rings. (Jenness 1922:155). Certain categories of In addition, winter houses appear to fishing implement may thus have been have been frequently occupied for multi- produced expediently by individuals not ple years. The use-life of winter houses otherwise engaged in manufacturing har- was highly variable and is a point of con- vesting gear in the context of a relaxed troversy in the Thule literature (Park 1997; emphasis on adherence to social rules for Savelle et al. n.d.). However, Inuit tended the production of material culture (Eski- to make use of any in situ architectural mo fishing was generally associated with elements, such as house foundations or less ritual practice than other harvesting boulders for holding down tents, and so activities; Lantis 1947:45; Rousselot et al. frequently reused the sites of individual 1988:152). Subsequently, these imple- dwellings (Stefansson 1919:167). House ments may have been broken, dismantled, sites were probably owned on a usufruct or merely discarded at a higher rate than basis, as in North Alaska historically the formally manufactured, and highly (Spencer 1959:59; Burch 1988), and refur- curated, equipment for harvesting large bished each season by their occupants. ZEN FISH 37

Some house sites appear to have been early fall, rather than active harvesting, more or less continuously utilized for long during most of the period of occupation of periods, on the order of several decades or winter houses. Winter appears to have even a few centuries. At Qariaraqyuk this been a time for socializing, ceremonial ac- is indicated by site structure, artifact tivities, and especially the repair and styles, and carbon-14 dates on house con- manufacture of equipment. The midden struction and abandonment (Whitridge associated with a winter karigi, or men’s 1999). Weighing historic Inuit population house, at Qariaraqyuk contains abundant numbers against detailed regional counts evidence of men’s manufacturing activi- of Thule winter houses for the Canadian ties (bone, antler and wood debitage, frag- Arctic (McCartney 1979a), it appears that ments of recycled tools and discarded on average individual house sites were tools), while the dwelling assemblages reused for decades (Whitridge 1996). This contain much refuse from clothing manu- is probably the most important factor con- facture (Whitridge 1999). Fishing gear, like tributing to the large size of the artifact all types of harvesting gear, is thus pre- assemblages frequently recovered from dictably abundant at winter sites because Thule winter houses, but would not result much of the year’s “gearing up” occurred in the overrepresentation of fishing gear there. The net effect of all these dimen- relative to other harvesting equipment. sions of Thule winter house use is long- Winter houses also functioned as term accumulation and preservation of caches for the equipment owned by their lost, discarded, and cached items in house occupants. Unlike the historic situation in and midden deposits. Their assemblages the Central Arctic, in which temporary can thus be considered fairly representa- snow-house villages were the major win- tive of the sum of annual activities under- ter settlement type, Thule and some his- taken by their occupants and should not toric settlement systems were anchored reflect any particular bias toward the in- by these heavily constructed dwellings. clusion of fishing gear. Fishing gear uti- Sod houses were often associated with lized in summer will probably be some- storage racks and ice cellars in which ma- what underrepresented to the extent that terials could be cached during the seasons maintenance-related discard occurred at in which tents and qarmat were occupied, summer tent or qarmat camps. and some were occupied throughout the year (Nagy 1994:90–91). In contrast, highly Summary of Interpretive Issues mobile Central Inuit bands cached seasonal harvesting gear in cairns situated at Because they are smaller and less transit points on the landscape, such as dense, fish bones have likely been deleted the location on the coast from which from Thule faunal assemblages at a groups departed for winter sealing once greater rate than the bones of larger ver- the sea ice formed and to which they re- tebrates (see Table 6). Although culling turned in spring (Jenness 1922:122). This and various other cultural practices practice was associated with ritual pro- should not have drastically reduced the scriptions against mixing the foods and amount of bone available to enter houses raw materials of the land and the sea. and adjacent midden assemblages rela- Much less mixing of seasonal harvesting tive to the bones of other taxa, the delib- gear might thus be expected at Central erate feeding of fish bones to dogs, and Inuit than at Thule sites generally. scavenging of refuse by dogs and other Furthermore, Thule communities relied bone consumers, will likely have resulted on food stores put up during late summer/ in substantial destruction of fish bone 38 PETER WHITRIDGE

TABLE 6 Summary of Taphonomic, Sampling, Interpretive, and Ecological/Economic Factors Bearing on the Extent and Archaeological Visibility of Thule and Inuit Fish Utilizationa

Season Region Period Factors potentially contributing to Spring/ Modiﬁed interpretive summer/ Winter Classic Thule/Late Historic difﬁculties fall sites sites Western Central Eastern Thule Prehistoric Inuit

Taphonomic deletion of fish bone Poor preservation ϩϩ Ϫ Ϫ Ϫ ϩ Ϫ Ϫ Ϫ Consumption of bones by dogs/scavengers ϩϩ ϩϩ ϩϩ ϩϩ ϩϩ ϩϩ ϩϩ ϩϩ Consumption of bones by humans ϩϩϩϩϩϩ ϩ ϩ Culling ϩϩϩϩϩϩ ϩ ϩ Destructive preparation techniques ϩϪϪϪϪϪ Ϫ Ϫ Ritual disposal ϪϪϪϪϪϪ Ϫ Ϫ Artifactual use of fish bone ϪϪϪϪϪϪ Ϫ Ϫ Sampling bias against fish bone Poor recovery ϩϩϪϩϩϩ ϩ ϩ Small sample size ϩϪϪϪϪϪ Ϫ Ϫ Intrasite variability ϪϪϪϪϪϪ Ϫ Ϫ Seasonal intersite variability n/a n/a Ϫϩϩϩ ϩ ϩ Inter-regional variability Ϫϩn/a n/a n/a ϩϩ ϩ Restricted access to fishing sites ϪϪϪϪϪϩ Ϫ Ϫ Misinterpretation of artifact assemblages Fishing gear misidentified ϪϪϪϪϪϪ Ϫ Ϫ Fishing gear expedient ϩϪϪϩϩϩ Ϫ Ϫ Differential accumulation of fishing gear ϪϩϪϪϪϩ Ϫ Ϫ Low-level fish harvesting Reduced productivity ϪϪϪϪϪϪ Ϫ Ϫ Geomorphological change ϪϪϪϪϪϪ Ϫ Ϫ Technological limitations ϪϪϪϩϩϩ Ϫ Ϫ Scheduling conflict ϩϩ ϩ ϩϩ ϩ ϩϩ ϩϩ Ϫ Ϫ Narrower diet breadth ϩϩ ϩϩ ϩϩ ϩ ϩϩ ϩϩ Ϫ Ϫ

