LOCAL IDENTITIES AND TRAVELING NAMES - INTERETHNIC ASPECTS OF PERSONAL NAMING IN THE BERING STRAIT AREA

The Native communities closest to the narrowest (northern) part of the Bering Strait-Naukan, Big Diomede, and Uelen on the Russian side, and Little Diomede, Wales, and King Island on the Alaskan side-have a lon g history of interaction, forcibly interrupted by the Cold War in 1948 . Personal names, although an important part of localized identities, have played a significant role in these networks of contacts, by ''tra veling'' as far as their human ''carriers'' do. The communities of the region were characterized, on the one hand, by three different, mutua lly unintelligible languages-Naukan Yupik, Inupiaq, and Chukchi-and, o n the other hand, by two distinct systems of personal name bestowal-Es kimo and Chukchi. The interaction of these two different naming system s has necessitated various forms of social and linguistic adaptation. Among the most visible outcomes of this interaction is the high incide nce of Chukchi names among the Naukan people, as well as the adoption of other features of Chukchi naming. The authors conclude that this Ch ukchi expansion into the realm of Naukan Yupik naming practices is les s the result of Chukchi social or political dominance than of the stru ctural properties of Chukchi and Yupik naming systems, which are disti nct but compatible. Finally, the encounter of Bering Strait naming pra ctices with those introduced by Russians and U.S. Americans is examine d. In this case, Euro-American social and political dominance clearly shapes the interaction of these incompatible naming systems. While Nat ive naming practices continue to persist throughout the Bering Strait area, they are relegated to unofficial status.