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The Nonempirical Past: Enculturated Landscapes and Other-than-Human Persons in Southwest Alaska
- Arctic Anthropology
- University of Wisconsin Press
- Volume 49, Number 2, 2012
- pp. 41-57
- 10.1353/arc.2012.0021
- Article
- Additional Information
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In 1971, Ernest S. Burch identified "nonempirical phenomena" as variables in travel and settlement decision-making among Iñupiaq Eskimo of Northwest Alaska. This article parses the term "nonempirical" and advocates the use of Hallowell's (1960) term "other-than-human" to describe the extraordinary persons known to Yupiit and Inupiat of Alaska. I discuss the ways in which place names and oral narratives can contribute to an understanding of the relational, intersubjective nature of Yupiit interactions with other-than-human persons and describe how such relations were anchored in enculturated landscapes. Finally, I address how archaeology is uniquely positioned to contribute to reconstructions of prehistoric ontologies that materialized relations between "real people" and the other-than-human persons with whom they shared the animated, dynamic landscapes of Southwest Alaska.