a Symbols are defined as follows: ϩϩ very important, ϩ somewhat important, Ϫ unimportant. where the bones of larger vertebrates to chemical and physical weathering. At- would survive in identifiable condition. trition will be especially severe at rela- This preservational bias against fish will tively warm and wet Low Arctic sites (Fig. be most strongly expressed at warm- 4). It will also presumably be more severe weather sites, where fish bones not con- in older than younger assemblages. How- sumed by dogs are prone to deletion due ever, this cannot be clearly demonstrated ZEN FISH 39 until element frequencies and measures were a part. Changes over time in regional of weathering and fragmentation are pub- subsistence-settlement systems compli- lished for fish taxa for which bone density cate assessments of geographical and data are also available. At winter sites, chronological variability, since the assem- where vulnerability to scavenging is blages available for comparison do not somewhat less than that at warm-weather have strictly equivalent depositional his- sites, unconsumed fish bones would have tories. had excellent survival potential. The key The proportion of fishing implements unknown factor is the extent to which fish in assemblages of harvesting gear may bones were fed directly to dogs, which be inflated in some areas due to rela- could potentially be assessed with indices tively expedient manufacture of some of density-mediated attrition, attention to artifact types. To the extent that techno- osteological signs of carnivore gnawing logical expediency is inversely corre- and digestion, coprolite analysis, and per- lated with the economic importance of haps isotopic analysis of dog bones. fishing, this might have the paradoxical Sampling biases do not appear to be the effect of inflating counts of fishing im- overwhelming determinant of fish bone plements precisely where fishing was abundance, at least for the assemblages engaged in most casually. Artifact mis- considered here. The bones of the large identification is probably not a severe fish species that were most valued histor- biasing factor; attributions of artifact ically are unlikely to have been consis- function appear to be fairly secure due tently missed where any attention was to technological continuity from Thule paid to faunal recovery, although the rel- to early Historic times and the pro- ative frequencies of all small taxa may be nounced functional differentiation of slightly depressed in the unscreened as- Inuit harvesting equipment. The winter semblages that dominate the site sample. site assemblages that dominate discus- Fish remains tend to be most abundant in sions of Thule subsistence technology the Late Prehistoric and Historic Macken- should be reasonably representative of zie Delta region sites where at least partial the harvesting activities undertaken in screening of deposits occurred, but fall, winter, and spring, but the potential screening has become standard in that re- for summer fishing and the divergence gion in large part due to the expectation of regional subsistence-settlement sys- that fish bone will be encountered, so the tems from the Classic-Modified Thule abundance of recovered fish is not solely transition necessitates attention to the attributable to screening. Fish remains did full range of site types. Overall, the not occur among the close to 9000 faunal range of site formation processes affect- specimens recovered from screened de- ing faunal assemblages appears to have posits at Kamaiyuk, on Frobisher Bay resulted in more serious biases against (Henshaw 1995), although faunal preser- fish bone than those affecting fishing vation was characterized as “generally gear assemblages. very good” (Henshaw 1999:96). The size and intrasite provenience of samples do ECOLOGICAL AND ECONOMIC not appear to be relevant to the dearth of CONTROLS ON FISHING fish bones, but an excavation bias against warm-season sites limits our understand- The final set of factors to be evaluated ing of the short-term camps from which relate to the possibility that fish remains much fishing may have occurred and the are relatively scarce because fishing was larger harvesting systems of which they not as actively pursued in Thule times as it 40 PETER WHITRIDGE was historically, due to ecological and/or varies regionally depending on the past economic considerations. ice load and timing of retreat. Dyke et al. (1991:48) estimate an average emergence Reduced Productivity rate of 40 cm/century over the past 5000 years for Prince of Wales Island. This A potential explanation for limited fish would amount to a change in relative sea harvesting is that fish stocks were smaller level of 3–4 m between Thule arrival in or less widely distributed during the mild the Eastern Arctic and the present. Wher- climatic interval that preceded the Little ever downcutting of lake outlets could not Ice Age. Some important anadramous keep pace with isostatic emergence, this species are very sensitive to changes in will have had the effect of progressively water temperature. Anderson (Giddings isolating char populations and converting and Anderson 1986) has suggested that them from anadromy to residency in land- salmon may have been more widely dis- locked water bodies. This will have been tributed (and utilized) in North Alaska accompanied by reduction in average during late Birnirk and early Thule times, adult size. On the other hand, marine in- their range retreating southward with cli- lets will have been progressively con- matic deterioration. Although Arctic char verted into freshwater lakes and rivers. are slightly more sensitive than other sal- This is the case with Stanwell-Fletcher monids to warm temperatures (Johnson Lake, on Somerset Island, which had a 1980:67) nonmigratory populations thrive tidal connection to Creswell Bay until at lower latitudes, their ubiquity in arctic about 2400 B.P. (Rust and Coakley 1970). waters being attributable to enhanced Stanwell-Fletcher is one of the largest cold tolerance rather than reduced heat lakes in the Canadian Arctic Islands, and tolerance. While species ranges may have during the 20th century has supported a fluctuated somewhat with changing envi- highly productive domestic char fishery ronmental conditions, it seems unlikely along its outlet through Union River that northern char stocks would have (Kemp et al. 1977). This valuable char run been reduced during the Medieval Warm would not have been available to Paleo- Period, although they may have been out- eskimo residents of the area until at least competed at the southern margins of the Dorset times, and similar runs may only range by Pacific and Atlantic salmon or have become productive in late prehis- freshwater species such as northern pike. tory. On a regional basis, the loss of eco- Overall, it is likely that the productivity of nomically viable char runs will presum- fish resources would have been enhanced ably have been balanced by the by warmer temperatures due to a longer establishment of new ones, but in some ice-free period, hence heightened plank- instances runs that were utilized histori- tonic productivity and greater influx of cally may not have been productive dur- terrestrial nutrients. Climatic controls on ing Thule times (and vice versa). ranges and stock sizes cannot account for limited Thule fishing. Technological Limitations

