@article {95349, title = {Activity Areas or Conflict Episode? Interpreting the Spatial Patterning of Lice and Fleas at the Precontact Yup{\textquoteright}ik Site of Nunalleq (Sixteenth to Seventeenth Centuries AD, Alaska)}, journal = {{\'E}tudes Inuit Studies}, volume = {43}, year = {2019}, month = {2019}, pages = {197-221}, abstract = {

Archaeoentomological research at the precontact site of Nunalleq (sixteenth and seventeenth centuries AD), Southwest Alaska, has identified hundreds of lice and fleas that infested both the human inhabitants of the site and their canine companions. As lice are host specific, staying attached to the host\’s hair or fur during the totality of their lifecycle, they are generally considered excellent indicators of activity areas. Fleas, however, are relatively less common in archaeological contexts and, since they are mobile and able to infest several different host species, their potential use in the spatial reconstruction of activities is more limited. At Nunalleq, the study of insects from the most recent archaeological contexts produced very different spatial distribution patterns for human lice, fleas, and dog lice. This article compares these archaeoentomological data with other datasets available for the site (carrion-feeding flies, human hair, fur, coprolites, projectile points, and pieces of clothing) with the aim of establishing the phenomena that produced the distinct spatial distributions observed.

French title: Aires d\’activit\és ou \épisode de conflit ? Les ph\énom\ènes \à l\’origine de la distribution spatiale des poux et des puces \à Nunalleq (XVI-XVII si\ècles apr\ès J.C., Alaska)

R\ésum\é

\À Nunalleq, un site yup\’ik pr\écontact (XVIe et XVIIe si\ècles apr\ès J.C.) du sud-ouest de l\’Alaska, des centaines de poux et de puces ayant infest\é les habitants du site ainsi que leurs chiens ont pu \être identifi\és. Puisque les poux sont sp\écifiques \à leur h\ôte, demeurant attach\és aux poils ou \à la fourrure de celui-ci pendant la totalit\é de leur cycle de vie, ils sont g\én\éralement consid\ér\és comme d\’excellents indicateurs d\’aires d\’activit\és. Les puces sont relativement plus rares en contexte arch\éologique. Mobiles et capables d\’infester plusieurs esp\èces-h\ôtes diff\érentes, leur potentiel dans la reconstitution spatiale des activit\és semble, a priori, plus limit\é. Or, \à Nunalleq, les r\ésultats de l\’\étude des insectes provenant des contextes arch\éologiques les plus r\écents ont produit des sch\émas de distribution spatiale tr\ès diff\érents entre les poux et les puces de l\’Homme et \également les poux du chien. Cet article compare ces donn\ées arch\éoentomologiques avec d\’autres corpus de donn\ées disponibles \à Nunalleq (mouches n\écrophages, cheveux humains, fourrure, coprolithes, pointes lithiques, pi\èces vestimentaires) dans l\’objectif de reconstituer les ph\énom\ènes \à l\’origine de ces distributions spatiales distinctes.

Mots-cl\és :\  Ectoparasites, arch\éoentomologie, conflit, Yup\’ik, Alaska

}, keywords = {Alaska, archaeoentomology, conflict, ectoparasites, Yup{\textquoteright}ik}, issn = {0701-1008}, doi = {10.7202/1071945ar}, url = {http://id.erudit.org/iderudit/1071945ar}, author = {V{\'e}ronique Forbes and Huchet, J.-B. and Ellen McManus-Fry and Yan Axel G{\'o}mez_Coutouly and Julie Masson-MacLean and {\'E}douard Masson-MacLean and Paul M. Ledger and Kate Britton and Charlotta Hillerdal and Rick Knecht} }