Frozen coasts and the development of inuit culture in the North American Arctic

Abstract

The northernmost part of the North American continent has seen some of the most fascinating human adaptations anywhere. In the New World this huge area extends some 11,000 km from the Aleutian Islands in the west to Greenland and Labrador in the east (Fig. 25.1). Geographically and in terms of human occupations, the Arctic is perhaps best defined as the area beyond the tree line (the northern limit of continuous forest). Some other attributes that help define the Arctic include persistence of cold (long winters and short cool summers), a largely treeless environment, permafrost (year-round frozen ground), large seasonal differences in the amount of sunlight, and very few plant foods that are consumable by humans. At the time of initial European contact a majority of human groups inhabiting the North American Arctic spent at least a part of the year living near the coast and making use of both land mammals on the tundra and sea mammals in the open ocean during the summer. However, in the winter the landscape changes dramatically. In Alaska, Greenland, and Labrador a wide strip of thick landfast ice forms along the coast while in the Canadian Arctic Archipelago the channels between islands freeze completely for much of the year. In all of these regions the sea ice and its resources formed a vital part of most human adaptations. Although it may perhaps seem incongruous to discuss at length the sea ice environment in a work focusing on landscape, it was the development of a successful adaptation to a frozen coast environment encompassing both the land and the sea ice that ensured the long term success of human occupations throughout the Arctic. An additional feature that makes the archaeological record of these Arctic cultures so interesting is the combination of the richness of the Inuit ethnographic record, the complexity of their material culture, and the often marvelous preservation of that material culture due to permafrost. All these factors mean that archaeologists have a great deal of information to work with. In terms of the specific goals of this volume, the development of the adaptation to a frozen coast environment is interesting for several reasons. First, in this part of the world there are some of the most profound seasonal landscape changes anywhere on Earth: the terrestrial landscape expands enormously with the addition of the frozen ocean, the composition and abundance of the fauna changes dramatically, and the amount of daylight also varies. Second, the human adaptation to the frozen coast and sea ice environment involved complex material culture that is recoverable archaeologically due to the preservation often afforded by permafrost. Finally, since the sea ice environment disappears every summer, all direct traces of human use of that landscape have been lost. Therefore, to a greater extent than in most archaeological situations, our understanding of the history of human use of that landscape must be inferential. © Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2010.