Culture and Archaeology of the Ancestral Unangax̂/Aleut of the Aleutian Islands, Alaska


Book Description

For the past 9,000 years, people lived and flourished along the 1,000-mile Aleutian archipelago reaching from the American continent nearly to Asia. The Aleutian chain and surrounding waters supported 40,000 or more people before the Russians arrived. Despite the antiquity of continuous human occupation, the size of the area, and the fascinating and complex social organization, the region has received scant notice from the public. This volume provides a thorough review describing the varied cultures of the ancestral Unangax̂, using archaeological reports, articles, and unpublished data; documented Unangax̂ oral histories, and ethnohistories from early European and American visitors, assessed through the authors’ multi-decade experience working in the Aleutian Archipelago. Unangam Tanangin ilan Unangax̂/Aliguutax̂ Maqax̂singin ama Kadaangim Tanangin Anaĝix̂taqangis (Culture and Archaeology of the Ancestral Unangax̂/Aleut of the Aleutian Islands, Alaska) begins with a description of the physical and biological world (The Physical Environment and The Living Environment) of which the Unangax̂ are part, followed by a description of the archaeological research in the region (The People). The rest of the book addresses ancestral Unangax̂ life including settlement on the land, and the characteristics of sites based on the activities that took place there (People on the Landscape). From this broad perspective, the view narrows to the people making a living through hunting, fishing, and collecting food along the shore-line, making their intricate tools, storing and cooking food, and sewing and weaving (Making a Living); household life including house construction, households, and the work done within the home (Life at Home); and the personal changes an individual goes through from the time they are born through death, including spiritual transitions and ceremonies (Transitions), and the evidence for these events in the material record. This book is written in gratitude to the Unangax̂ and Aleut people for the opportunity to work in Unangam Tanangin or the Aleutian Islands, and to learn about your culture. We hope you find this book useful. The purpose of this book is to introduce the broader public to the cultures of this North Pacific archipelago in a single source, while simultaneously providing researchers a comprehensive synthesis of archaeology in the region.




Aleut Identities


Book Description

The first Aleut ethnography in over three decades, Aleut Identities provides a contemporary view of indigenous Alaskans and is the first major work to emphasize the importance of commercial labour and economies to maintain traditional means of survival. Examining the ways in which social relations and the status formation are affected by environmental concerns, government policies, and market forces, the author highlights how communities have responded to worldwide pressures. An informative work that challenges conventional notions of "traditional," Aleut Identities demonstrates possible methods by which Indigenous communities can maintain and adapt their identity in the face of unrelenting change.




Aleuts


Book Description

Translation from Russian




Encyclopedia of Anthropology


Book Description

Focuses on physical, social and applied athropology, archaeology, linguistics and symbolic communication. Topics include hominid evolution, primate behaviour, genetics, ancient civilizations, cross-cultural studies and social theories.




An Aleutian Ethnography


Book Description

"Lucien M. Turner's ethnographical work in the Aleutians remains unique. He alone made a concerted effort to learn Aleut and therefore could communicate more or less directly with the local population. Turner lived for extended periods in three primary Aleut communities in the eastern, central, and western islands. He interacted with Aleuts on a day-to-day basis, shared some of their difficulties, and felt at home enough to joke with them. The collections he made in the Aleutians surpass all others from the late nineteenth century. The items he shipped to the Smithsonian Institution provide researchers and contemporary Unangan glimpses into an irrecoverable past. It is this collection that forms Turner's primary legacy." "Turner's extant ethnographic notes are directly tied to his collections of natural history. Photographs of many of the ethnographic specimens are beautifully reproduced in this book. Ray Hudson's brilliant annotation of this most thorough ethnography of the Aleutian Islands and its people to date will shed light on both the Aleuts near the end of the nineteenth century and on those outsiders who lived among them."--BOOK JACKET.




The Oxford Handbook of the Prehistoric Arctic


Book Description

Despite its extreme climate, the North American Arctic holds a complex archaeological record of global significance. In this volume, leading researchers provide comprehensive coverage of the region's cultural history, addressing issues as diverse as climate change impacts on human societies, European colonial expansion, and hunter-gatherer adaptations and social organization.




Essays on the Ethnography of the Aleuts


Book Description

The work translated here is Ocherki po etnografii aleutov (konets XVIII-pervaia polovina XIX v.) (Leningrad: Nauka, 1975), one of Roza G. Liapunova's two monographs on the Aleuts of Alaska. Liapunova discusses the archaeology of Aleut origins, Aleut life as documented in early historical sources, and Aleut material culture based on historical sources and in museum collections. Essays remains a valuable synthesis of English- and Russian-language sources on these topics. It also showcases the wide-ranging interests and broad expertise of a Soviet scholar whose work deserves to be read by an English-speaking audience. The volume includes a brief biography and bibliography of selected works of the author and an index.




Jochelson, Bogoras and Shternberg


Book Description

In this volume the authors discuss the fascinating and eventful biographies as well as the significant scientific work of Waldemar Jochelson, Waldemar Bogoras and Lev Shternberg. They investigate the question of how these men became involved in ethnography towards the end of the 19th century, when they had to spend many years as political exiles in remote parts of northeastern Siberia. This early revolutionary commitment shed light on their empathetic and pioneering methods during their later fieldwork with local people. At the same time they incorporated important ideas from American cultural anthropology gained from their close collaboration with Franz Boas. Their initial aims and methods were also reflected in the ambitious community-oriented research programs that they later had conceptualized and launched together with other colleagues at Leningrad University.




Pacific Homosexualities


Book Description




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