Time, Oral Tradition, and Archaeology at Xakwnoowú, A Little Ice Age Fort in Southeastern Alaska
| Autor: | Aron L. Crowell, Wayne K. Howell |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2013 |
| Předmět: |
010506 paleontology
Archeology History 060102 archaeology Cultural landscape Museology Subject (philosophy) 06 humanities and the arts 01 natural sciences Archaeology language.human_language Indigenous Arts and Humanities (miscellaneous) Historicity language 0601 history and archaeology Narrative Clan Oral tradition Tlingit 0105 earth and related environmental sciences |
| Zdroj: | American Antiquity. 78:3-23 |
| ISSN: | 2325-5064 0002-7316 |
| Popis: | As a linguistic medium, oral tradition conveys rich and specific detail about past events but is also subject to alteration in the course of transmission between generations. As a source for indigenous history, spoken heritage is characteristically specific in geographic attribution and thus definitive of cultural landscapes, but it is temporally under-defined because it is unconstrained by calendrical dates. We consider these qualities in relation to Tlingit oral accounts that refer to Xak-wnoowú, an 850-year-old fort in the Glacier Bay region of southeastern Alaska. The site is narratively linked to the origins of Tlingit warfare and of the Kaagwaantaan clan, and remains a landmark of historical consciousness for contemporary descendants. We apply archaeological and geological evidence to date and verify key oral narratives, finding substantial convergence with scientific data and a complementarity of perspective that potentiates fuller understandings of both Tlingit history and environmental change during the Little Ice Age. We conclude that the historicity of oral tradition—a topic of wide current debate—is clearly demonstrated at Xakwnoowú, although instances of chronological compression are revealed by the analysis. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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