Regulating Hunting: Subsistence And Governmentality In The Central Kuskowkim Region, Alaska

Abstract

This paper explores the expansion of the state into formerly ungoverned aspects of life through an examination of one particular episode of intervention, that of moose hunting regulation in the Central Kuskokwim region of Alaska. As in most struggles over wild resources in the state, subsistence is a central organizing template. Local hunters residing in the villages of Aniak and Crooked Creek, interviewed for this work, identify themselves under the label of subsistence in opposition to others, often called "sport hunters". The felt presence of the state in this and other rural areas of Alaska has increased throughout the 20th century and the prevalence of the word subsistence in these disputes is tied to its status as a legal term, dictating how individuals must identify their practices and thus themselves, at the expense of other identifications. The persistence of subsistence indicates governmentality in discourse but not in meaning.