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The Western Aleutians: Cultural Isolation and Environmental Change Debra Corbett, Christine Lefevre, Douglas Siegel-Causey

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The Western Aleutians: Cultural Isolation and Environmental Change Debra Corbett, Christine Lefevre, Douglas Siegel-Causey The Western Aleutians: Cultural Isolation and Environmental Change Debra Corbett, Christine Lefevre, Douglas Siegel-Causey To cite this version: Debra Corbett, Christine Lefevre, Douglas Siegel-Causey. The Western Aleutians: Cultural Iso- lation and Environmental Change. Human Ecology, Springer Verlag, 1997, 25 (3), pp.459-479. 10.1023/A:1021875626928. hal-02088289 HAL Id: hal-02088289 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02088289 Submitted on 17 Jul 2019 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. HumanEcology, Vol. 25, No. 3, 1997 The Western Aleutians: Cultural Isolation and EnvironmentalChange Debra G. Corbett,' Christine Lefevre,2and Douglas Siegel-Causey3 Recent researchin the westemAleutians addresses two primaryissues: the natureand extentof culturalexchange along the Aleutian chain, and Holocene environmentalchange and its effects on the developmentof Aleut culture. Culturalisolation is a majorparadigm of researchersworking in theAleutians. Reviewof the distributionof severalcultural traits suggests the Aleuts adopted many culturalelements originating outside the chain, but the distributionof these to the westemislands was uneven. KEY WORDS: Aleutian Islands; subarctic;cultural exchange;Holocene; environmental change;maritime adaptations. INTRODUCTION In 1991, an interdisciplinaryteam of archaeologists,biologists, paleoe- cologists, and geologistsbegan a multiyearproject in the western Aleutian Islands,Alaska. The goals of the project are twofold: (1) to examine the issue of culturalisolation in the western Aleutians, and (2) to document Holocene environmentalchanges and their effects on the developmentof Aleut culture. Culturalisolation has long been a paradigmof Aleutian archaeology. The Near Islands,the westernmostgroup in the chain,are the most isolated and the people the most culturallydivergent Aleut group. This paper ex- amines the distributionof several typicallyAleutian cultural traits, burial and artifacttypes, and social and ideologicalfeatures to outline the extent 'U.S. Fish and WildlifeService, 1011 E. TudorRoad, Anchorage,Alaska 99503. 2URA 1415 (C.N.R.S.) Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle, Laboratoired'Anatomie Comparee,55 Rue Buffon, 75005 Paris,France. 3348 ManterHall, Universityof Nebraska,Lincoln, Nebraska 68588. 459 0300-7839/97/0900-0459$12.50/0 ? 1997 Plenum Publishing Corporation 460 Corbett,Lefevre, and Siegel-Causey and nature of western Aleutian isolation. Constructinga basic chronology and developing a standardizedartifact typology are necessary to allow meaningfulcomparisons with neighboringareas. The second componentof the project to be discusseddocuments en- vironmentalchanges in the western Aleutian region in an effort to define environmentalinfluences on Aleut culture.Mason and Gerlach (1995) cor- relate changes in social complexityand technologicalinnovation in North Alaska to changes in regional climate patterns during the late Holocene. This research seeks in part to evaluate the potential of this approachfor explainingAleutian prehistory. SETTING The Aleutian Islandsstretch nearly 1700 km west from the tip of the AlaskaPeninsula to the Near Islands,so named for their proximityto Kam- chatka (Fig. 1). The more than 200 islands of the chain are broken into six groups separatedby rough ocean passes. The islands are the emergent peaks of a submarinevolcanic arc markingthe subductionzone between the North American and Pacific Plates. Earthquakesare common, the is- lands are being uplifted,and tsunamiscommonly batter the southerncoasts of the islands. The chain boasts 46 active volcanoes. Biologically,the islands are extensionsof both Asia and North Amer- ica. Access to the chain is channeled through the two end points. Biotic communitiesare young, havingarrived about 7000 years ago, after the last glacialretreat (Hulten, 1968). Colonizationby both plants and animalscon- tinues from both ends of the chain, with greater diversityat the ends than in the center (Hulten, 1937). Several species of willows (Salix), an alder (Alnus crispa),salmon berries (Rubusspectabilis), and strawberriesextend as far west as Umnak. Asiatic plants are strikinglyrepresented by Kam- chatka thistles (Cirsiumkamschaticum), mountain ash (Sorbussambucifo- lia), and Cacalia auriculata.Unimak Island, at the east end, supports resident populationsof brown bears, caribou,foxes, and ground