Doctoral Dissertation: A Tale of Three Villages: Archaeological Investigation of Culture Change in Western Alaska

University Of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison WI

Investigators

Abstract

Abstract for 0094664 (Price, Frink) The village of Chevak, Alaska, is home to a community of Cup'ik Eskimos who still practice a subsistence-based economy. The inhabitants of Chevak are connected to three archaeological village sites that have been sequentially occupied by many of the present members and direct ancestors of Chevak residents. Preliminary archaelological and oral historic data have indicated changes between the sites in general settlement pattern and location, specifically the loss of the men's house and intra-site tunnels, and changes in storage facility size and distribution. It is hypothesized that the shifting patterns reflect socail and economic transitions as a result of European contact. This dissertation research will use both archaeological and ethnographic methods to document and explain settlement pattern variation at the three village sites.