Telling Our Selves: Ethnicity and Discourse in Southwestern Alaska

233 Pages·1996·11.09 MB·English

by  Chase Hensel

Telling Our Selves
Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics
William Bright, General Editor
1. Classificatory Particles in Kilivila
Gunter Senft
2. Sounds Like Life: Sound-symbolic Grammar, Performance,
and Cognition in Pasta Quechua
Janis B. Nuckolls
3. Plastic Glasses and Church Fathers: Semantic Extension
from the Ethnoscience Tradition
David B. Kronenfekl
4. American Indian Languages: The Historical Linguistics
of North America
Lyle Campbell
5. Telling Our Selves: Ethnicity and Discourse in
Southwestern Alaska
Chase Hensel
Telling Our Selves
Ethnicity and Discourse
in Southwestern Alaska
CHASE HENSEL
New York Oxford
Oxford University Press
1996
Oxford University Press
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Copyright © 1996 by Chase Hcnsel
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publicatioii Data
Hensel, Chase.
'Telling ourselves : ethnicity and discourse in southwestern Alaska / Chase Hensel.
p cm.— (Oxford studies in anthropological linguistics ; 5)
ISBN o-i9-5O94y6-X — ISNB 0-19-^09477-8 (pbk.)
i. Yupik Eskimos — Social conditions 2. Yupik Eskimos — Ethnic
identity. 3. Yupik languages —Alaska —Bethel, 4. Subsistence
economy —Alaska — Bethel. 5. Ethnicity —Alaska — Bethel.
6. Discourse analysis, Narrative —Alaska —Bethel. 7. Sex role —
Alaska — Bethel. 8. Gender identity--Alaska —Bethel. 9. Bethel
(Alaska) — Economic conditions. 10. Bethel (Alaska) —Social
conditions. I. Title. II. Series.
Eyp.E7H^ 1996
305.8 '009798 '4—dcao 95-3i9z3
Excerpt from Cannery Row by John Steinbeck, copyright by John Steinbeck. Renewed © 1973 by
Elaine Steinbeck, John Steinbeck IV and Thorn Steinbeck. Used by permission of Viking Pen-
guin, a division of Penguin Books USA Inc.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 89
Printed in the United States of America
on acid-free paper
Preface
My mom said she tried to help my grandma [cut king salmon for dry-
ing] as my grandma grew older, but my grandma always said, "You're
gonna butcher the fish, you're gonna butcher them, you're gonna mess
them up." . . . And she wouldn't let my mom help. And my mom
said . . . soon after my grandma died, within a couple of years I'd say,
when she went to make her first flat fish, which is the more elaborate
bunch of cutting that you have to do, she stood there at her table, with
no help, and made the cuts. And she said it was as if my grandma's
hand was on her hand. . . . And I'm thirty-eight, and I have friends
who have just taken up the knife, and had the same thing happen that
happened to my mom.
With these words Janet Shantz of Bethel, Alaska, linked the "Yup'ik
part" of who she is with the generational recycling of women at the fish-
cutting tables. This central, repeated enactment of ethnicity through the
catching and processing of subsistence foods was to be described in nu-
merous interviews with the residents of this mixed Native and non-
Native community. It is the thesis of this book that talk about ethnicity
and subsistence, as well as the doing of subsistence activities, are all
interlinked forms of practice. In the interweaving of these strands, eth-
nicity is constantly re-created. Although ethnicity is overtly constructed
in terms of either/or categories, the discourse of Bethel residents suggests
vi Preface
that their actual concern is less with whether one is Native or non-Native
than with how Native one is in a given context.
This book, then, examines discourse strategies used by individuals
in their self-definitions. This occurs in a conversational setting where
ethnicity is both implicitly and explicitly contested. In this sense I have
tried to combine the insights of sociolinguistics with broader anthropo-
logical concerns. While the book is ethnographic, it is not "about Eski--
mos." Rather, it is about how Bethel residents use similar forms of dis-
course to strategically validate disparate identities. In this context, in the
Yup'ik Eskimo heartland, subsistence is the focus of peoples' interactions
regardless of their ascriptive ethnicity. Even people who spend little time
in subsistence activities spend a great deal of time in subsistence talk. In
short, unlike traditional ethnographies, which focus on traditions and
consequently tend to reify the past (especially in studies of hunter-
gatherers), this ethnography focuses on contemporary preoccupations.
The ethnographic description becomes a device for preserving and expli-
