This award supports the participation of 14 U.S. scientists in a U.S.-Japan Seminar on the Origins, Development, and Spread of Prehistoric North Pacific-Bering Sea Martime Cultures, to be held in Hawaii May 31 - June 6, 1993. The co-organizers are Professor Allen McCartney of the University of Arkansas and Professor Hiroaki Okada of Hokkaido University. In addition to the U.S. and Japanese participants, scholars from Canada and Russia will be invited. The purpose of the seminar is to discuss archaeological data, methods, and theoretical approaches appropriate to the study of prehistoric maritime adaptations in the North Pacific-Bering Sea regions, with emphasis on parallel and divergent cultural processes and possible cultural connections between Asia and North America. Knowledge of the dynamics and history of maritime adaptations is basic to a full understanding of North Pacific and Bering Sea native cultures. Earliest peoples reaching the Japanese islands from the Asian mainland and reaching Alaska from Chukotka Peninsula during Pleistocene times may have been, in part, maritime adapted. Subsequent coastal societies of much of the past 10,000 years have exploited the rich marine resources of these regions, giving rise to historic Eskimos, Aluets, and Northwest Coast Indians in North America and to Eskimos, Maritime Chukchi, Koriaks, and Ainu in Asia. This conference will be the first opportunity for so many archaeologists working in contiguous areas to discuss substantive, methodological, and theoretical issues in detail.
