Subsistence as an Identity Marker

• Main Author: Hensel, Chase
• Format: Book Part
• Language: unknown
• Published: Oxford University PressNew York, NY 1996
• Subjects: Tundra
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/oso/9780195094763.003.0005; https://academic.oup.com/book/chapter-pdf/52535387/isbn-9780195094763-book-part-5.pdf

Abstract We drive out along the road to the old Bureau of Indian Affairs site, then park in a sandy area along the road where it looks like we probably won’t get stuck again. We’ve seen various other cars parked along the road also. The weather is scattered sunshine, with rain clouds brushing the tundra off to the north and west, and a fairly dark mass towards the southwest, where the wind is blowing from. I’m wearing hip-waders and keeping my raincoat handy. The party consists of my wife and children, and a visiting friend. We hike off across the tundra, heading for some lower ground where we hope there will be more moisture and more blueberries. It has been a relatively dry year. Walking on tundra tussocks can seem like walking on hairy basketballs; but fortunately the ground is mostly drier and flatter than that, though you still sink in several inches with each step. We get to a place where the berries seem thick enough to start picking. It seems to take a long time for the bottom of the container to be covered enough that it doesn’t ring with each new handful of berries, but it eventually happens. This kind of picking is different from picking domesticated berries, where the goal is to efficiently pick all the berries in a given area. Here the goal is to graze around and maximize the amount of berries picked. It doesn’t matter if you pick haphazardly, as long as it’s done efficiently.