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Opportunistic Whale Hunting on the Southern Northwest Coast: Ancient DNA, Artifact, and Ethnographic Evidence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 January 2017

Robert J. Losey  and
Dongya Y. Yang
Robert J. Losey
Affiliation:
Tory Building, Department of Anthropology, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB T6R 3H8, Canada (robert.losey@ualberta.ca)
Dongya Y. Yang
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, BC V5A 1S6, Canada (donyang@sfu.ca)
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Abstract

Two modes of whale use have been documented on the Northwest Coast of North America, namely systematic whale hunting and whale scavenging. Ethnographically, systematic hunting was practiced only by Native groups of southwestern Vancouver Island and the northern Olympic Peninsula of Washington State. This hunting was undertaken with technology specifically designed for the task. Other groups on the Northwest Coast reportedly did not hunt whales but did utilize beached animals. Here we present archaeological evidence of whaling from the northern Oregon coast site of Par-Tee in the form of a bone point lodged in a whale phalange. This hunting likely occurred 1,300 to 1,600 years ago. Ancient DNA extracted from the phalange proves it to be a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae). DNA recovered from the bone point indicates that it is made from elk (Cervus elaphus) bone, and the point's DNA sequence is identical to that from unmodified elk bone from Par-Tee, suggesting the whale was locally hunted. We present ethnohistoric data from the southern Northwest Coast describing opportunistic whale hunting with a variety of technologies. We argue that many groups along the west coast of North America likely occasionally hunted whales in the past and that this hunting occurred using nonspecialized technologies.

Résumé

Résumé

Dos maneras de utilización de las ballenas se han documentado en la costa Noroeste de Norteamérica. Estas son, la cacería sistemática y la utilización de ballenas encontradas muertas en la playa. Etnográficamente, la caza sistemática fue practicada únicamente por grupos Indígenas del sur-oeste de la Isla de Vancouver y la Península Olímpica del estado de Washington. Esta cacería se realizaba con tecnología especialmente diseñada para dicha actividad. Se sabe que otros grupos étnicos de la costa noreste de Norte América no cazaban, sino que utilizaban los restos de ballenas encontradas sin vida en la playa. Una punta de hueso alojada en parte de la estructura ósea digital de una ballena, encontrada en Par-Tee, en la costa norte de Oregón, representa la evidencia arqueológica de la cacería de ballenas en este lugar. Esta cacería posiblemente ocurrió hace 1,300 a 1,600 años. Muestras de ADN antiguo extraído de la estructura ósea digital de la ballena sugiere que se trata de una ballena jorobada (Megaptera novaeangliae). El ADN proveniente de la punta de hueso encontrada revela que esta fue hecha de hueso de ciervo (Cervus elaphus). En este trabajo de investigación, presentamos información etnohistórica de la costa noroeste de Norteamérica describiendo la cacería de ballenas "oportunista", la cual incluye diversas tecnologías. Según nuestro estudio, muchos grupos de la costa Noroeste de Norteamérica seguramente de vez en cuando cazaban ballenas en el pasado, y dicha cacería se realizó mediante la utilización de tecnología no-especializada.

Type
Reports
Information
American Antiquity , Volume 72 , Issue 4 , October 2007 , pp. 657 - 676
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Archaeology 2007

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