Ulu Knife Use in Western Alaska: A Comparative Ethnoarchaeological Study

Frink, Lisa; Hoffman, Brian W.; Shaw, Robert D.

doi:10.1086/345688

Cited by 29 publications

(38 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Harp (1964:63) called these tools bevelled knives and Gracie (2004) identified them as scrapers on the basis of their edge attributes and comparisons with the ethnographic literature. These tools would have required constant re-sharpening, like the slate uluit in replication experiments, which became blunt very easily when used to fillet salmon (Frink et al, 2003). Therefore it must have been useful to have one or two sets of reverse bevels on the bevelled-edge tabular slate tool so that the skin worker could blunt two or four edges before stopping to re-sharpen.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Oakes (1987) and Rankin and Labrèche (1991:110) describe the edge as unifacial. However, the ulu was multi-purpose, and in other contexts had a bifacial edge (Rankin and Labrèche, 1991;Frink et al, 2003). Long bone and scapula scrapers were commonly used at this stage of the process (Boas, 1888;Birket-Smith, 1929, 1945Lemoine, 1997).…”

Section: Ethnographic Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Dorset Palaeoeskimo Skin Processing at Phillip's Garden, Port au Choix, Northwestern Newfoundland

Renouf¹,

Bell²

2009

ARCTIC

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ABSTRACT. This paper examines artifactual and palaeo-limnological evidence of sealskin processing associated with Phillip's Garden, a Dorset Palaeoeskimo site at Port au Choix in northwestern Newfoundland. We propose that harp seals were hunted from Phillip's Garden as much for skins as for meat and fat, and that processing sealskins was the first step in the important activity of making clothes, boots, and other items. We outline the steps and tools involved in sealskin processing throughout the northern circumpolar world, and we identify specialized skin-processing tools in the Phillip's Garden tool assemblage. Sealskin processing is also inferred from pollen and chironomid data from Bass Pond, adjacent to Phillip's Garden. Disturbance across pollen taxa is evident at 2200 -1400 cal BP, and anomalous salinity values are evident at 2000 -1400 cal BP. We argue that these are connected to Palaeoeskimo activities at the pond, in particular Dorset sealskin soaking and tanning. This study shifts our perception of Dorset activities at Phillip's Garden away from a narrow focus on seal hunting and the site itself and broadens our view to include more of the multiplicity of day-to-day human activities that took place within a larger cultural landscape that included Phillip's Garden and Bass Pond.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Ethnographic Contextmentioning

confidence: 99%

Dorset Palaeoeskimo Skin Processing at Phillip's Garden, Port au Choix, Northwestern Newfoundland

Renouf¹,

Bell²

2009

ARCTIC

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“…In the past two decades, a loud and diverse chorus of scholars has increasingly challenged the mainstream processualist perspective; they consider-and in many cases privilege-the role of underlying social and ideological dimensions of preindustrial technologies (e.g., contributors in Chilton 1999; Dobres and Hoffman 1994;Frink et al 2003;Kingery 1993;Lemonnier 1986;Loney 2000;Schiffer et al 2001;Torrence 1989). Social constructionists begin by considering the broader cultural contexts within which technologies arise and develop (or are resisted) and by problematizing technology within its social and cultural milieu (Ehrhardt 2005, p. 5;Loney 2000, pp.…”

Section: Archaeological Perspectives On Culture Contact Technologicamentioning

confidence: 99%

Technological Change and the Archaeology of Emergent Colonialism in the Kingdom of Hawai‘i

Bayman

2009

Int J Histor Archaeol

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Archaeologically informed history is vital for examining the consequences of emergent colonialism in the nineteenth century and earlier, since documentary sources are silent on many facets of everyday life. Interpretations of contact and colonialism in Oceania often highlight rapid changes in the technologies and practices of its traditional island societies. In Hawai'i, the top-down imposition of indigenous elite power greatly influenced the rate and character of technological change, as commoner access to European and American goods was initially curtailed in this highly stratified society. Although indigenous elites purposively used imported goods and technologies to materialize their hybrid identity-and to expand their political and economic power-this phenomenon presaged the development of unrestrained colonialism by Euro-Americans in the late nineteenth century. This study illustrates the need to examine a range of cultural and historical contingencies in studies of technological change during periods of emergent colonialism.

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“…The reaction to a new technology may stem from perceived quality, political motivations, or a complex admixture of emic and etic factors. Among Arctic Alaskan groups, women decoratively attached imported steel thimbles upon their parkas and continued to sew with their seal skin versions which Eskimo seamstresses considered superior (Frink et al 2003). Used beyond their intended use, the thimbles may have instead been manipulated for display and social brokering, possibly reconceived of as "holders of special powers" (Rogers and Wilson 1993, p. 4).…”

Section: Contectualizing Identity and Technological Changementioning

confidence: 99%

“…A tool or suite of tools such as domestic or harvesting tool kits (though there can be overlapping of use [Jarvenpa and Brumbach 2006]), are often cross-culturally associated with a gendered group (Crown 2000;Frink 2009;LeMoine 2003). For example, the semi-lunar knife (or ulu), which by all archaeological, historical, and indigenous accounts, is strongly associated with Arctic women's production and their repertoire of tools (Frink et al 2003). This does not mean that Eskimo men never use this form of knife (see Barker 1993, p. 83), nonetheless women use this class of blade on a daily basis and the knife is symbolically connected to women and thus robustly identity-demarcated.…”

Section: Arctic Identity and Technologymentioning

confidence: 99%

The Social Role of Technology in Coastal Alaska

Frink

2009

Int J Histor Archaeol

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Novel technologies linked to women and men through identitydemarcated tasks and knowledge sets can potentially have differential and even long-term effects on each group. This study follows the trajectory of two significant imports into the coastal western Alaskan system, the firearm and the metal cook pot. These imports had different implications for coastal Yup'ik women and men, young and old. Over time the gun became an integral piece of a man's tool kit and one that had the potential to boost production and thus a man's access to status-building. However, these same tools had the potential to undermine the apprenticeship system of male authority. Likewise, the metal cook pot replaced the productive oversight and skill set of elder women's ceramic production but created paths of independence for younger Yup'ik women. These changes in technology destabilized relative balances of gender and age based status, security, and authority and fashioned new gender and age based social and economic opportunities and limitations.

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Ulu Knife Use in Western Alaska: A Comparative Ethnoarchaeological Study

Cited by 29 publications

References 5 publications

Dorset Palaeoeskimo Skin Processing at Phillip's Garden, Port au Choix, Northwestern Newfoundland

Dorset Palaeoeskimo Skin Processing at Phillip's Garden, Port au Choix, Northwestern Newfoundland

Technological Change and the Archaeology of Emergent Colonialism in the Kingdom of Hawai‘i

The Social Role of Technology in Coastal Alaska

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