Humans, Birds and Burial Practices at Ipiutak, Alaska: Perspectivism in the Western Arctic

ABSTRACT

Archaeological and ethnohistoric evidence from the coast of western Alaska and St. Lawrence Island indicate that human inhabitants over the past 1500–2000 years incorporated birds into their diets, cosmologies, material culture, and daily activities. Following a brief discussion of the archaeological and ethnohistoric evidence for human–bird relations, this article explores the evidence for birds as both an economic and cosmological resource at the Ipiutak site on the northwest coast of Alaska. Several lines of evidence indicate that hunters and shamans have consistently attempted to mimic or acquire the abilities and physical attributes of select bird taxa, reflecting a sophisticated knowledge of bird behaviours and life histories. A specific concern with vision – shamanic, predatory, and post-mortem – is inferred from an unusual Ipiutak burial assemblage that contained a loon skull with ivory eyes. Considered in light of the broader cemetery assemblage, which includes artefacts with bird imagery, the Ipiutak material is interpreted as evidence of perspectivism in western arctic prehistory.

KEYWORDS:

• Arctic
• human–animal relations
• archaeozoology
• mortuary practices
• perspectivism
• shamanism
• hunters and gatherers

Acknowledgement

I thank Catrin Kost and Shumon Hussain for their enthusiasm for all things avian, and for organising the bird session at the 2016 EAA meetings. I’d also like to acknowledge the anonymous reviewers, whose thoughtful and constructive comments have significantly improved this paper. David Hurst Thomas and Barry Landua of the American Museum of Natural History facilitated use of the photo of the loon skull from Ipiutak. I’m grateful to them both for assistance and permissions. I thank Dennis Griffin for tracking down and sharing an unpublished report. Research for this article was conducted with the generous support of a Fulbright–NSF Arctic Research Grant.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes on contributor

Erica Hill is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the University of Alaska Southeast.

Notes

1 Gavia adamsii (yellow-billed loon) (North 1994), G. immer (common loon) (McIntyre and Barr 1997), G. pacifica (Pacific loon), G. arctica (Arctic loon) (Russell 2002), and G. stellata (Red-throated loon) (Barr, Eberl, and McIntyre 2000).

2 In Inuktitut, tuurngaq, pl tuurngait; in Central Yup’ik, tuunraq, pl. tuunrat.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Fulbright–NSF Arctic Research Program.