{"id":{"repo_id":"buffalo","oai_identifier":"oai:ubir.buffalo.edu:10477/86683"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/buffalo/oai:ubir.buffalo.edu:10477/86683","repository":{"repo_id":"buffalo","name":"Buffalo","base_url":"https://ubir.buffalo.edu/oai/request"},"display":{"title":"Technological Choice and Human-Animal Relationships: A Bird's Eye View from the Rat Islands, Alaska","abstract":"Ph.D.","abstract_html":"Ph.D.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Taivalkoski, Ariel; 0000-0002-1779-9475"],"institution":"State University of New York at Buffalo","degree_name":null,"degree_level":null,"degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":["Chevral, Timothy","Anthropology"],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":2025,"date_issued":"2025-02-21T21:36:26Z","date_published":"2025-02-21T21:36:26Z","updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:05:34Z","subjects":["archaeology"],"languages":["eng"],"rights":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"http://hdl.handle.net/10477/86683","outbound_label":"Handle","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:contributor","label":"Contributor","values":["Chevral, Timothy","Anthropology"]},{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Taivalkoski, Ariel; 0000-0002-1779-9475"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"dc:date","label":"Dc Date","values":["2025-02-21T21:36:26Z","2020"]},{"key":"dc:publisher","label":"Institution","values":["State University of New York at Buffalo"]},{"key":"dc:type","label":"Dc Type","values":["Text","Dissertation"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["archaeology"]}]},{"id":"language_rights","label":"Language and Rights","entries":[{"key":"dc:language","label":"Dc Language","values":["eng"]},{"key":"dc:rights","label":"Dc Rights","values":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["http://hdl.handle.net/10477/86683"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description","label":"Description","values":["Ph.D.","Human groups have used birds in a variety of ways, from food, to raw material for tools, to clothing. In addition to their more practical usages birds often play a significant role in cosmologies and myths (Serjeantson 2009). However, due to poor preservation and excavation bias (many bird bones are small enough to slip through even 1/4\" screens) bird remains have only recently begun to be studied in depth. The archaeological sites of the Aleutian Islands have very large avian bone assemblages due to excellent taphonomic conditions. The large size and excellent preservation of these assemblages allows rigorous study from which we can study not only local relationships with birds but also develop models for other times and places. Comparing the patterns of skeletal part representation with oral histories and ethnographies will reveal the interplay of the symbolic and 'material' aspects of the relationship between birds and the residents of the Aleutian Islands. The relationship between the prehistoric inhabitants of the Rat Islands, the Unangan, and birds was maintained by a suite of continual and often daily practices - from hunting, to story-telling, to subsistence acts. The resulting artifacts of these day-to-day activities, in this case the avian bone assemblage, play a significant role in the reproduction of social and cultural values (Bourdieu 1977; Richardson 1989; Tilley 1989, Sillar and Tite 2000). By studying the technological choices that the Unangan made regarding birds we can begin to examine the more social and even symbolic aspects of the Unangan-bird relationship. This can be accomplished by comparing the skeletal part representation, i.e. which species/families were used for which technology, which parts of the birds were exploited, etc., to the expected patterns of usage based on oral histories and ethnographies. Technological acts are a medium \"through which social relationships, power structures, worldviews, and social production and reproduction are expressed and defined (Dobres and Hoffman 1994: 212).\" Thus, in order to understand the complex relationship of the Unangan with birds, we must incorporate not only a discussion of human-animal relationships via social zooarchaeology but also a discussion of practice and technological choice.","**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact library@buffalo.edu. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.**"]},{"key":"dc:format","label":"Dc Format","values":["application/pdf"]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Technological Choice and Human-Animal Relationships: A Bird's Eye View from the Rat Islands, Alaska"]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:contributor":["Chevral, Timothy","Anthropology"],"dc:creator":["Taivalkoski, Ariel; 0000-0002-1779-9475"],"dc:date":["2025-02-21T21:36:26Z","2020"],"dc:description":["Ph.D.","Human groups have used birds in a variety of ways, from food, to raw material for tools, to clothing. In addition to their more practical usages birds often play a significant role in cosmologies and myths (Serjeantson 2009). However, due to poor preservation and excavation bias (many bird bones are small enough to slip through even 1/4\" screens) bird remains have only recently begun to be studied in depth. The archaeological sites of the Aleutian Islands have very large avian bone assemblages due to excellent taphonomic conditions. The large size and excellent preservation of these assemblages allows rigorous study from which we can study not only local relationships with birds but also develop models for other times and places. Comparing the patterns of skeletal part representation with oral histories and ethnographies will reveal the interplay of the symbolic and 'material' aspects of the relationship between birds and the residents of the Aleutian Islands. The relationship between the prehistoric inhabitants of the Rat Islands, the Unangan, and birds was maintained by a suite of continual and often daily practices - from hunting, to story-telling, to subsistence acts. The resulting artifacts of these day-to-day activities, in this case the avian bone assemblage, play a significant role in the reproduction of social and cultural values (Bourdieu 1977; Richardson 1989; Tilley 1989, Sillar and Tite 2000). By studying the technological choices that the Unangan made regarding birds we can begin to examine the more social and even symbolic aspects of the Unangan-bird relationship. This can be accomplished by comparing the skeletal part representation, i.e. which species/families were used for which technology, which parts of the birds were exploited, etc., to the expected patterns of usage based on oral histories and ethnographies. Technological acts are a medium \"through which social relationships, power structures, worldviews, and social production and reproduction are expressed and defined (Dobres and Hoffman 1994: 212).\" Thus, in order to understand the complex relationship of the Unangan with birds, we must incorporate not only a discussion of human-animal relationships via social zooarchaeology but also a discussion of practice and technological choice.","**To request an accessible version of the file(s) associated with this item, contact library@buffalo.edu. Please include the item's persistent URL [http://hdl.handle.net/. . .] in your request.**"],"dc:format":["application/pdf"],"dc:identifier":["http://hdl.handle.net/10477/86683"],"dc:language":["eng"],"dc:publisher":["State University of New York at Buffalo"],"dc:rights":["Users of works found in University at Buffalo Institutional Repository (UBIR) are responsible for identifying and contacting the copyright owner for permission to reuse. University at Buffalo Libraries do not manage rights for copyright-protected works and cannot assist with permissions.","Copyright retained by author."],"dc:subject":["archaeology"],"dc:title":["Technological Choice and Human-Animal Relationships: A Bird's Eye View from the Rat Islands, Alaska"],"dc:type":["Text","Dissertation"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-27T19:05:34Z"}