Synopses & Reviews
It took more than a century for colonialism to reach Alaska after the first Europeans set foot in what would become the continental United States. The complex society of the Iñupiaq, settled at the very top of the world, remained unknown and undisturbed longer than many other Native tribes in America. Ernest S. Burch Jr. dedicated most of his life and career to understanding this precolonial period and the lives of Northwest Alaska Natives. Iñupiaq Ethnohistory finally collects in one place Burch’s critical research in this area, bringing to light work that had once been buried in scholarly books or scattered across journals. It is a fascinating and accessible window into a now-vanished world.
Review
“Burch was a pragmatist who honored facts and was able to draw conclusions. This book is an excellent overview of Burch’s work and is well suited to scientists, historians, and students interested in topics ranging from Northwest Alaska to ethnogenesis and caribou.”
About the Author
Erica Hill is an archaeologist working on the prehistory of the Bering Sea region. She teaches at the University of Alaska Southeast in Juneau. Ernest S. “Tiger” Burch Jr. was a social anthropologist specializing in the early historical social organization of Eskimo peoples. He was an advisor to the US Arctic Research Commission and a member of the National Academy of Sciences’ National Research Council.
Table of Contents
Foreword by William F. Fitzhugh
Introduction by Erica Hill
1 From Skeptic to Believer: The Making of an Oral Historian, 1991
2 Eskimo Worldview, 1988
3 The Nonempirical Environment of the Arctic Alaskan Eskimos, 1971
4 The Iñupiat and the Christianization of Arctic Alaska, 1994
5 Modes of Exchange in North-west Alaska, 1988
6 Marriage and Divorce among the North Alaskan Eskimos, 1970
7 The Ethnogenesis of Kuuvaum Kaŋiaġmiut, 1990
by Ernest S. Burch, Jr., Eliza Jones, Hannah P. Loon, and Lawrence D. Kaplan
8 The History of Caribou Herds of North Alaska, 1850-2000, 2012
9 Rationality and Resource Use among Hunters: Some Eskimo Examples, 2007
Index