When Worlds Collide: Hunter-Gatherer World-System Change in the 19th Century Canadian Arctic

7. The Qikiqtaryungmiut World-System in the Autonomous Zone

137 7 The Qikiqtaryungmiut World-System in the Autonomous Zone the inuvialuit population of herschel island was located in the autonomous zone of the European world-economy from its initial occupation by early Thule people to about 1800 ad. It is hypothesized that during this period the region was part of a world-system with relatively low breadth and depth. Following are evaluations of the expectations outlined in Chapter 5. In a number of cases, the appropriate data with which to evaluate these expectations were not recovered through the excavations on Herschel Island. Wherever possible, in this and later chapters, additional data from the regional archaeological and ethnohistoric records will be employed in evaluating the expectations. This discussion will emphasize the later precontact period, which is dated to approximately ad 1400 to 1800. Breadth 1. Autonomous Zone Expectations—Breadth World-system breadth should be relatively low, although regular interaction should be maintained between neighboring regional groups. 1a. Interaction with neighboring regional groups should be evident in parallel development of artifact types. Throughout the precontact period, contemporaneous shifts are observable within material culture produced by Inuvialuit and neighboring Iñupiat groups. McGhee (1974:87–93) has shown that Inuvialuit and Iñupiat of Northwest Alaska share many elements of material culture. Some categories of shared material culture originated after the initial Thule expansion, and therefore 138 Chapter 7 observed similarities cannot be explained by an origin in a common ancestral population. For example, fish netting technology, as evident in net sinkers, net floats, and net gauges, is absent in the earlier Thule components at Nelson River (Arnold 1986a), Washout (Yorga 1980), and Booth Island (Morrison 1990a). In the Barrow region of North Alaska, netting technology is also absent in earlier deposits (Ford 1959; Stanford 1976), and in the Kobuk River sequence, netting technology is rare and lacks certain key implements, including net gauges, before about 1550 ad (Giddings 1952). These same technological classes, however, become common in both north Alaska (Ford 1959:109–111; Giddings 1952:40–42) and in the Kitigaaryuit sequence on the East Channel (McGhee 1974:56–57) during the late precontact period. Examples of stylistic changes that occurred in both Alaska and the Mackenzie Delta region also exist. Labret forms in both regions included elongated medial labrets, “hat-shaped” labrets, cylindrical plugs, and constricted plugshaped labrets (Dumond 2009; Ford 1959; Giddings 1952; Hall and Fullerton 1990a; Mathiassen 1930; McGhee 1974). Likewise, both regions see shifts in arrowhead tang forms from conical or knobbed tangs in early Thule contexts (Stanford 1976:110; Yorga 1980:76) to a wider variety of forms in later precontact assemblages, including spurred and ringed tang forms, with a predominance of squared shoulders (McGhee 1974; Morrison 1990a; Stanford 1976). All these artifact forms are seen in late precontact contexts on Herschel Island at the sites of Washout, Pauline Cove, and Avadlek Spit (Friesen 1991, 1992b, 1993; Friesen and Hunston 1994), as would be expected for a regional group located between the Mackenzie Delta and northern Alaska. These and other commonalities are most parsimoniously explained by regular and continuous interaction between these two regions, probably along a chain of coastal regional groups, of which the Qikiqtaryungmiut were one. To the east of the Inuvialuit region, a territory historically occupied by Copper Inuit, no specific similarities in artifact typologies that indicate contact are seen in the post-Thule period (McGhee 1974; Morrison 1990a:108), although a low level of interaction probably occurred, as indicated by trade (see the next subsection). The sporadic nature of this contact probably resulted from the fact that the coast between Cape Parry and Coronation Gulf was abandoned by around 1400 to 1500 ad (Morrison 1991a). In fact, the entire Copper Inuit area appears to have been severely depopulated shortly thereafter (Gordon 1994; McGhee 1972; Morrison 1983). Interaction with Dene to the south of Herschel Island is not evident in terms of specific artifact styles. Morlan (1973) pointed to a number of similarities between specific implements in the late precontact Klo-kut site, which is directly ancestral to contact period Vunta Gwich’in occupations of the Old World-System–Autonomous Zone 139 Crow area, and in Iñupiat assemblages from western Alaska. However, the similarities between these two traditions have since been shown to be relatively insignificant (Le Blanc 1984; Morrison 1986). Artifact styles indicate there was probably a relatively marked cultural barrier between the two populations during the precontact...