Expanding the Kachemak: Surplus Production and the Development of Multi-Season Storage in Alaska's Kodiak Archipelago

• Published in: Arctic anthropology Vol. 43; no. 2; pp. 93 - 129
• Main Authors: Steffian, Amy F., Saltonstall, Patrick G., Kopperl, Robert E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States University of Wisconsin Press 01.01.2006
• Subjects: Alaska - ethnology; Archaeology - education; Archaeology - history; Archipelagos; Cobbles; Environment; Food Supply - economics; Food Supply - history; History of medicine; History, 15th Century; History, 16th Century; History, 17th Century; History, 18th Century; History, 19th Century; History, 20th Century; History, 21st Century; Humans; Marine resources; Middens; Oceans; Paleoanthropology; Population Groups - education; Population Groups - ethnology; Population Groups - history; Population Groups - legislation & jurisprudence; Population Groups - psychology; Raw materials; Salmon; Socioeconomic Factors - history; Stone tools; Surplus; Survival - physiology; Survival - psychology; Alaska
• ISSN: 0066-6939; 1933-8139
• DOI: 10.1353/arc.2011.0011

Surplus production is a hallmark of Alaska's prehistoric coastal societies. Over the millennia, foragers procured greater quantities of resources with increasing efficiency, developing economies dependent upon storage and institutionalized exchange. In the central Gulf of Alaska, notable evidence of surplus production comes from the late phase of the Kachemak tradition. Since de Laguna's pioneering studies, archaeologists have noted that intensified fishing, storage, and exchange typify this tradition. However, few have investigated the roots of these behaviors. When, how, and why did foragers begin producing well beyond immediate needs? This paper explores archaeological evidence for surplus production in the Kodiak Archipelago, focusing on patterns in land use, technology, and exchange preserved in Ocean Bay II and Early Kachemak assemblages from the Chiniak Bay region. It suggests that surplus production for the purposes of seasonal food storage began in the Early Kachemak, and accelerated in the Late Kachemak as population levels climbed.