Miranda LaZar

I am interested in the ecological and cultural relationships between humans and animals, particularly birds, in the past and present. To study this, I use zooarchaeology, the study of animal bones from archaeological sites. I also use stable isotope analysis which looks at the chemistry of the bones to determine an animal’s past diet and the environmental conditions they lived in. My current research studies seabird bones from archaeological sites on Sanak Island in Alaska. Sanak Island is the easternmost island in the Aleutian Island chain that extends off the southwestern coast of mainland Alaska. Unangan people lived on the island over the last seven thousand years until the 1960s when they moved to villages on the Alaska Peninsula. The Unangan people hunted seabirds for food, raw materials, and ritual ceremonies. Most notably, feathers from birds like puffins would have been used to make parkas to keep people warm during cold stormy winters. Bones were often made into needles and tools. Questions that guide my research are, how did the relationship between humans and birds change over time? Were changes caused by shifts in the environment and/or culture? Did different species of seabirds have different cultural roles?