Full Description
The Middle Tanana Valley in Alaska remains one of the most important regions of the continent for archaeological research. In The Gift of the Middle Tanana: Dene Pre-Colonial History in the Alaskan Interior, Gerad Smith explores the history, ethnography, and archaeological record of the Native people in this region during the late Holocene. Smith creates an interpretive framework informed by Alaskan Native traditions, focusing on traditional place names and the deep-play rituals of reciprocity. Smith sets forth the case that the local themes and oral traditions of the potlatch are better understood not as singular ceremonial events but as a mechanism of regional social cohesion that dictated everyday life. The Gift of the Middle Tanana illustrates how the role of reciprocal deep-play shaped a traditional society that has lasted over a thousand years.
Contents
Table of Contents
Foreword by Charles E. Holmes
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1: The Middle Tanana People: Modern and Historical Identities
Chapter 2: The Ethnographic Reconstruction of the Past: The Middle Tanana People and a Theory of Deep Reciprocity
Chapter 3: Complexity and Optimality in the Archaeological Record
Chapter 4: The Traditional Place Names and Language of the Middle Tanana Dene
Chapter 5: Understanding Archaeological Research
Chapter 6: The Holocene Environmental Context of the Middle Tanana
Chapter 7: The Middle Tanana Dene and the Archaeological Traditions of the Taiga
Chapter 8: Thinking About Raw Materials
Chapter 9: Identifying Reciprocity and Meaning in the Material-Cultural Record
Afterword by Evelynn Combs
