Engraved bow drill,

early 19th century

In contrast to Euro-American landscape representation, which evolved out of an interest in delineating territory that was or could be owned or occupied, many Native American cultures without traditions of individual property ownership prioritized the social significance of a site rather than the illusionistic reproduction of specific geographies. Among the Iñupiaq people of present-day northwestern Alaska, the imagery of pictographic ivory engraving was informed by domestic routines, hunting activities, and communal events of daily and seasonal life. Its focus on actions rather than the features of particular locations is indicative of an orientation to the environment based as much on factors of time as place. Around 1890 an influx of whaling ships and traders, as well as the introduction of mission-school education, engendered a shift from this traditional engraving style to a more Western mode that introduced spatial, as opposed to experiential, representations of the environment. A walrus tusk produced for trade around the turn of the century features a coastline map that reflects the change in conceptual paradigms.