Faces of the Nunamiut: Tourist Art and Traditional Knowledge in Northern Alaska

Suny College At Brockport, Brockport NY

Investigators

Abstract

This project addresses cultural and economic aspects of the making of distinctive caribou skin masks by the Nunamiut Eskimo of Anaktuvik Pass, Alaska. Devised in the 1950's for the tourist trade and remaining little changed to the present, these masks and the motives underlying their making present a unique research opportunity. The masks have cultural significance well beyond their souvenir status. Mask-making has been, and continues to be, essential to the local economy. The masks have become a prominent feature of the Alaskan tourist art market and constitute a village "signature" recognized throughout and beyond Alaska. Production of these masks draws upon traditional knowledge of the land and animals of the central Brooks Range in Alaska, a knowledge that is slowly being lost. Finally, the history and development of mask making in Anaktuvuk Pass is synonymous with recent cultural change among the Nunamiut. The project will address these issues through a comprehensive study of masks and mask-making in Anaktuvuk Pass. This study will: 1) document the origin and development of mask-making; 2) document, for comparative purposes, selected museum collections of masks; 3) obtain, in narrative form, perspectives of current mask-makers on their individual work and on mask-making in general; 4) document photographically the processes and products associated with mask-making; 5) detail the economic aspects, locally and within the larger Alaskan tourist market, of mask-making; and, 6) investigate relationships among mask-making, cultural identity and traditional knowledge of Arctic fauna, with emphases on the fur-bearers that provide raw materials for the masks. This project presents an unusual opportunity to investigate the development of a significant tradition while the individuals tied to its origins are still alive. It will advance our understanding of, and provide a case study in, economic anthropology, ethnography of art, economic development, and cultural change. Results will be presented in a publisheable book-length manuscript to be submitted to the University of Washington Press.