Geomorphological Change The ethnographic evidence indicates that fishing of all kinds was much more The Eastern Arctic has experienced productive, and more intensively pur- high levels of isostatic rebound since de- sued, by groups that possessed fish nets, glaciation, although the rate has leveled whether acquired aboriginally or from off substantially in recent millennia and traders and missionaries. The distribution ZEN FISH 41 of netting technology may thus have rep- objects are known from the Eskimo eth- resented an effective limit on the extent of nographic literature (e.g., maul, flaking economic reliance on fish. A problem with hammer, brainer, and counterweight). this line of reasoning is determining That netting gear first appears in the whether a particular group did not adopt Point Barrow area in association with Eu- nets because fishing was unproductive or ropean goods even led Ford (1959:111) to otherwise unattractive or fishing was un- doubt the prehistoric occurrence of Es- productive because the group did not pos- kimo nets. However, a few likely net sink- sess netting technology. For Modified ers occur in Punuk contexts (ca. A.D. 800– Thule and Historic groups east of Amund- 1300) on St. Lawrence Island (Collins sen Gulf the latter proposition appears 1937), and netting paraphernalia appears more likely while, as discussed below, on “late sites” (Punuk and later?) in Classic Thule groups with access to bow- Chukotka (Rudenko 1961:137). Surpris- heads may have had neither nets nor ingly, Collins recovered netting shuttles much interest in fish resources. from Old Bering Sea (ca. A.D. 200–800) Netting equipment is generally rare ar- levels at Miyowagh (Collins 1937:175), but chaeologically in the Western Arctic, par- seems to consider their use to be the man- ticularly on sites predating A.D. 1400 ufacture of small dip nets. He sees heavy (Giddings 1952; Giddings and Anderson net sinkers as indicators of the adoption of 1986:111; Morrison 1990:63), although net gill nets per se in early Punuk times (1940: sinkers are sometimes abundant in Paleo- 554). While a convincing net float occurs at eskimo Choris and Norton-Near Ipiutak Ekseavik (ca. A.D. 1400; Giddings 1952), assemblages (Giddings and Anderson sinkers and floats are really only common 1986; Giddings 1964). Netting gear seems in the 16th century and later components to be absent from Ipiutak (Larsen and along the Western Arctic rivers that sus- Rainey 1948; Giddings and Anderson tained the heaviest historic fish harvests. 1986) and from Paleoeskimo sites in the Netting gauges and shuttles also became Eastern Arctic [e.g., Maxwell 1985; Møb- widespread at this time. Netting may thus jerg’s (1999) tentative, and isolated, iden- have had a limited distribution in Early tifications of a Saqqaq netting needle and Thule times in the Western Arctic, per- net sinker are not convincing]. Netting haps being restricted to the western side gear is not reported for Birnirk (e.g., Ford of Bering Strait. It does not appear to have 1959; Stanford 1976). Although Giddings been part of the technological inventory of suggests that netting was present any Classic Thule groups (e.g., Yorga 1980; throughout the Thule and later portions of Morrison 1990, n.d.; Arnold 1994) or of his Cape Denbigh and Kobuk River se- later prehistoric groups in the east. quences, netting gear is absent from the Fish nets were ultimately embraced by Early Thule levels at Nukleet (Giddings all Inuit groups in the Eastern Arctic in 1964) and is represented at the contempo- Historic times, and saputit fishing went raneous Ahteut site (dendrochronologi- into decline. Netted fish fed the larger dog cally dated to around A.D. 1250) by only teams that permitted geographically ex- three net sinkers, the sole illustrated extensive fox trapping or were traded with ample of which is an ambiguously un- Euro-Canadians (Balikci 1964; Farquhar- usual form (Giddings 1952:40). These son 1976; LeDrew 1984). It seems likely identifications are clearly complicated by that those groups that fished heavily be- the fact that any heavy perforated or fore the introduction of nets, including grooved object could have functioned as a most Copper, Netsilik, and Caribou Inuit net sinker, although other uses for such bands, would have adopted them aborig- 42 PETER WHITRIDGE inally if they had had the opportunity. The be elaborated only in times and places general absence of netting gear from the where the associated ice-jigging tech- Eastern Arctic can thus be taken to reflect niques proved useful. The numerous local the prehistoric cessation of sustained re- varieties of hook styles in Modified Thule ciprocal contacts between the Mackenzie and Historic times likely represent inde- and Copper Inuit areas before the diffu- pendent developments from this weakly sion of netting technology (e.g., Morrison expressed Thule base, since the distinctive 1990, 1991a). The only evidence under- composite hook forms so typical of Late mining this inference is the case of the Prehistoric and Historic Mackenzie Delta Iglulualumiut who, as noted above, did and west Alaskan assemblages do not ap- not use fish nets, though they apparently pear further east. had access to them (Morrison 1990). This suggests that fish nets would not neces- Scheduling Conflict sarily have been eagerly adopted by all Thule groups exposed to the technology, An important limit on the utilization of although the much-noted Inuit fascina- fish is the existence of scheduling conflicts tion with technical innovations would with peak periods of availability of marine make the rejection of this advance some- and terrestrial mammals. Such conflicts what unusual; the Iglulualumiut did, in appear to account for the limited historic fact, employ seal nets. The lack of netting utilization of fish by Iglulingmiut. While technology may have been a crucial factor the Netsilik, Caribou, and Copper Inuit in making fishing an economically unat- were in the difficult position of procuring tractive option for Pioneering and Classic caribou for winter food and clothing at the Thule groups (Arnold 1994:92) and for same time as the late summer/early fall Modified Thule and Historic groups east char and whitefish runs, both activities of the Mackenzie Delta region. could frequently be pursued from the On the other hand, the archaeological same inland camps by separate task occurrence of simple fish hooks appears to groups organized by gender and age. be merely a reflection of the degree of However, the organization of harvesting reliance on fishing and not an enabling may have been quite different in Thule technological factor. On the ethnographic times for groups in these areas, since evidence, the use of hooks and gorges was sea mammal hunting at this season is widely distributed in early contact times. frequently indicated archaeologically (Mc- Though these artifacts occur very rarely in Ghee 1972; McCartney 1977; Morrison Eastern Arctic Thule assemblages, the no- 1983; Mathiassen 1927; Savelle 1987; tion of a baited hook is well within the Whitridge 1992). There is even a reference Thule technological repertoire, as wit- in Netsilik oral history to the former im- nessed by the common occurrence of gull portance of open-water sealing (Rasmus- hooks. Furthermore, simple composite sen 1931:365). Of particular importance in fish hooks (Fig. 5) occur at the early Clas- this regard is the extensive hunting of sic Thule Booth Island site (Morrison bowhead whales in Thule times (McCart- 1990), which appears to have participated ney and Savelle 1985, 1993; Savelle 1996; in an interaction sphere embracing much Savelle and McCartney 1988, 1991, 1994, of the central Canadian Arctic during the 1999). Even a single 7-tonne yearling 13th and 14th centuries (Whitridge 1999). would provide approximately 3.2 tonnes Basic fish hook technology thus seems to of edible meat, skin, and viscera and 2.8 have been a more or less latent compo- tonnes of blubber that could be rendered nent of Eastern Thule material culture to into edible and combustible oil (based on ZEN FISH 43 proportions in Foote 1965:350). This repre- other sea mammal species (walrus, sents a secure winter’s food supply for a beluga, and harp seal) were important sizable community (the caloric require- during summer and fall in most of the ments of approximately 60 people for 6 latter areas. This does not necessarily pre- months, if used solely as food; see clude substantial use of the less produc- Whitridge 1992). tive early June to mid-July downstream As described ethnographically, bow- char migration by Thule groups. How- head whaling was a labor-intensive and ever, this may have conflicted with whal- time-consuming activity. Normally, two or ing preparations, and the productive sea- more whaling boat crews of seven to eight son for uuttuq hunting of ringed seals hunters each, sometimes accompanied by basking on the sea ice, which lasts until kayakers, along with people to run the about the end of June in the Central and camp, had to devote themselves to the High Arctic (Kemp et al. 1977). In fact, the bowhead hunt for anywhere from a few majority of ringed seals in Classic Thule weeks to a couple of months to ensure a winter house assemblages appear to have reasonable chance of landing a whale. been harvested at this time (Whitridge Much advance labor was invested in the 1992). The generally greater importance of manufacture and repair of boats and summer/fall sea mammal hunting for hunting gear, securing food stores to carry Thule than historic Inuit groups may have through the whaling period, and ritual ac- produce an irresolvable scheduling con- tivity. Because of the size of this invest- flict and be the principal reason that fish ment, the real risk of failure, and ritual bone is rare in Thule assemblages. injunctions, only sporadic harvesting of other species took place during the period Narrower Diet Breadth of bowhead availability (Rainey 1947; Burch 1981). Once a whale was landed, the Because many Thule groups conducted labor of numerous people had to be coor- highly successful summer/fall sea mam- dinated for rapid processing of the carcass mal harvests, putting up winter stores of or the meat would spoil. Whaling proba- fish was not only logistically onerous, but bly consumed the labor of most of the unnecessary. The stockpiles of meat and local population throughout the bowhead oil appear to have been sufficient to pre- harvest. If surplus labor was available it clude the necessity of intensive ringed could have been devoted to fishing, but seal harvesting until spring. Although a caribou hunting to obtain hides for winter wide variety of species were harvested by clothing would seem to be the more criti- Thule groups, only a handful consistently cal undertaking at this time of year. made important dietary contributions. The scheduling conflict would have Overall diet breadth was effectively nar- been particularly acute in the Central and row, although numerous species of small High Arctic, where bowheads are mainly game made a minor contribution to diet. available during August and September The high species counts in some Thule (Moore and Reeves 1993), fully overlap- assemblages have led to the frequent ping with the upstream char run. Along characterization of Thule economies as the east coast of Baffin Island and north- generalized, when in fact the dietary western Hudson Bay bowheads may have breakdowns frequently reflect a substan- been locally available from late spring tial degree of economic specialization on through early fall and in winter off south- one or two of the highest ranked game ern Baffin Island, northern Quebec, west- species. Low level, opportunistic harvest- ern Greenland, and Labrador. However, ing of fish, birds, and other small game, 44 PETER WHITRIDGE especially by women, children, and the technology (along with distinctive fish elderly, could account for high species hook styles) appears to have spread east- counts in the context of a primary reliance ward into the Mackenzie Delta region on few species. Fish (particularly char) sometime between about A.D. 1200 and may even have been deliberately sought 1400, possibly in association with a post- out as the occasion permitted, since it was Thule migration from the Kotzebue a highly favored food (next to whale and Sound region (see, e.g., McGhee 1976). In caribou; Freeman et al. 1992; Kuhnlein any case, an economic and cultural pat- and Souedia 1992), but not targeted for tern ancestral to that of the historic Mack- intensive surplus harvesting. However, enzie Inuit, with a heavier reliance on with the decline of open-water sea mam- fishing than that exhibited by Pioneering mal hunting at the end of the Medieval and Classic Thule groups in the western Warm Period, many prime whaling and Canadian Arctic, emerged at this time walrus hunting areas in the Central and (unfortunately, the precise timing of the High Arctic were simply abandoned, establishment of such important villages while diet breadth increased elsewhere as Gupuk and Kittigazuit is not yet clear; (Savelle 1987, 1994). Fish, along with more see McGhee 1974; Morrison 1989; Arnold winter-harvested ringed seals, appear to 1994; Nolin 1994). have filled this dietary space among his- Two major trends should thus be re- toric groups. flected in the Neoeskimo archaeological record of fishing: (1) a pronounced con- Summary of Ecological and Economic Issues centration of freshwater fish resources, together with a relatively strong cultural The absolute productivity of Canadian connection to a cosmopolitan source of Arctic fish resources has probably not harvesting innovations in Alaska, will changed dramatically during the past mil- have tended to favor more intensive fish- lennium although if anything the LIA ing in the western Canadian Arctic than would have had an adverse effect on fish parts further east, and the southern main- stocks. However, the relative economic land region more than the northern, insu- utility of fish appears to have increased lar parts of the Canadian Arctic; (2) the sharply with declining opportunities for decline of open-water sea mammal hunt- (and capacity to undertake) open-water ing opportunities after the onset of the sea mammal hunting in the central and LIA would have promoted fishing among eastern regions of the Canadian Arctic. Modified Thule and Late Prehistoric Less sealing and whaling at this season groups; further intensification may have reduced a key scheduling conflict with the occurred in the Eastern Arctic with the upstream char run, while heightening de- Historic introduction of nets, though the mand for the storable food surplus that proportional contribution of fishing to intensive fishing could provide. A similar food production may have remained con- effect was probably felt in the western stant or even declined since other kinds of Canadian Arctic, although intensive utili- harvesting were also intensified following zation of its highly productive fish re- the adoption of such things as rifles and sources may have begun before the onset wooden boats. of the LIA. An added complication in this region is interaction with North Alaskan THE THULE DATABASE groups, who represented a conduit for the technologies and commodities circulating The review of factors bearing on the in the Chukchi–Bering Sea region. Netting extent and visibility of Thule fishing has ZEN FISH 45 drawn out various taphonomic, sampling, than in the rest of the Canadian Arctic and interpretative biases that have poten- (see Fig. 4), and very different histories of tially skewed our perception of the ar- Thule settlement and European contact. chaeological record of Thule fish use. Where the excavator estimated a rela- These factors will have operated to differ- tively narrow period of house occupation ent degrees and in different combinations or stratum deposition, noncontemporane- depending on the season, region, and pe- ous assemblages have been reported sep- riod of site occupation (Table 6). However, arately (e.g., Houses 20 and 11 at Iglulu- there are indications that taphonomic de- aluit both fall within the Late Prehistoric letion and sampling bias are not universal period, but were occupied during the 15th or pervasive determinants of taxonomic and 18th centuries A.D., respectively). abundances, at least at Thule winter sites. Where such detailed age estimates were Although it is easy to enumerate a host of not available, house and area assemblages possible mechanisms for the removal of have been aggregated into the broad tem- fish bone from faunal assemblages, of poral categories utilized throughout, and which consumption by dogs appears to be each major component was tabulated sep- the most consistent danger, the only ma- arately. Where distinguished, assem- jor intersample effects that were identified blages associated with warm-weather and are the likelihood of heightened density- winter occupations at a site are tabulated mediated attrition of fish on warm separately (as at the Hazard Inlet site of weather sites and those on the southeast- PaJs-3). Where season of site use spans ern margin of the present study area. In the warm and cold seasons, or where the addition, there are strong a priori reasons occupation spans the major chronological to suspect that fishing may have been less divides and components are not finely important in Classic Thule times, and in subdivided, the assemblage has been as- the Eastern Arctic generally, than it was signed to the predominant season and/or historically and in the Western Arctic gen- period of occupation. erally. To explore these possibilities, and Because the interpretative dilemma re- the degree to which patterning in the ar- lates largely to the apparent discordance chaeological data relating to fish use has between the artifactual and zooarchaeo- survived the potential biases, faunal and logical evidence, it is useful to set up a artifactual data were assembled for a direct comparison of them. The solution number of Thule and Inuit sites in the adopted here is to convert species abun- Canadian Arctic (Table 1). dance data into an index of dietary contri- Both faunal and artifactual data were bution and then aggregate these into tax- only located for 36 components, so to im- onomic categories that correspond to prove the sample 16 components were in- categories of harvesting artifacts: %di- cluded with artifactual data lacking and 19 etary contribution from fish can thus be with detailed faunal data lacking [one ad- weighed against %fishing of all harvesting ditional site, Saunaktuk (Morrison and gear. Canids (dog, wolf, and foxes), mus- Arnold 1994), has been published only in telids (wolverine, marten, and ermine), enough detail to estimate the order of and small rodents (lemmings) were ex- magnitude abundance of fish in the diet]. cluded from these calculations because Greenland, Labrador, and northern Que- they were rarely, if ever, eaten tradition- bec were not included in this survey due ally (Mathiassen 1928; Jenness 1922), al- to a combination of lack of published data though all might be consumed in a star- in English, substantially different environ- vation situation. A more serious omission mental (hence taphonomic) conditions is bowhead whale, but this was unavoid- 46 PETER WHITRIDGE able because of inconsistent reporting of etary importance given that the former this species and the well-documented individuals weigh 1000 times more than problems related to active recycling of the latter. The use of NISP where possible bowhead bones for artifact manufacture seems better justified than the conven- and house construction (McCartney tional approach of using MNI to calculate 1979a, 1976b; Savelle 1997). This key prob- this sort of index given that NISP is a more lem will be returned to later in the discus- stable index of taxonomic abundance than sion. MNI (Grayson 1984; Driver 1993). Dietary contribution was estimated by Assembling the artifactual data was rel- multiplying average food weight for a spe- atively straightforward because Thule as- cies (the edible proportion of average semblages are conventionally reported adult carcass weight) by NISP or %NISP using more or less consistent functional (in the case of Nelson River only %MNI categories for harvesting gear. The num- was available and for some other assem- ber of types of harvesting gear (including blages %NISP for individual species had each of the separate components of com- to be estimated from somewhat imprecise posite pieces) was tabulated, along with reports). The species meat weights were the total number of items, for each of the summed for each of the major harvesting four harvesting categories noted above. categories adopted here (sea mammals, Stylistic variants were not considered as terrestrial mammals, birds, and fish) and separate types, but functional variants then converted into a percentage of total were so distinguished (e.g., heavy, scarfed meat weight for the component, repre- harpoon socket pieces vs cylindrical senting an index of the dietary contribu- sleeve-type sockets). This was not always tion of that taxonomic group. Average possible because of inconsistent attention weights are taken from Banfield (1974), by arctic archaeologists to functional vari- Scott and Crossman (1973), McAllister and ability within categories of harvesting Crossman (1973), Morrow (1980), Scott gear. A small number of functional reas- and Scott (1988) and elsewhere follow the signments are included in the artifact tab- estimates in Friesen and Arnold (1995; the ulations, where the original identifications latter are also followed in the adoption of were particularly problematic. Lance parts White’s values for the edible proportion of were considered sea-mammal hunting various taxa). Although there are numer- implements, unless the author suggested ous potential difficulties with such crude some or all were used for caribou. Sinew estimates of dietary contribution (see dis- twisters and marline spikes, essential for cussion in Reitz and Wing 1999:221–231), upkeep of the sinew-backed bow, were due for example to variability in prey included (in the terrestrial mammal cate- anatomy and carcass transport logistics, gory), as well as the netting shuttles and for the case at hand it is felt that the quick- gauges required for net production and and-dirty scaling of faunal abundance to maintenance, but no other pieces of main- carcass size provides a substantially better tenance or manufacturing equipment. A estimate of dietary contribution (or eco- systematic bias intrudes in the assignment nomic importance) than direct measures of types and specimens to the category of of faunal abundance (NISP and MNI) in bird harvesting (and to a lesser extent the absence of the data (MNE and bone fishing) gear. All gear generically related weight) necessary for more sophisticated to bow-and-arrow hunting, except bird estimates. A single beluga bone should bunts and the occasional fish arrow prong, not be considered equivalent to a single was included in the terrestrial-mammal sculpin bone in assessing economic or di- category, and all gear related to darting, ZEN FISH 47

