Women and Subsistence Food Technology: The Arctic Seal Poke Storage System

This study focuses on the pan-arctic seal poke storage system—an innovative and effective food storage and preservation system that was likely used for thousands of years but today is rarely seen. Women expertly processed the skin of a whole seal into a leak proof pliable container. The result was a technology that provided the safe storage and transport of rendered seal oil—a highly prized food and fuel source—and the preservation and taste and texture enhancement of other foods submerged in the oil. Sea mammal oil was (and remains largely so) unequivocally one of the most critical subsistence resources in the arctic. Here we draw from the ethnographic record and our own field observations in Alaska to discuss the seal poke storage system and implications of women's fundamental role in complex food storage technologies.