cating the opulent polysemy of situated talk.
The book begins with a general ethnographic description of the area
and builds in complexity until the final chapter, at which point it is
possible to see the subtlety with which strategic moves are used in actual
discourse. Chapters are interspersed with composite accounts of my own
participation in subsistence activities.
Chapter i reviews the ethnographic background and recent history
of the area. Chapter 2 introduces the practical and ideological dimensions
of contemporary subsistence. Together these chapters suggest that sub-
sistence discourse displays an overlay of associations with tradition, gen-
der role ideology, and concerns over contemporary regulation of subsis-
tence activity.
Chapters 3 and 4 explore subsistence activities and discourse as
markers of ethnic identities and social boundaries. In particular, chapter
4 elaborates the ways in which subsistence discourse can substitute for
the actual activities it references.
Chapter 5 considers socioeconomic change and its differential effects
on Yup'ik male and female gender roles. I suggest that for women en-
gagement in Western wage-work most calls their ethnicity into question,
while for men wage-work primarily challenges their proper performance
of gender roles. These concerns only become evident through a close
reading of men's and women's discourse.
Chapter 6 looks not at hunting, fishing, and processing but at eating
and the enjoyment of the harvest. I argue that talk about food is yet
another way to mark one's identity. Like talk about subsistence activities,
Preface vii
talk about food not only takes place in the absence of its referents but
may also be heightened by their absence.
Chapter 7 reexamines several discourse samples and places them in
a theoretical perspective informed by practice theory, family systems
theory, and sociolinguistics. I suggest that anthropological theory may
be advanced by combining elements of these three approaches. Such a
theoretical synthesis is based on the primacy of interaction. In this light,
discourse can be seen as a fundamental form of practice.
I have developed these ideas through a lively interchange with a number
of people. The list of those I wish to thank seems daunting, particularly
since some of them might be embarrassed to see their names in print. It
includes all the people who agreed to be interviewed or were interested
in discussing these issues—those who are named in the text and those
who chose to remain anonymous. In a larger sense, I would like to thank
all the people who have, in myriad ways, enriched my life in the Yukon-
Kuskokwim Delta. I hope that my appreciation for them comes through
in this book.
Earlier versions of this manuscript benefited from close readings by
Mary C. Pete, John Gumperz, Nelson Graburn, Lilly Wong Fillmore,
James H. Barker, and David Smith. Robin Barker, Kathy Forbes, and
Sara Miller all reviewed and commented on chapter 5. Anthony Wood-
bury, William Bright, Barbara Bodenhorn, David Marshall, and Willem
de Reuse provided helpful comments in the revision stages. Throughout
the entire process, Phyllis Morrow commented on drafts, debated theo-
retical and ethnographic issues, and provided encouragement. Thank
you all.
Final preparation of the manuscript was made possible during a re-
search year at the Scott Polar Research Institute and the department
of social anthropology, Cambridge University. My particular thanks to
Barbara Bodenhorn, Marilyn Strathern, Piers Vitebsky, William Mills,
and Stephen Wells for their collegiality and consideration. My thanks
also to Catherine Byfield for editorial assistance.
Research conducted in 1992 was funded by a Dissertation Improve-
ment Grant from the National Science Foundation, Divisions of General
Anthropology and Polar Programs #BNS 9103347. A portion of the
support from National Science Foundation grant #OPP~9322O92 (Arctic
Social Sciences, Division of Polar Programs) allowed me to reconceptual-
ize chapter 7.
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Contents
Introduction 3
Overview 3
Why Bethel? 6
Subsistence and Discourse 7
Subsistence as an Economic Activity? 7
Deconstructing the Economic Analysis of Subsistence 12
Negotiated Gender and Ethnicity 14
Mutual Influences 15
Fieldwork 16
CHAPTER i: Ethnographic Background and Post-Contact
History of the Area 19
Jigging for Pike 19
Introduction 21
Geology and Topography of the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta 21
Wildlife 22
Local Villages 23
Bethel 26