FIG. 6. Log-log scatterplot of number of types of harvesting gear versus number of specimens of harvesting gear, by taxon, illustrating the sample size effect. except bird dart prongs, was included in suffers from a potential sample size prob- the sea-mammal category. This manner of lem, particularly when it is broken down handling the overlapping uses of these by faunal category (a mean of 35.5 items pieces of equipment will result in a slight, per category, but a median of only 11.0). but systematic, tendency to underestimate The recovered harvesting gear cannot al- the abundance of equipment that would ways be assumed to be a representative occasionally have been utilized for bird sample of the population of deposited ar- hunting. tifacts, let alone those actually in use at For the assemblages at hand, the num- some point in the past, and thus may pro- ber of types of harvesting gear in a cate- vide only a crude reflection of relative har- gory is predictably related to the number vesting intensity. of items (Fig. 6). This expected sample size However, because the artifact types un- effect behaves similarly for temporal, sea- der consideration were virtually all made sonal, regional, and taxonomic subdivi- of relatively durable materials such as sions of the sample, as illustrated here for whale bone, antler, ivory, stone, or metal the latter. Because numbers of items rep- (only a handful of types are consistently resent much larger sample sizes than made of wood or baleen), they are proba- numbers of types (mean of 142.0 and 20.9, bly more durable on average than the an- respectively, for all harvesting gear), the imal bones themselves. The cordage of former are more robust measures of rela- sinew, hide, or baleen that would have tive abundance (in the same way that been used for such things as harpoon NISP is generally superior to MNI) and lines, bow strings, nets, fishing lines, and are used in the following to the exclusion snares is rarely identified, and preserva- of types. However, even number of items tion of wooden shafts for harpoons, 48 PETER WHITRIDGE

