Telling our selves : ethnicity and discourse in Southwestern Alaska / Chase Hensel.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hensel, Chase.

Series:

Oxford studies in anthropological linguistics ; 5.

Oxford studies in anthropological linguistics ; 5

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Yupik Eskimos--Social conditions.

Yupik Eskimos.

Yupik Eskimos--Ethnic identity.

Yupik languages--Alaska--Bethel.

Yupik languages.

Subsistence economy--Alaska--Bethel.

Subsistence economy.

Ethnicity--Alaska--Bethel.

Ethnicity.

Discourse analysis, Narrative--Alaska--Bethel.

Discourse analysis, Narrative.

Sex role--Alaska--Bethel.

Sex role.

Gender identity--Alaska--Bethel.

Gender identity.

Bethel (Alaska)--Economic conditions.

Bethel (Alaska).

Bethel (Alaska)--Social conditions.

Alaska--Bethel.

Physical Description:

xii, 220 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.

Place of Publication:

New York : Oxford University Press, 1996.

Summary:

In this book, Chase Hensel examines how Yup'ik Eskimos and non-natives construct and maintain gender and ethnic identities through strategic talk about hunting, fishing, and processing. Although ethnicity is overtly constructed in terms of either/or categories, the discourse of residents of Bethel, Alaska suggests that their actual concern is less with whether one is native or non-native than with how native one is in a given context. In the interweaving of subsistence practices and subsistence discourses, ethnicity is constantly recreated.

This type of discourse occurs in a conversational setting where ethnicity is both implicitly and explicitly contested. While the book is ethnographic, it is not "about Eskimos." Rather it is about how Bethel residents use similar forms of discourse to strategically validate disparate identities. In this context -- the homeland of Yup'ik Eskimos -- subsistence is the focus of people's interactions, regardless of their ascriptive ethnicity. Even those who spend little time in subsistence activities spend a great deal of time in subsistence conversation. Unlike traditional ethnographies which focus on traditions, and consequently tend to reify the past, this contemporary ethnography focuses on contemporary preoccupations of identity and meaning. The ethnographic description becomes a device for preserving and explicating the polysemy of situated talk.

Contents:

Why Bethel? 6

Subsistence and Discourse 7

Subsistence as an Economic Activity? 7

Deconstructing the Economic Analysis of Subsistence 12

Negotiated Gender and Ethnicity 14

Mutual Influences 15

Fieldwork 16

Chapter 1 Ethnographic Background and Post-Contact History of the Area 19

Jigging for Pike 19

Geology and Topography of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta 21

Wildlife 22

Local Villages 23

Bethel 26

Subsistence: Past, Present, and Future 31

Traditional Housing and Gender Roles 34

Traditional Yup'ik Beliefs 40

Early Twentieth-Century Seasonal Rounds 42

Chapter 2 Contemporary Practices and Ideologies 47

Drift Netting for King Salmon 47

Changes in Migration Patterns and Resource Use 52

Changing Technologies and Techniques of Subsistence 53

Changes in Preservation Techniques and Utilization 55

Trade, Contact, and Changing Local Diets 56

Contemporary Seasonal Rounds in Lower Kuskokwim Villages 57

Subsistence Calendar 58

Contemporary Yup'ik Gender and Family Roles and Subsistence 59

Subsistence As An Integrated Activity 64

Subsistence Practices in Bethel 69

Contemporary Yup'ik Ideologies About Hunting and Fishing 70

Non-Native Ideologies About Hunting and Fishing 72

Fish and Game Stocks to Support Future Subsistence in Bethel 75

Regulating Subsistence 76

Chapter 3 Subsistence, Identity, and Meaning 81

Cutting Salmon for Drying and Smoking 81

Creating and Maintaining Identity 84

Boundaries and Boundary Marking 87

Boundaries, Stereotypes, and Practice 91

Stereotypes of Inuit: Historical and Contemporary Views 94

Non-Native Envy of Subsistence Skills and Subsistence as an Identity Marker 96

Yup'ik Practice as It Affects Non-Native Practice 97

Chapter 4 Subsistence as an Identity Marker 103

Picking Blueberries 103

Subsistence as a Marker for a Yup'ik Identity 104

Subsistence as a Marker for a Non-Native Rural Alaskan Identity 106

Talk of Practice for Yupiit and Non-Natives 107

Specific Subsistence Practices as Markers of Identity 109

Chapter 5 Development and the Marking of Gender and Ethnicity 113

My First Memorable Steambath 113

Nondifferential Effects of Cultural Change 115

History of Wage Labor 116

The Gendered Construction of Work 119

Changes in Yup'ik Gender Spaces 123

The Steambath as an Institution 123

Changes in Gender Relations and Power 126

Outmarriage Reexamined 133

The Continuing Symbolic Importance of Subsistence 134

Gender Differences, Discourse Similarities 137

Chapter 6 Yup'ik Gourmands: Food and Ethnicity 139

Setting a Winter Net Under the Ice for Whitefish 139

Checking the Net 141

Eating for Pleasure Versus Eating to Survive 142

Yup'ik "Cooking" 146

Changing Attitudes and Diets 149

Food as an Identity Marker 149

Chapter 7 Subsistence Discourse as Practice 153

Ptarmigan Hunting by Snow Machine 153

Practice/Structuration Theory 154

Family Systems Theory 157

Contextualization Conventions and Sociolinguistics 159

Summary of Strategic Moves in Example 4 172

Subsistence Discourse as Practice 178

Native, Non-Native, How Native? Ethnicity on a Continuum of Practice 179.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

019509476X

0195094778

OCLC:

32923966