squirrels (Murie, 1959). The western islands support no native resident land mam- mals; both foxes and rats have been introducedsince the eighteenth cen- tury. Fauna from Asia included several species of birds, especially during fall and spring migrations,and rare occurrencesof Stellars Sea Cow (Hy- drodamlia gigas) and Pallas' Cormorant (Compsohalieus perspicillatus), both now extinct (Turner,1886). At the time of Russian contact, in 1741, the islands supportedan es- timated human populationof around 16,000 people (Lantis, 1984). Small and rugged, the islands lack most resources necessaryto support human The WesternAleutians 461 RUSSIA L ,,c,,; ; C ALASKA CANADA B Sea C ering v Islands s /Altture Ugashik aes Buldir Near Izen iskaAombeatgon\ ofsumainKodiak Amchitka Rat th Umnakg 40ok 0 Islgthe lands Fig. 1. The Aleutian Isllliam 40 k F5~Unalaska V 30mie ~Asdreasno ~ ~ Islasds 30les Islands Pacific Ocean Fig. 1. The AleutianIslands. life. Aleut culturewas supportedalmost exclusivelyby exploitationof the marine environment.A combinationof submarinetopography, ocean cur- rents, winds, and the mixingof waters from two oceans make the waters surroundingthe Aleutian Islands incrediblyrich in resources (Favoriteet al., 1976). Warmwest-flowing currents south of the islands,and cold east- erly currentsto the north mix in the inter-islandpasses creatingconditions of greater biologicalproductivity than in either of the surroundingoceans. Summerplankton in the nutrient-richwaters sustain an abundanceof fish, marine mammals,sea birds, and shellfish on island reefs. These resources were sufficientto supporta large populationwith complexsocial, religious, and political institutions. REEVALUATING THE ISOLATION HYPOTHESIS Positioned between North American and Asia, the Aleutian Islands have interested anthropologistsand archaeologistson both continents for over 100 years. Once considered a possible bridge between the Old and New Worlds,the dominantAmerican paradigm today views Aleut culture as a product of isolation in a geographicdead end. This model maintains 462 Corbett,Lefevre, and Siegel-Causey that after the ancestors of the Aleuts developed a unique sea mammal huntingculture, at least 6000 years ago, the culture essentiallymatured in isolation. Influencesare admittedfrom the east, especiallyin the late pre- historicperiod; in general,however, "isolated self-sufficiency seems always to have characterizedtheir history"(Dumond, 1987, p. 78). A few Americanscholars have postulated not only direct interaction with people from mainlandAlaska but also with the maritimecultures of Kamchatka,the KurileIslands, and even Japan.De Laguna(1940) consid- ers the islands a "port"from which voyagers regularlytraveled between continents.Desautels et al. (1970) consideredthe possibilityof at least one- way contact with Asia. Dumond and Bland (1995) consider it likely Eska- leuts from the North Pacific sparked fully maritime adaptations in the Bering Sea and Sea of Okhotskaround 3500 years B.P. Russian scholars view the Aleutians as an extension of Asia and believe the Aleuts main- tained intercontinentalcontacts throughouttheir history.The intensity of this contact waxed and waned with a peak from about 500 B.C. to a few centuriesA.D. and from after 1000A.D. to the historicperiod (Black, 1983, 1984). The latter periodcoincides with widespreadcultural change through- out Alaska. The biggest problem in resolvingissues of culturalcontact and isola- tion is the lack of a culturalhistorical framework for interpretation.Many key developments,such as changes in burialpatterns and house styles, and the appearance of new artifact types, are poorly documented and lack chronologicalcontrol. A few artifacttypologies exist but inter-islandvari- ation is poorly studied.Aleut artifactassemblages show little obvious vari- ation through time. In addition,there are few strong artifactualsimilarities with neighbor- ing peoples. Where stylisticsimilarities do exist they have been explained as convergent developmentby people with similar economic adaptations (McCartney, 1974, 1984). The Aleuts had a sophisticated tool kit well adaptedto their circumstances.There may have been little benefit in adopt- ing functionallysimilar but stylisticallydifferent tools from their neighbors. Other culturalelements, such as social and ideological symbols,may provide better indicationsof the extent of external contacts. These types of changesare far more difficultto documentarchaeologically than changes in artifacttypes and frequencies. Evidenceof Interactionswith the Alaskan Mainland Finding antecedents to Aleutian archaeologicaltraditions has been hamperedby a lack of evidencefrom surroundingregions
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