TABLE 7 tensity (Table 7). This patterning is further Rank Order Correlation (Spearman’s Rho) of borne out by the correlation coefﬁcients %Dietary Contribution and %Harvesting Gear by Taxon for individual taxa, which are weak, but positive and signiﬁcant, for all but the bird

r s One-tailed p category. Figure 7 illustrates the relationship between estimated dietary contribu- All taxa 0.710 0.000 tion and relative frequency of harvesting Sea mammal 0.525 0.001 Land mammal 0.328 0.025 gear for the four taxonomic groups across Fish 0.514 0.001 36 components from all regions, time pe- Bird 0.117 0.248 riods, and seasonal site types. For display purposes, a logit transformation [de- signed to normalize proportional data and 1 Ϫ lances, darts, arrows, and leisters is un- given by the equation 2 log( p/1 p), even, but loss of these types probably where p is the proportion to be trans- does not represent a significant bias formed; Johnson and Wichern 1992] of against any one harvesting category. both axes has been used to ease clumping, While fish and bird bones may be under- with “0” entries assigned a small positive represented relative to mammal (due to value so that they will appear on the lower density-mediated attrition), and land and left-hand margins of the plot. The mammal relative to sea mammal (due to linear trends in the point clouds repre- marrow and grease extraction), the asso- senting cases with nonzero values indi- ciated harvesting gear categories are cates that a reasonably strong, positive inferred here to be less vulnerable to correlation between harvesting gear and differential attrition across taxonomic cate- faunal abundance is present for all taxa gories. Differential disposal of the various except birds, but is obscured in the un- categories of gear must still be considered transformed data due to the differential as a potential biasing factor (as suggested attrition of fish and bird relative to sea and above for expedient fishing equipment), land mammals. More detailed tapho- but this problem also afflicts food refuse. nomic analyses of fish and bird bone sur- In spite of their shortcomings, the artifac- vivorship are clearly called for (e.g., Ni- tual data may actually be superior in some cholson 1992a; Davis 1997; Gifford- respects to the faunal data for assessing Gonzalez et al. 1999). In any case, the relative harvesting activity among the ma- parallels between faunal and artifactual jor taxonomic categories and are dis- indicators suggest that Neoeskimo faunal cussed below at greater length than the assemblages indeed preserve the true rel- fauna. ative abundances of major taxonomic categories, at least at an ordinal level. While ANALYSIS fish is the category most likely to exhibit complete faunal underrepresentation, Faunal and Artifactual Data only a handful of assemblages actually have nonzero values for %fishing of all Surprisingly, given the host of compli- harvesting gear and zero values for %di- cating taphonomic, sampling, and classi- etary contribution of fish (those at the ficatory factors, overall there is a strong, middle left of Fig. 7). However, these cases positive, rank order correlation (Spear- appear to be part of the point cloud that man’s ␳ ϭ .710, one-tailed probability exhibits an overall trend toward increas- Ͻ.0005) between artifactual and zoo- ing fish bone with increasing fishing gear; archeaological indicators of harvesting in- the cases with “missing” fish do not occur ZEN FISH 49

FIG. 7. Scatterplot of logit percentages of dietary contribution versus logit percentages of harvesting gear by taxon. Zero values in the original data have been replaced with a small positive number so that they appear on the lower and left margins of the plot. as extreme outliers in the upper lefthand lead one to expect. However, the value of portion of the plot. The bird category gen- this ratio is similar for fish and birds. Bird erally clusters with fish, but is the one bones are also vulnerable to dispersal and most likely to exhibit the opposite pattern destruction by scavengers (Walters 1984), of complete artifactual underrepresenta- but are less likely to have been systemati- tion (cases at the bottom of Fig. 7), due no cally consumed by dogs (or people) and doubt to the assignment of generic bow unlikely to have been culled from trans- and arrow equipment to the land mammal ported carcass portions or missed through category. poor recovery techniques. It is thus some- Although total taphonomic destruction what surprising that these taxa overlap so of fish bone seems to be uncommon, it closely in Fig. 7. Either fish and bird bones nevertheless appears that fish are more or less underrepresented in Neoeskimo fau- TABLE 8 nal assemblages. The mean ratio of %di- Mean Ratio of %Dietary Contribution to %Har- etary contribution to %harvesting gear, vesting Gear by Taxon (Where Some Harvesting where any harvesting gear was present for Gear Is Present for a Given Taxon) a taxon, is much lower for fish than for Mean % dietary contribution/ mammals (Table 8). If proportion of har- Taxon % harvesting gear vesting gear is a reliable index of harvesting intensity, then this would suggest that Sea mammal 2.04 fish bone survivorship is an order of mag- Land mammal 0.90 nitude less than that for mammals or Fish 0.10 Bird 0.18 about what the linear density data might 50 PETER WHITRIDGE have been selectively deleted from faunal resources. The eastern region consists of assemblages in parallel fashion or bird the northernmost tip of the mainland and and fish harvesting toolkits were main- the northeastern portion of the Canadian tained (and discarded) at a level out of all Arctic Islands, including Baffin and proportion to their economic importance. Southampton Islands, throughout which The former explanation clearly has some char is the only major freshwater fish (ex- validity, since bird and fish harvesting cept for some localized occurrences of gear consistently occurs in at least low lake trout). frequencies even where bird and (more The %dietary contribution of fish is sub- often) fish bones are absent or extremely stantial at warm weather sites in the west, rare. One of the outliers in Fig. 7, Bloody but low at such sites in the central and Falls, with 61.5% fishing gear and only eastern regions (Fig. 8 upper). The contri- .016% estimated dietary contribution from bution of fish at winter sites, consisting fish, represents a particularly transparent both of stores put up during late summer/ instance of this sort (McGhee 1972:40). early fall and of fish jigged or netted However, the strong patterning in the through sea and lake ice, is high at some data also tends to draw attention to the sites in the Mackenzie Delta region and latter possibility that Thule and Inuit declines even more sharply from west to groups actively “geared up” for fishing east (Fig. 8 lower and Fig. 9). Fish bone is (and bird hunting) without actually rely- absent from the majority of eastern winter ing on these taxa for a substantial dietary site assemblages, including High Arctic contribution. Faunal abundance is pre- sites with superb organic preservation. dictably related to harvesting gear abun- Taphonomic deletion of fish bone does dance, but at a substantially reduced rate not adequately account for its very low for fish and birds than for sea and land incidence only at sites outside the Mack- mammals. enzie Delta region. Though recovery biases may well be an aggravating factor, Faunal Data the zooarchaeological patterning is consistent with limited fish use in the latter The zooarchaeological data can also be areas. This index of fish use did not ex- examined on their own, particularly by hibit strong chronological trends for the using a log-based transformation like that sample as a whole, and it is impossible to used to clarify the relationship between subdivide the data set further, to examine fauna and artifacts. Figure 8 depicts the chronological trends for each region, %dietary contribution of fish for the sites without running into severe sample size in Table 1, using a log interval for the problems, particularly for warm-weather symbols and with the study area broken sites and the historic period (see Table 5). up into three zones according to fishing potential. The western zone corresponds Artifactual Data to the Mackenzie Delta region, the Cana- dian portion of the Western Arctic, and Sample sizes are little better for har- possesses the most productive and di- vesting gear assemblages, but patterning verse (Ն12 species) freshwater fish re- in these data is somewhat stronger, likely sources. The central region includes the because of the reduced importance of in- Arctic Coast and Barrengrounds, and Low tertaxa taphonomic biases. It remains dif- Arctic portions of the Canadian Arctic Is- ficult, however, to subdivide the data set lands, all of which possess moderately di- so as to simultaneously control for region, verse (2–11 species) and/or productive fish period, and season of occupation. The ba- ZEN FISH 51

FIG. 8. Dietary contribution of fish at Canadian Thule and Inuit sites. (Upper) Spring/summer/ fall sites. (Lower) Winter sites. sic seasonal contrast in harvesting empha- since this sample is skewed toward the ses is depicted in Fig. 10. Land mammal western and west-central regions and the hunting and fishing gear tend to dominate later time periods; only 4 of 13 compo- warm-weather assemblages, with only nents are located east of the Coppermine moderate frequencies of sea mammal River and only 3 predate the Classic-Mod- hunting gear and a negligible contribution ified Thule transition. from bird hunting. Caution is in order, Winter components are more evenly 52 PETER WHITRIDGE

FIG. 9. Boxplot of logit percentages of dietary contribution of fish by region and season (zeroes assigned a small positive value). Note the decline from west to east in the importance of fish in winter assemblages. distributed across the study area. The sea cupants. Although fishing and terrestrial mammal category tends to account for hunting were important activities at over half of the harvesting gear on winter warm-weather settlements, sea mammals sites, with land-mammal hunting gear on made the most substantial contribution to average only about half as abundant. Fish- the yearly diet for the majority of groups. ing gear frequencies are variable, but gen- But while proportions of land-mammal erally less than 20%, while bird hunting and bird hunting gear tend to be fairly gear usually accounts for less than 10%. consistent from region to region and pe- While some winter harvesting was prob- riod to period (and, indeed, season to sea- ably focused on sea mammals (mainly son), there is a sharp decline from Classic ringed seal, but also larger species avail- Thule to Modified Thule/Late Prehistoric able at polynyas or the floe edge), many of times in the frequency of sea-mammal the animals harvested with this gear hunting gear and a corresponding in- would have been procured during early crease in fishing gear (Fig. 11). Proportions spring, late summer, and fall. Because of of sea-mammal hunting gear also increase the length and nature of winter dwelling from west to east, while fishing gear de- occupation, discussed above, this pattern clines along this gradient (Fig. 12). is probably a reasonable representation of A simple visual summary of the com- the annual economic round of the site oc- plex relationships among all the variables ZEN FISH 53

