Early Inuit Studies: Themes and Transitions, 1850s-1980s

by Igor Krupnik (Editor)

Overview

This collection of 15 chronologically arranged papers is the first-ever definitive treatment of the intellectual history of Eskimology—known today as Inuit studies—the field of anthropology preoccupied with the origins, history, and culture of the Inuit people. The authors trace the growth and change in scholarship on the Inuit (Eskimo) people from the 1850s to the 1980s via profiles of scientists who made major contributions to the field and via intellectual transitions (themes) that furthered such developments. It presents an engaging story of advancement in social research, including anthropology, archaeology, human geography, and linguistics, in the polar regions. Essays written by American, Canadian, Danish, French, and Russian contributors provide for particular trajectories of research and academic tradition in the Arctic for over 130 years.

Most of the essays originated as papers presented at the 18th Inuit Studies Conference hosted by the Smithsonian Institution in October 2012. Yet the book is an organized and integrated narrative; its binding theme is the diffusion of knowledge across disciplinary and national boundaries. A critical element to the story is the changing status of the Inuit people within each of the Arctic nations and the developments in national ideologies of governance, identity, and treatment of indigenous populations. This multifaceted work will resonate with a broad audience of social scientists, students of science history, humanities, and minority studies, and readers of all stripes interested in the Arctic and its peoples.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781935623717
Publisher:	Smithsonian Institution Press
Publication date:	02/16/2016
Sold by:	Penguin Random House Publisher Services
Format:	eBook
Pages:	592
File size:	21 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Igor Krupnik is curator of Arctic and Northern Ethnology collections at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C. His areas of expertise include modern cultures, ecological knowledge, and cultural heritage of Arctic people, primarily in Alaska and Siberia; culture change and contact history; human ecology; history of Arctic science and Arctic indigenous studies; and the impact of modern climate change on Arctic residents. He served on the Joint Committee for the International Polar Year 2007–2008 and was instrumental in bringing sociocultural and humanities issues, ecological knowledge, and environmental observations of northern residents to its program. He has published and edited several books and collections and numerous papers, including three volumes on indigenous observations of Arctic environmental change and a recent study of the contact history of the Yupik Eskimo, Yupik Transitions: Change and Survival at Bering Strait, 1900–1960 (with Michael Chlenov).

Table of Contents

List of Figures vii

List of Tables xi

Foreword xiii

From 1959 to 2014: Personal Observations on 55 Years of Change Nelson H. H. Graburn xiii

Editor's Preface xv

1 From Boas to Burch: Eskimology Transitions Igor Krupnik 1

Part I Early Science About the Inuit

2 Between Science and Politics: The Eskimology of Hinrich Johannes Rink Ole Marduardt 35

3 Samuel Petrus Kleinschmidt, 1814-1886: The Originator of Scientific Inuit Grammar Jerrold M. Sadock 55

4 Franz Boas and the Inuit: Beyond the Baffin Island Years 73

One Field Season and 50-Year Career: Franz Boas and Early Eskimology Igor Krupnik 73

Franz Boas's English Publications on Inuit and the Arctic (1884-1926): A Bibliographical Survey Ludger Müller-Wille 83

Collecting at a Distance: The Boas-Mutch-Comer Collaboration Kenn Harper 89

5 Knud Rasmussen: Explorer, Ethnographer, and Narrator Kirsten Hastrup 111

Part II Concepts and Methods in Early Eskimology

6 The Concepts of Paleo- and Neo-Eskimo Cultures: The Danish Tradition from H. P. Steensby and His Students, G. Matt, K. Birket-Smith, and Th. Mathiassen, to Their Successors, H. Larsen and J. Meldgaard Hans Christian Gulløv 139

7 Solving the "Eskimo Problem": Henry Bascom Collins and Arctic Archaeology William W. Fitzhugh 165

8 The Bogoras Project and Yupik Eskimo Linguistics in Russia Nikolai Vakhtin 193

9 Frederica de Laguna: The Last Arctic Universalist and Bridge to the Future William W. Fitzhugh 219

Part III Eskimology: Maturity and Changeover

10 The Formation of Danish Eskimology: From William Thalbitzer to the Greenland Home Rule Era Søren Thuesen 245

11 Albert C. Heinrich and the Post-World War II Trajectory of (Alaskan) Inuit Kinship Studies Peter P. Schweitzer 265

12 A Retrospective on the Development and Practice of Alaska Eskimo Ethnohistory, 1940-1985 Kenneth L. Pratt 289

13 The Legacy of Charles Campbell Hughes: Studying the Sivuqaghmiit (St. Lawrence Island Yupik) in a Time of Change Carol Zane Jolles 322

14 The Power of Maps: Inuit Land Use and Occupancy Project (1976) as a Landmark in Inuit Land Use Studies Claudio Aporta 354

15 Closing the (Arctic) Circle: Ernest S. Burch and the "Peoples of the Arctic" Map Igor Krupnik 374

Coda: A Reminiscence of Transition, 1992-2012 Béatrice Collignon 410

Contributors 417

Index 423