Dissertation
The Zooarchaeology of Reciprocal Kinship: A Southern Northwest Coast Shell Midden Story
Washington State University
Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
05/2024
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.7273/000006562
Abstract
Archaeologists have been grappling with the field’s settler colonial roots for the several decades, but archaeological theory and practice continue to frequently clash with Indigenous sovereignty and epistemologies. Schneider and Hayes (2020) advocate for a shift towards critical Indigenous theory and the “undisciplining” of archaeology. This dissertation therefore investigates the archaeological past outside of archaeology, by operationalizing an Indigenous research paradigm for zooarchaeological research. My research integrates oral history, ethnography, academic publications, and contemporary Tribal insight with critical Indigenous theory to address archaeological research questions within a paradigm defined explicitly by Coquille ontology. In 2018, the Coquille Indian Tribe (CIT) Cultural Resource Program performed data recovery and salvage work at site 35CS331, a shell midden inadvertently discovered during the construction of a private home in Bandon, OR. To demonstrate the analytical flexibility and robustness of practicing archaeology within an Indigenous research paradigm, I present three separate, but interrelated, case studies. The first case focuses on the sea mammal assemblage, with particular attention to the personal nature of Coquille relationships to their animal kin and its implications for choosing data and defining the scale of research. Second, I approach the shellfish assemblage by focusing on the ecological relationships between taxa and not solely their relative quantities. This reveals a strategy for intertidal management based on highly sophisticated and fine-grained ecological knowledge to balance the needs of current and future generations of both humans and shellfish. Finally, I synthesize the zooarchaeological assemblage with the rest of the data from 35CS331 and conclude not only that the primary shell midden deposit is associated with a single feasting event, but that the feast was embedded within a broader web of reciprocal gifting relationships that structured socioecological life for Coquille ancestors and their animal relatives.
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Details
- Title
- The Zooarchaeology of Reciprocal Kinship
- Creators
- Elliot Helmer
- Contributors
- Shannon Tushingham (Chair)Colin Grier (Committee Member)John C. Blong (Committee Member)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Anthropology, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Doctor of Philosophy (PhD), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University
- Number of pages
- 478
- Identifiers
- 99901121440401842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Dissertation