FIG. 10. Boxplot of percentages of harvesting gear by season and taxon. Note the increase in sea-mammal hunting gear from warm weather to winter sites and the decline in ﬁshing gear and, to a lesser extent, land-mammal hunting gear. and sites can be obtained through a cor- the analysis according to the results ob- respondence analysis (CA) of harvesting tained with the original suite of variables. gear assemblages. The essential goal of Patterning in these supplementary vari- CA is to depict in as few dimensions as ables can thus be examined with respect possible (ideally two) any structure in the to structure in the artifact assemblages, departures from expected cell values in a without interfering in the detection of that contingency table. Whereas a chi-squared structure. Here, the basic variables were test gauges the overall magnitude of such taken to be the raw counts of harvesting departures against a probability distribu- gear in each taxonomic category for the 55 tion, CA maps the “shape” of those depar- sites (cases) with artifactual data. Period, tures in a low-dimensional space (Baxter region, and season of site occupation were 1994). Unlike most other multivariate then scored as supplementary variables. techniques, the axis scores assigned to The ﬁrst two axes account for 92% of the cases and variables are commensurate inertia, or variability, in the data set, and and can be plotted in the same graphical thus the CA provides a good two-dimen- display. The analysis was performed in sional summary of the data (Table 9). The Statistica, Version 5.1, which provides the bird category contributes very little to the option of scoring variables not included in results and falls closest to the origin in the 54 PETER WHITRIDGE

FIG. 11. Boxplot of percentages of harvesting gear by period and taxon. Note the decline in sea-mammal hunting gear and increase in fishing gear from Classic Thule to Modified Thule/Late Prehistoric times. Land-mammal and bird hunting gear remain fairly constant over time. plot of variables and cases (Fig. 13). In that accounts for the structure in the data effect, the proportion of bird hunting gear set. in Thule and Inuit assemblages is uncor- While the locations of particular cases related with, and varies less than, the and clusters of cases with respect to each other categories. The first axis “explains” other and to the variables are potentially 72% of the variability in the data and is interesting and interpretable, for the pur- largely determined by the opposition be- pose at hand it is the relationships of the tween fish (accounting for 78% of the vari- variables to each other that are of primary ability in axis 1) and the other categories, concern. The abundance of sea mammal especially sea mammal (19% of axis 1 in- hunting gear represents a pole in Neo- ertia). The second axis accounts for 20% of eskimo harvesting practices that is closely variability in the data and opposes land associated with Classic Thule times, the mammal (68% of axis 2 inertia) to the eastern part of the study area, and winter other categories, again especially sea site assemblages. Moving from the east- mammal (29% of axis 2 inertia). Sea-mam- ern zone to the central and western zones mal hunting gear is the most abundant describes a trajectory toward greater em- category in the present sample and is at phasis on first fish and then fish and land the center of the largest cluster of cases in mammals. The Modified Thule/Late Pre- Fig. 13. It is principally deviations in as- historic and Historic periods are clustered semblage composition away from large together at a point along a similar trajec- proportions of sea mammal gear toward tory toward greater proportions of these either more fish or more land mammal same categories of harvesting gear. The ZEN FISH 55

FIG. 12. Boxplot of percentages of harvesting gear by region and taxon. Note the increase in sea-mammal hunting gear and decrease in ﬁshing gear from west to east. Land-mammal and bird hunting gear remain fairly constant across regions. onset of cooler than modern conditions at the peak of the Little Ice Age, between ca. A.D. 1400 seems to have had a more about A.D. 1650 and 1850. Winter and profound impact on economic practices summer also represent poles deﬁning a than the further climatic cooling during diagonal that closely parallels these geo-

TABLE 9 Results of Correspondence Analysis of Harvesting Gear Assemblages

Taxonomic Axis 1 Axis 2 Relative Axis 1 Axis 2 category coord. coord. Mass Quality inertia inertia inertia

Sea mammal 0.373 Ϫ0.244 0.456 0.974 0.199 0.189 0.290 Land mammal 0.110 0.471 0.286 0.987 0.146 0.010 0.680 Fish Ϫ1.172 Ϫ0.121 0.190 1.000 0.567 0.780 0.030 Bird 0.323 Ϫ0.010 0.067 0.170 0.088 0.021 0.000

