Nauyalik Fish Camp: An Ethnoarchaeological Study in Activity-Area Formation

• Published in: American Antiquity
• Main Author: Chang, Claudia
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1988
• Subjects: Museology; Archeology; Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous); History; eskimo*; Inupiat
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/281160; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0002731600069870

This ethnoarchaeological study of an Inupiat Eskimo fish camp examines the formation of activity areas through time-motion studies and the analyses of activity episodes. These observations on two adults using the site during the summer of 1982 are used as examples of how spatially discrete activity areas are shaped by behavioral processes. In this case, activity-area formation is tied to the adaptive strategies of the Inupiat Eskimo cultural system. Specific subsistence-related activities such as food processing, animal butchering, and equipment maintenance leave material residues after tasks are completed. Cognitive and adaptive aspects of the Inupiat cultural system contribute to the spatial organization of this fish camp.