ANTH 205 Lecture 11

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Exam next Friday! Need big gray scantron

Tlingit Foodways

Alaska has abundant resources, but a fairly harsh and long winter (not a lot to eat)

Preservable food is primarily dried or smoked fish.

Salmon is biggest staple food.

• King
• Silver
• Humpback
• Dog
• Sockey

Tlingit are conscious of overfishing (even historically)

Method of fishing is traditionally a weir, a large fence in the water

• cleaned
• dried (for days on racks; constantly monitored so no animals take the fish)
• roasted, frozen, or smoked
• sealed in seal oil

Seasonal Diet Variation

Spring

Halibut

shellfish

seaweed

seals

Summer

berries

plants

Fall

salmon

herring

sea otters

year-round

deer

bear

moose

mountain goats

small mammals

Killing any whale is thought to be killing a spirital member of the family (used as a clan symbol)

• Beached whales are another story; seen as a gift

Nutritional Wisdom

When the tide goes out, the table is set

Eating only seafood is a sign of poverty (difficult to obtain some nutrients from the sea)

Nearly all parts of the animal are used

Animal protein is rarely eaten raw

Modern Foodways

Imported Food

Commercialized fishing

Deep-sea fishing for salmon

Potlatch

"Politicoreligious" (both political and relegious purposes) ceremony

Huge party for any number of ceremonial reason

Several days of singing, storytelling, feasting,

(Cultural anthropologists jump all over this... probably just because they want to party)

Usually hosted by a clan, and everyone is invited

• Seating/arrangement divided into moiety/clan

Host gives away lots of gifts in return for prestige; show off wealth and power

Underlying cause:

• reciprocity/redistribution of wealth to help clans get through winter
• debt/insurance: repayment, creation, social ensurance of survival

Aggressive Feasting

Kwakiutl and Kwakwaka'wakw clans

Invite enemies to potlatch: kill them with kindness

Feed them until they can't eat any more, throw extra food on fire until house burned down

Ban on Potlatch

• CA and US tried to assimilate culture
• Very difficult to enforce
• ban lifted in 1951
• Size remained small-ish