Axis 1 Axis 2 % of inertia 71.9 20.1 56 EE WHITRIDGE PETER

FIG. 13. Scatterplot of sites (rows, or cases) and taxonomic harvesting gear categories (columns, or variables) on the first two axes of a correspondence analysis. Region, period, and season have been plotted as supplementary variables based on the results of the analysis of harvesting gear counts. Note the opposition between sea-mammal hunting and fishing gear on the first axis and sea- and land-mammal hunting gear on the second. Winter, eastern, and Classic Thule sites fall toward the sea-mammal pole on both axes. ZEN FISH 57 graphic and temporal trends. In effect, af- times, and accounts for a substantial ter the Classic-Modified Thule transition, proportion of the published sample of and with the abandonment of the north- sites, the overall scarcity of fish bone in ern portion of the eastern zone, recovered Classic Thule assemblages may be Inuit harvesting assemblages tend to re- largely attributable to occupancy of ar- semble those initially associated with eas with poor fish resources rather than warm-weather Thule sites. to taphonomic or sampling loss of fish Part of the apparent decline in sea- bone. mammal hunting gear likely relates to the In addition to the poverty of fish re- archaeological invisibility of winter settle- sources in the major areas of Classic ment on the sea ice, which appears to Thule settlement, an economic focus on have increased in importance at this time; open-water sea-mammal hunting dur- sea mammals remained the economic ing a warmer climatic episode likely pro- mainstay, while the relative visibility of ter- duced a scheduling conflict with the restrial hunting and fishing increased. most productive char runs, while ren- However, there appears to have been a dering their utilization largely inconse- real shift in the nature of the latter activ- quential. If the dietary contribution of ities. Subsistence during the summer/fall bowheads could be consistently and se- portion of the annual round was increas- curely quantified, and the reduced ingly based on terrestrial and freshwater transport to residential sites of bones of resources, as the open-water sea-mammal other large sea mammals controlled, it hunting so widely attested in Classic would have the effect of drastically re- Thule times by the predominance of mov- ducing the dietary contribution of land able over fixed harpoon foreshafts waned mammals, fish, and birds wherever even with deteriorating sea ice conditions. In small amounts of bowhead bone oc- addition, groups in some regions increas- curred. Bowhead bone is generally ingly depended on late summer/early fall abundant on Thule winter sites north fishing, together with intensified winter and east of Boothia Peninsula (the east- breathing hole sealing from sea ice camps, ern zone and easternmost part of the to help make up the winter stores that had central zone as defined here), occurs in previously been provided by whaling or low to moderate frequencies on Thule walrus hunting. winter sites west of Victoria Island, and In summary, variability in the relative is rare or absent on sites along the inter- abundance of fishing gear at Thule and vening coasts (McCartney 1979a; Dyke et Inuit sites is highly patterned with real. 1996:250). Few of the Modified Thule/ spect to site seasonality, region, and Late Prehistoric or Historic sites in this time period. Generally, fishing gear is sample are seriously affected by the ex- more common on warm-weather sites, clusion of bowheads from the analysis, in the western part of the Canadian Arc- but dietary estimates for most of the tic, and after about A.D. 1400. The zoo- Classic Thule sites outside of the Coro- archaeological data also strongly sug- nation Gulf area are so affected. The ef- gest that fish played a relatively minor fect of including bowheads, however, economic role outside the Mackenzie would be to accentuate rather than ob- Delta region, befiting the low taxonomic scure the patterning that has become diversity and productivity of eastern fish evident in the data. Fish bone is uni- resources. Since the central and north- formly rare or absent in precisely those eastern part of the Arctic Archipelago Classic Thule winter assemblages that was extensively utilized in Classic Thule occur within the area of abundant whale 58 PETER WHITRIDGE bone. Including the bowhead dietary precisely because he expected to find caribou contribution would merely reduce the there—those are the real hunting places. In try- already minuscule contribution of fish ing to communicate what he meant by the dis- tinction he persistently made during the inter- by a few orders of magnitude. view, he said of his pursuit of Arctic char: “I have fished everywhere; but I have not really ALTERNATIVE ROLES FOR FISHING fished (sought after fish) at all.” (Freeman 1976: IN CLASSIC THULE CULTURE 54) This subtle construction of the differ- Once allowance is made for the pro- ences among superficially similar harvest- found economic importance of bowhead ing activities points to the possibility that whales (and, in some areas, other large archaeologists may encounter culturally sea mammals such as beluga, walrus, and distinct, even idiosyncratic, forms of eco- bearded seal, the bones of which would nomic practice that are not well described have been heavily culled at processing by simple formal models based on prey sites), even low proportions of fishing characteristics and the spatial structure of (and bird hunting) gear in Classic Thule the environment. Indeed, some hunting assemblages seem somehow excessive. activity is not “economic” at all, in a nar- While bow-and-arrow equipment would row rationalist sense, but might better be have been heavily utilized to obtain the caribou essential for winter clothing, and assigned to a paraeconomic realm sub- secondarily in interpersonal conflict, why suming social and ideological formula- should fishing and bird hunting gear oc- tions of food production and human–en- cur so consistently if such small-bodied vironment relations (see, e.g., Bird-David game was not contributing substantially 1992 on a culturalist approach to hunter- to the diet? An interesting perspective on gatherer economy). Although indigenous this problem is provided by the epigraph models of the environment often rely to this article, taken from the report of the upon a great deal of sophisticated techni- Inuit Land Use and Occupancy Project. It cal knowledge [see the literature on tradi- relates to the difficulty of translating Inuit tional ecological knowledge (TEK) of perceptions of their harvesting activities northern hunters; e.g., Freeman and Car- into the land use idiom employed by the byn 1988; Inglis 1993], they cannot be re- government’s consultants. Following is duced to this etically recognizable con- the paragraph from which it is drawn, in tent. For example, in Inuit and Yupik full: belief systems game species are not simply edible organisms co-inhabiting a One middle-aged man refused to enter ptarmi- mechanistic world, but sentient creatures gans, Canada geese or wolves [on the land use maps], saying that such creatures are not hunted belonging to a super-society of living in any particular place, but rather are hunted at things (e.g., Wenzel 1991; Nuttal 1992; Fi- all times. Much the same difficulty arose with enup-Riordan 1990). Furthermore, an an- seals in general (though not with seals when imal carcass is not merely a package of discussed according to technique used and time nutritious and otherwise useful stuff, but a of year). When that man was asked to mark all the places he had hunted seals, he would not medium in which the connections among enter the routes between Pond Inlet and the people and animals are represented and Arctic Bay region, saying of those routes: “I am reproduced. One can thus speak not only not hunting for seals; I’m merely travelling by of the economic anatomy of the animal dog team and killing seals.” In the same spirit, he noted that he was not going to mark those body, but of its social anatomy as well, places where he “merely killed caribou,” but since a social universe embracing animal only those areas into which he regularly went agents, human consumers, and other en- ZEN FISH 59 tities is mapped onto the carcass in pre- Travel food. As a resource that is scriptions for its respectful treatment and widely procurable, albeit not always in the distribution of its products (Wenzel large numbers, in interior lakes and rivers 1991). and through the sea ice, fish were ex- Adopting more of a culturalist tack ploited by hunters or family groups in opens up a range of alternative scenarios transit between primary harvesting loca- for Thule fishing, in which it may have tions (e.g., Jenness 1922:123; Freeman been periodically, and even frequently 1976:54). Such utilization of fish as a travel pursued, but rarely made a substantial food would have the added characteristic contribution to overall diet. Such low-in- of leaving its material residues, if any, in tensity fishing might have occurred in a ephemeral sites that are rarely investi- number of contexts, most of which are gated and at which preservation is often also relevant to the hunting of birds and poor. small mammals. Opportunistic production by women and Delicacy. Some species of fish were the elderly. Among all harvesting activi- highly preferred foods and so may have ties, women, children, and the elderly par- been sought out as a delicacy and source ticipated disproportionately in fishing and of variety in the diet. If a large proportion other small-game harvesting. For women of a community’s subsistence needs was this appears to have occurred opportunis- met from a few weeks of whaling, there tically as an activity normally secondary to may have been abundant latitude to pur- clothing manufacture, childcare, game sue such a “gourmet” strategy at other processing, and household maintenance. times. Rare and exotic foods were cer- However, a special link between women tainly esteemed by Inuit and figured and fishing is reflected in such things as prominently in the potlatchlike Messen- the first fish ceremony held for girls ger Feast of the Alaskan Inupiat and among some groups (Guemple 1979, and Yupik (Nelson 1983; Hawkes 1913; Spen- see discussion of fishing and gender roles cer 1959). Interestingly, fish is one of the in Giffen 1930:8–10). This symbolic asso- most common elements of the modern ciation of women with an easily harvested Baffinland Inuit diet, even though it food recalls the gender and status associ- makes a small caloric contribution. In one ations that surrounded shellfish use in community on east-central Baffin Island Tlingit society (Moss 1993). Giffen notes arctic char recently accounted for a mean that while women and men both fished, of only 2.3% of daily adult caloric intake they tended to use different tools or fulfill (Kuhnlein et al. 1995:178), but was con- different roles within the overall produc- sumed an average of 2.2 times per week tion sequence. Of particular interest, she (Kuhnlein and Soueida 1992) or only cites Jenness’s (1922:142) observation that slightly less frequently than the sea and Copper Inuit women and children (the land mammals (mainly ringed seal and elderly can probably also be included caribou) that accounted for 22.6 and 9.9% here) fished close to camp while men of adult caloric intake, respectively. Then fished at a distance. as now, fish may have been prized out of This draws attention to a shortcoming proportion to their caloric contribution. of some formal models of foraging behav- Their high culinary value may have an ior, namely the failure to consider the underlying nutritional dimension as well, complex array of constraints and opportu- since they are one of the best sources of nities that may differentially influence the scarce calcium in the traditional Inuit diet harvesting behavior of particular individ- (Kuhnlein and Soueida 1992; Keene 1985). uals or subgroups. All able-bodied Inuit 60 PETER WHITRIDGE were expected to contribute to the eco- the community, including children (see nomic life of their household and commu- below), engaged in fishing to some degree nity, but the manner in which individuals would also tend to inflate the frequency of fulfilled this obligation varied according fishing equipment relative to the large- to their inclination, social position, knowl- mammal hunting gear employed almost edge, physical ability, and the existence of exclusively by adult men to procure the conflicting demands on their time and at- bulk of annual food production. tention. For example, in the arctic a small Children’s play/training. When children child represents a constraint on the har- assisted in adult harvesting activities they vesting activities of the caregiver. Since often did not use a great deal of formal Inuit women were conventionally respon- harvesting equipment. In caribou drives sible for most childcare, in addition to they helped women and the elderly drive food processing, clothing manufacture, the animals toward