William B. Workman

The End of the Kachemak Tradition on the Kenai Peninsula, Southcentral Alaska

The Kachemak tradition was established by ca. 3000 B.P. in Kachemak Bay. Probably somewhat later a variant termed Riverine Kachemak, with a population adapted to salmon and terrestrial resources, appeared on the northern Kenai Peninsula. The Kachemak tradition people seem to have abandoned Kachemak Bay by ca. 1400 B.P. Seven of 12 available Kachemak tradition dates predate 1400 B.P. even at two sigma. Scattered younger dates are thus suspect outliers. The end of Riverine Kachemak tradition has been placed at ca. 1000 B.P., at which time the population was supposedly replaced by in-migrating groups ancestral to the Dena’ina Athapaskans. Close examination of the numerous available radiocarbon dates shows that most Riverine Kachemak dates cluster in the early centuries of the First Millennium A.D. and most Dena’ina dates substantially postdate 1000 A.D. Probably the Riverine Kachemak and Dena’ina peoples never met on the Kenai River. However, the correspondence in date ranges between Kachemak Bay and Riverine Kachemak is striking, suggesting their fates were linked. Both traditions collapsed by 1400–1500 B.P. The causes are probably multiple but do not include cultural replacement.

No Vestige of a Beginning—No Prospect of an End: Allen McCartney's Contributions on the Problem of Cultural Frontiers and Ethnic Boundaries

I examine identification of prehistoric ethnic boundaries with a focus on the Eskimo/Aleut interface on the Alaska Peninsula and the contributions of Allen McCartney on this topic. McCartney has long been critical of simplistic ethnic identifications in prehistory. In his later writings he emphasizes continuity rather than boundaries in trait distributions and he appears to despair of relating material culture, physical type, and language to one another on the basis of available evidence. Other authors share or even elaborate upon this pessimism, which I believe goes too far. While population biology, language, and culture cannot be correlated in a simplistic way, it appears unlikely that they are totally independent variables. I find merit in Levi-Strauss’s view that all three domains can be viewed as communication systems. Seen in this light, thresholds beyond which the information transferred drops off noticeably must exist among human groups.