|
Prehistoric Alaska begins with Paleolithic people moving into northwestern North America sometime between 40,000 and 15,000 years ago across the Bering Land Bridge in western Alaska; a date less than 20,000 years ago is most likely.〔(National Geographic, "The Genographic Project: Bridge to the New World". Accessed 2014-05-10. )〕 They found their passage blocked by a huge sheet of ice until a temporary recession in the Wisconsin glaciation (the last ice age) opened up an ice-free corridor through northwestern Canada, possibly allowing bands to fan out throughout the rest of the continent. Eventually, Alaska became populated by the Inuit and a variety of Native American groups. Today, early Alaskans are divided into several main groups: the Southeastern Coastal Native Americans (the Tlingit, Haida, and Tsimshian), the Athabascans, the Aleut, and the two groups of Eskimos, Inupiat and Yup'ik. ==Coastal Native Americans== The Coastal Native Americans were probably the first wave of immigrants to cross the Bering Land Bridge in western Alaska, although many of them initially settled in interior Canada. The Tlingit were the most numerous of this group, populating most of the coastal Panhandle by the time of European contact. The southern portion of Prince of Wales Island was settled by the Haidas emigrating from the Queen Charlotte Islands in Canada. The Tsimshian emigrated during the territorial period from a town near Prince Rupert in British Columbia. The Tlingit were known to travel for more than 1,000 miles (1,600 km) south to trade with Native peoples in the Pacific Northwest. There was no standard currency of trade, but slaves, native copper materials, and blankets made of red cedar bark, and dog and goat-hair were highly valued. The Coastal Native Americans believed that fish and animals gave themselves willingly to humans, and strove to honor the animals' sacrifice. They also believed that the bones of a consumed salmon should be returned to the river in which it had been caught—to allow for reincarnation—otherwise, the fish would reincarnate with deformities and refuse to return to that river. Coastal Native American society featured a complex system of property ownership with a mix of private and group property. Each household owned tools, objects, and food that they had produced themselves, while the clan owned names, land, stories, buildings, and most other property. In the social organization of the Tlingit and Haida, status and prestige were negotiated through wealth. To maintain position, a man of high rank demonstrated wealth by holding a potlatch ceremony in which he would give away, destroy, or invite guests to consume all of his food and possessions. This was referred to as "paying off" the guests who had performed ritual services or provided support in the past. Those who received goods at one potlatch would typically reciprocate by inviting their former hosts to their own potlatch at a later date; such invitations would confirm their relative levels of prestige and status. Other important features of the potlatch were the recitation of family histories and bloodlines, transfer of ceremonial titles and possessions, and offerings to ancestors. The mild climate and plentiful resources of the Panhandle allowed the Coastal Native Americans leisure time to devote to social pastimes, travel and trade. They enjoyed complex art, music, and storytelling, and their traditions kept an accurate account of genealogy and clan history. The painted designs developed by the Coastal tribes featured fish, animals, and mythical creatures in formalized patterns of black, red, and other bold colors. They decorated their craft goods, domestic utensils, clothing, masks, canoes, and ritual objects to signify ownership. The world-renowned totem poles were carved at great expense to illustrate myths, to honor the deceased, and to imply the enormous wealth of the owners. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Prehistory of Alaska」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|