the armed hunters, and household maintenance, women as a and in saputit fishing they often recovered subgroup tended to be restricted in their fish from the trap with their hands, harvesting activities. This does not mean though some were equipped with leisters that women did not hunt or trap or fish, and fish stringing needles. Children did, but that the technical and spatial variants however, fish and hunt birds and small of these practices with which they were mammals on their own. From a very most commonly associated were not iden- young age they emulated the adult roles tical to men’s under the conventional Inuit appropriate to their gender in play, grad- division of labor. Similar constraints ap- ually taking on the real tasks as they ac- plied to the elderly due to declining phys- quired the requisite knowledge and skills ical abilities. (Guemple 1979, 1986). Their accomplish- In effect, adult male hunters deployed ments in this regard were marked by a one set of harvesting strategies and series of progress rituals such as those for women and the elderly others. Men a girl’s first fish or mittens made or a boy’s tended toward a relatively specialized, lo- first goose or seal (Briggs 1991:269; gistically complex focus on a small suite of Guemple 1979). Fishing and small game large-bodied marine and terrestrial mam- hunting were the least dangerous and de- mals, with occasional harvesting of other manding harvesting tasks and were not species, while women and the elderly considered inappropriate activities for tended toward opportunistic foraging for any gender, so it can be expected that small-bodied game. The “broad spec- children would have engaged in them fre- trum” harvesting strategy often invoked quently. The simpler, easier to produce for Thule groups was likely a palimpsest gear types were likely used in these activ- of more specialized strategies differen- ities, such as hooks, gorges, and expedient tially employed by women and men, each nuyakpak-type spears or arrows for fish, of whose strategies would have in turn and hooks, gorges, snares, and slings for been further differentiated according to birds. Again, fishing gear might end up age, hunting and traveling skills, wealth, common archaeologically even though position in social networks, and so on. part of its value would have lain in chil- Low-intensity fishing by individuals with dren’s acquisition of adult harvesting other primary responsibilities (women) or skills rather than in serious food produc- limited labor capacity (the elderly) may tion. thus have been a fairly frequent occur- Adult recreation. Fishing may also have rence without being a major dietary con- been engaged in by adults for pure enjoy- tributor. That essentially all members of ment rather than out of economic neces- ZEN FISH 61 sity. This is the clear implication of Ras- attention to fishing frequently exceeded mussen’s (1931) account of the “joyful” its economic utility. It may also be signif- existence of Netsilingmiut at Amitsoq be- icant that fishing was not depicted in fore the major char run arrived. People Thule engravings on drill bows or knife were able to obtain enough fish to eat with handles, whereas the economically and very little effort and regarded that lifestyle socially central activities of whaling and as akin to the paradise in the afterworld. It caribou hunting were popular themes. appears that these bands could have pro- The Thule archaeological evidence is thus duced more food with more effort (partic- consistent with the ethnographic reports ularly in processing for storage), but chose that fishing was marked as an enjoyable to regard this early summer season as a activity rather than an anxious necessity. respite from the normal demands of mak- Environmental monitoring. Even if fishing a living. Summer fishing in northwest ing was sometimes engaged in casually, in Alaska is also reported to have had the a sense outside the normal economic quality of a sport or a pastime rather than round, it does not necessarily follow that it a necessity (Foote 1992), and for the Nu- was a trivial activity. Indeed, this conclu- namiut Binford reports that as interest in sion would not be supported by the ubiq- caribou hunting wanes in early summer uity of fishing gear in Thule assemblages. “talk shifts to fishing, despite the fact that The sporadic use of a wide range of re- very little fishing is done and then mostly sources, with reliance on few, appears to by young men and boys” (1978:255). be typical of Thule and Inuit harvesting Consistent with this recreational aspect, practices and may reflect a kind of envi- there is a whimsical quality to some Thule ronmental information gathering. By pe- (and Inuit) fishing equipment that con- riodically monitoring the availability of re- trasts with the sparse design and stan- sources that are normally of little dardization of most harvesting gear. As importance hunters will be prepared, in discussed above, the relatively unstand- the event of a primary resource collapse, ardized nuyakpak-type barbed prongs to switch to secondary species. Polar cod suggest a relaxation of the conformity that were regarded as just such a starvation appears often to have guided artifact food by the Netsilingmiut (Rasmussen manufacture. Fishing lures as well happen 1931:186), but they could only serve that to be among the most idiosyncratic of function if their ecology was understood. Thule artifact types. They represent the While the investment of time and energy most commonly occurring class of in low-level harvesting and equipment zoomorphic sculpture and one of the few maintenance may not have a short-term types of harvesting gear to consistently economic payoff, it may provide critical incorporate substantial decorative ele- insurance against intermittent resource ments in its design, such as incised ana- fluctuations in the form of information on tomical motifs and inlays. In the west, fish alternate resource distributions, abun- hook shanks also sometimes took zoomor- dances, and accessibility and the acqui- phic forms or were elaborately decorated sition of technical expertise in their with dangling lures and inlays of precious procurement. Whatever the affective con- materials (trade beads and copper). Fish struction of fishing in Thule society, the line sinkers were frequently made of constant sampling of fish and other sec- striped, mottled, and brightly colored ondary resources appears to have been an pebbles polished to a high sheen. These integral part of the Thule adjustment to a ornate and carefully crafted implements challenging and changeable environment. exceeded their function, just as the overall The regular occurrence of fishing gear in 62 PETER WHITRIDGE low frequencies in Thule artifact assem- west Hudson Bay, and Labrador with con- blages thus need not signify a propor- tinued access to large sea mammals. Even tional dietary contribution, but rather a in these areas, bowhead hunting does not risk-averse harvesting strategy that in- appear to have achieved anything akin to volved broad-based monitoring of re- the regularity and intensity of Classic sources that fell outside the select set of Thule whaling, likely due in part to the focal species. attenuation of the interregional exchange networks that had been essential for the CONCLUSION disposition of surplus whale products (Whitridge 1999, 2000b). In the Mackenzie Although it is impossible to resolve the Delta region, the introduction of fish precise degree of taphonomic and sam- netting technology occurred during the pling loss of fish bone with currently period of climatic deterioration and ac- available data, the rate of loss may be an companied the transition to the Late Pre- order of magnitude greater for fish, and historic period. Fishing rapidly emerged perhaps birds, than for sea and land as an important harvesting activity at all mammals. However, even allowing for the seasons and was even pursued simulta- deletion of fish bone, the dietary impor- neously with coastal beluga and bowhead tance of fish in Classic Thule economies whaling by task groups occupying near appears to have been tiny in comparison interior fishing and caribou hunting with that of sea mammals, especially camps. when the contribution of bowhead whales The ubiquitous occurrence of low fre- and other large, and usually heavily quencies of fishing gear in Classic Thule culled, species are considered. Although assemblages belies the minor caloric im- many groups may have spent part of the portance of fish. Fishing appears to have summer living hand-to-mouth off fish and been pursued casually by Classic Thule opportunistically harvested birds and groups to obtain a prized and nutritious mammals, fishing does not appear to have food; in transit between primary harvest- been an important source of winter stores ing sites; as a food source that could be for most Thule groups. Classic Thule com- opportunistically procured by women, the munities focused instead on the harvest- elderly, and children; and as a summer ing of sea mammals, even during the pastime. The involvement of virtually all open-water season, and to a lesser extent individuals, to a varying extent, in low- on caribou and lacked an economic incen- intensity fishing may have significantly tive to systematically pursue the simulta- inflated the abundance of fishing gear rel- neously available upstream runs of char ative to that used for sea-mammal and and whitefishes. Open-water hunting of caribou hunting. Fishing was occasionally large sea mammals collapsed in the Cen- the dominant subsistence activity, but tral and High Arctic beginning around dominant at a time of year when relatively A.D. 1400, precipitating a withdrawal into little food production was occurring; for the Low Arctic islands and mainland. most of the year groups relied on strate- Fishing emerged in Modified Thule times gically harvested and cached stores of main the latter areas as an important second- rine, and to a lesser extent terrestrial, ary harvesting activity throughout the mammals. year, and a major economic enterprise The Thule predilection to utilize diverse during the productive late summer/early faunal resources while specializing on fall upstream runs, for all but those only a few species represented, in effect, a groups in Baffin Island, Foxe Basin, north- form of environmental monitoring. The ZEN FISH 63 investment in monitoring such secondary Damas, pp. 447–462. Smithsonian Institu- or tertiary resources as fish and birds tion Press, Washington, DC. would have been returned during peri- Arnold, Charles D. odic failures of higher ranked resources 1986 In search of the Thule pioneers. In Thule and is a cornerstone of the economic flex- pioneers, edited by E. Bielawski, C. Kobelka, and R. Janes, pp. 1–93. Occasional Paper No. ibility that allowed Thule groups to recon- 2, Prince of Wales Northern Heritage Cen- struct their subsistence-settlement sys- tre, Yellowknife. tems with the onset of the Little Ice Age. 1994 Archaeological investigations on Richards The embedding of long-term economic Island. In Bridges across time: The NOGAP strategies in superficially unrelated cul- Archaeology Project, edited by Jean-Luc Pilon, pp. 85–93. Canadian Archaeological Associ- tural practices has been suggested for Inu- ation Occasional Paper No. 2. piat myths and oral history, which may have encoded prescriptive economic re- Balikci, Asen 1964 Development of basic socio-economic units in sponses to long-term climatic variability two Eskimo communities. National Museums (Minc 1986). However, the peculiar evi- of Canada Bulletin No. 202, Ottawa. dence for Thule fishing need not be re- 1980 Charr fishing among the Arviligjuarmiut. In duced to purely ecological and economic Charrs: Salmonid fishes of the genus Salvelinus, factors. As a cherished form of communal edited by E. Balon, pp. 7–11. Dr. W. Junk bv, The Hague. recreation, and an opportunity for non- hunters to make a symbolically important Balkwill, Darlene, and A. Rick 1994 Siglit subsistence: Preliminary report on contribution to food production, the social faunal remains from a large midden at the and ideological dimensions of fishing may Gupuk site (NiTs-1), Mackenzie Delta, have been as important as the economic in N.W.T. In Bridges across time: The NOGAP Classic Thule communities. Archaeology Project, edited by Jean-Luc Pilon, pp. 95–116. Canadian Archaeological Asso- ciation Occasional Paper No. 2. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Banfield, A. W. F. This research was completed under a Social Sci- 1974 The mammals of Canada. University of To- ences and Humanities Research Council of Canada ronto Press, Toronto. postdoctoral fellowship. I am grateful to Max Barrett, James H. Friesen, Gary Coupland, and Ted Banning for as- 1997 Fish trade in Norse Orkney and Caithness: sorted help and discussions during the tenure of this A zooarchaeological approach. Antiquity 71: award at the Department of Anthropology, Univer- 616–638. sity of Toronto. 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