A. Project Summary

History, Ecology and Cultural Revitalization in West-Central Kamchatka 

PI - David Koester - with Olga Murashko, Erich Kasten, Nikolai Krenke
	The primary aims of the project are to conduct ethnographic, ethnohistorical, archeological and ecological research on human-environment relationships in west-central Kamchatka.  This region is home to indigenous Itelmens, Evens and Koryaks, in addition to people of a variety of nationalities from the former Soviet Union.  The research comes at a moment of economic crisis for local communities, with important decisions to be made about their futures.  The work is organized in cooperation with programs for sustainable development and biodiversity conservation sponsored by the Global Environment Facility, United Nations Development Program (GEF/UNDP) with matching co-funding to support Kamchatkan participants.  The combination of research and development efforts will allow an unusual degree of integration of basic and applied research coordinated with educational programs, government policy initiatives and community involvement.  
	The basic research objectives include: understanding human-environment relationships during historical and pre-Russian periods; study of rapid social change during the Soviet and post-Soviet periods; examination of changing patterns of work and social relations; study of creative forms by means of which the natural world is experienced, understood and expressed; and study of cultural and community viability in the post-Soviet era. The social and economic history of Kamchatka, including trade relations with other areas, internal trade and local economic and social life will be studied by a combination of archeological and historical research.  Analysis of the early ethnographic accounts and various archival sources will provide a baseline understanding of social life and subsistence practices against which to measure social change.  Existing ecological and climatic data on species population, habitat change and resource use, synthesized and updated by Kamchatkan environmental scientists with GEF support will be used, along with the ethnographic sources, to develop a picture of the historical ecology of the region.  Archeological excavations will be targeted to reveal subsistence practices, seasonality of inhabitance, trade relations, settlement structure and village siting in relation to the ecosystem. Continuation of ongoing oral and life historical work will further illuminate the history of settlement patterns, productive activities and trade relations.  
	The ethnohistorical research will result in community histories to be published in book form in both Russian and English.  In the process of preparing the histories, data bases of use to scientists and communities in the region will be created from documentary sources.  The research will also include resource assessment, wildlife and plant inventories of the area in collaboration with Kamchatkan ecological researchers.  These, in turn, will result in reports, educational materials and a book on the cultures and ecologies of the region.  Life histories and school materials on local history will be developed along with the book-length works.  Songs, poems, dances and other art forms expressive of nature, natural phenomena and human interrelationships with the environment will be recorded for both analysis and publication.  Planning-related reports written for and in collaboration with community members will also be published.
	In addition to the principle researchers, a post-doctoral zooarcheologist will join the team during the third year for analysis of excavated materials. Two post-doctoral cultural anthropologists will also participate.  The plan also provides for one graduate research assistant from the second year onward.  Two additional summer graduate research assistants will be included, including Gleb Raygorodetsky (Environmental Biology, Columbia) who will contribute GIS mapping and wildlife inventories.  Participation by community members as researchers, informants, and for research support will be funded primarily by GEF/UNDP as will the bulk of collaborations with KIEP.  All phases of the research will be relevant to the GEF/UNDP programs.  The project will provide information about local conditions, community needs and desires and will foster communication between the community and planners.