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dc.contributor.authorPartnow, Patricia Hartley
dc.date.accessioned2018-08-08T02:11:42Z
dc.date.available2018-08-08T02:11:42Z
dc.date.issued1993
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11122/9398
dc.descriptionDissertation (Ph.D.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1993
dc.description.abstractIn this project I consider how Alaska Peninsula Alutiiqs (Pacific Eskimos) maintain and express a sense of continuity with their past and how in today's world they use their understanding of the past to renegotiate and reenact their ethnic identity. I do so through an ethnohistorical reconstruction of Alutiiq ethnic identity from precontact days to the present and through a consideration of the role oral tradition and community ritual play in the constant reformulation of Alutiiq identity. I discuss the symbols considered most diagnostically Alutiiq (i.e., those which make up the Alutiiq identity configuration) and explore their meanings as Alutiiqs utilize and manipulate them in a variety of settings. Originally based on a common language, the Alutiiq identity developed into a full-blown ethnicity over a period of 200 years of contact with non-indigenous peoples, first the Russians and then the Americans. As Alutiiq identity became more uniform and pervasive throughout the Alaska Peninsula, its uniformity was balanced by a cultural tendency toward emphasis on local society. Today's Alutiiq identity configuration is characterized by ties to the land, a belief in a shared history with other Alutiiqs, acknowledgement of Alutiiq as the ancestral language, adherence to some level of subsistence lifestyle, and a kinship link to Alutiiqs of the past. For this study I undertook both archival research and fieldwork, the latter focusing on folklore transmission and performance (particularly ethnohistorical narratives and ritual performances). I discuss how verbal and dramatic folklore performances, considered in historic, social, and cultural context, serve as a vehicle for defining, reconceptualizing, and reinforcing ethnicity. I employ a situational (in contrast to a group-with-boundaries) model of ethnicity in conjunction with ethnohistoric and folklore analysis to illuminate the processes which have led to today's Alutiiq identity configuration. I further consider the ramifications the Alutiiq case has for general ethnicity theory.
dc.subjectCultural anthropology
dc.subjectFolklore
dc.subjectEthnic studies
dc.titleAlutiiq ethnicity
dc.typeDissertation
dc.type.degreephd
dc.contributor.chairBlack, Lydia T.
dc.contributor.committeeDauenhauer, Richard
dc.contributor.committeeMorrow, Phyllis
dc.contributor.committeeSchneider, William S.
dc.contributor.committeeEllanna, Linda J.
dc.contributor.committeeLeer, Jeff
dc.contributor.committeeStolzberg, Richard J.
refterms.dateFOA2020-03-06T01:24:22Z


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