Anthropology Colloquium is the department’s speaker series that invites a mixture of anthropologists from within and outside of UBC to present their research. This speaker series is scheduled throughout the academic year, typically with a lunch reception in the AnSo Lounge.
Between Time and History: An Archaeology of Food and Settlement on the Northwest Coast
Thursday November 14th, 2013
AnSo 134, 11:30-1:30
Iain McKechnie
Anthropology, Ph.D. Candidate
University of British Columbia
Abstract:
This talk examines multiple scales of Indigenous history on the Northwest Coast from the disciplinary perspective of archaeology. I focus on cultural lifeways archaeologically represented in two key domains of human existence: food and settlement. I show how this information refines archaeological understanding of cultural and historical variability on the Northwest Coast across six case studies, ranging from a coast-wide examination of archaeological fisheries data, culturally distinct hunting traditions on the southern British Columbia coast, and intergenerational changes in settlement practice in a small locality on the Northern BC Coast (Prince Rupert Harbour). Three case studies focus on Nuu-chah-nulth communities in Barkley Sound, including continuity and change in fisheries in a Nuu-chah-nulth ‘big-house,’ the parallel relationship between Indigenous oral histories and archaeological settlement histories, and a multi-sited investigation of variation in everyday foodways in a local group territory over the longue durée, the scale of history beyond events. I conclude that a focus on the pervasive aspects of the everyday over millennia offers insight into individual actions across broader patterns of history.
