Storage and Status in Precolonial and Colonial Coastal Western Alaska
Author(s)
Frink, Lisa
Abstract
Colonialism redefined indigenous cultural orders, especially the meaning and value of gendered production. The differential gender effects of and responses to processes of colonialism are apparent in the difference in location and style of storage between two coastal western Alaskan sites. The late-prehistoric-to-historic shift of storage from inside the dwelling to outside can be interpreted as a decline of women’s exclusive control over surpluses during the early-colonial market period, when subsistence products were reclassified as valued market-bound commodities. This redefinition and concomitant loss of full productive authority put women on a path from producers to auxiliary processors in the colonial market economy.
