The life (lives) and times of native copper in Northwest North America

Bibliographic Data

ID3919690
AuthorsH K Cooper (0009-0008-3320-9579, Purdue University West Lafayette, corresponding author)
Year2011
Volume43
Issue2
Pages252-270
Publication date2011-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueWorld Archaeology (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0043-8243 • E-ISSN: 1470-1375
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/00438243.2011.581444
OpenAlexW2035820175
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited58

Native copper was used by several different indigenous ethno-linguistic groups in Alaska and Yukon starting in the Late Prehistoric period and continuing into the early twentieth century. This paper applies a relational biography approach to an analysis of the possible roles of native copper in northern Athabascan and northern Tlingit society. Native copper was used in a variety of contexts, both as practical and prestige technology, and also possessed animacy and agency, two important and closely intertwined concepts in the ontology of northern hunter-gatherers. Keywords: Athabascannative copperhunter-gathereranimacyagencyobject biography Acknowledgments This paper was based in part on research conducted in the course of my PhD studies in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Alberta, and was additionally funded by the Canadian Circumpolar Institute. I wish to thank Peter Topping, François Giligny and Gabriel Cooney for providing the opportunity to present an earlier version of this paper in the session 'From Tools to Tombs: the Creation of Identities in Stone' at the 2008 World Archaeological Congress in Dublin. I would also like to thank Melanie Giles and James Kari for their valuable comments on this paper and James Kari and Siri Tuttle for access to unpublished material. Any errors are, of course, my own

Aesthetics · Agency (philosophy · Animacy · Archaeology · Art · Ethnology · Geography · Indigenous · Linguistics · Period (music · Prehistory · Prestige · Social science · Sociology · Anthropology · Archaeology and ancient environmental studies · Ecology · Historical and Cultural Archaeology Studies · History · Indigenous Studies and Ecology

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