Tengautuli Atkuk / The Flying Parka: The Meaning and Making of Parkas in Southwest Alaska

Arts & Photography

Fienup-Riordan, Ann

Meade, Marie

Rearden, Alice

History & Criticism

University of Washington Press

Freeze Frame takes a penetrating, often humorous, look at how Eskimos have been portrayed in nearly a century of film, from the pioneering documentaries of missionaries and Arctic explorers to Eskimo Pie commercials of the 1990s. Some of these works are serious attempts to depict a culture; others are unabashed entertainment, featuring papier mache igloos and zebra-skin parkas. Even filmmakers who sought authenticity were likely to build igloos in villages that had never seen one, and to hire nonnative actors to portray the Eskimo principals. The representation of a culture in film is a complex interplay of portrayal and reaction. Ann Fienup-Riordan explores the issues of authenticity and power that are central to the current debate over film portrayals of indigenous peoples. She describes the work done by native broadcasters and filmmakers - beginning with Alaska Eskimo actor Ray Mala's pre-World War II screenplay about Eskimo life - as well as the participation by native actors in mainstream films. Alaska Eskimos today are engaged in presenting the complexity and uniqueness of the world in which they live. In the hands of Inupiaq and Yup'ik artists and technicians, film and video are becoming simultaneously a venue for participation in the larger world and a tool of empowerment. Freeze Frame includes a complete filmography of feature, documentary, and ethnographic films, and is generously illustrated with still photographs and lobby cards from Hollywood films featuring Eskimos, as well as more recent photographs showing filming in Alaska.

Freeze Frame: Alaska Eskimos in the Movies

Humor & Entertainment

Movies

Univ of Washington Pr

Published in conjunction with an exhibit organized by the Anchorage Museum of History and Art and the Coastal-Yukon Mayors' Association. For the Yup'ik of southwestern Alaska, masked dancing has long been a focal point of ceremonial activity. Two hundred color plates and 100 b&amp;w photo illustrate historical and contemporary masks and dance ornaments and the people who make and use them. Chapters arranged geographically describe the world's major Yup'ik mask collectors and collections and the circumstances that make each unique. Voices of Yup'ik elders are present throughout the text, recounting stories, describing traditional Yup'ik life, and responding to particular masks. The price is $60 until January 1, 1997. 9x12" Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.

The Living Tradition of Yup'Ik Masks: Agayuliyararput : Our Way of Making Prayer

Reference

Freeze Frame takes a penetrating, often humorous, look at how Eskimos have been portrayed in nearly a century of film, from the pioneering documentaries of missionaries and Arctic explorers to Eskimo Pie commercials of the 1990s. Some of these works are serious attempts to depict a culture; others are unabashed entertainment, featuring papier-maché igloos and zebra-skin parkas. Even filmmakers who sought authenticity were likely to build igloos in villages that had never seen one and to hire non-Native actors to portray the Eskimo principals.The groundbreaking film Nanook of the North, released in 1922, solidified the popular impression of Eskimos and set the precedent for dozens of movies to follow. Freeze Frame documents the ideas that motivate and lie behind this abundant generation of images. The first study to look at the popular image of Alaska Eskimos, it makes an important contribution to our understanding of Native American stereotyping.
Anthropologist Ann Fienup-Riordan is the author of numerous books on the peoples of Alaska, including The Living Tradition of Yupik Masks: Agayuliyararput, Our Way of Making Prayer.

Norwegian adventurer Johan Adrian Jacobsen collected more than two thousand Yup'ik objects during his travels in Alaska in 1882 and 1883. Now housed in the Berlin Ethnological Museum, the Jacobsen collection remains one of the earliest and largest from Alaska’s Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta. When Ann Fienup-Riordan first saw the collection being unpacked in 1994, she was "stunned to find this extraordinary Yup'ik collection, with accession records still handwritten in old German script and almost completely unpublished." In 1997, Fienup-Riordan and Yup'ik translator Marie Meade returned to Berlin with a delegation of Yup'ik elders to study Jacobsen's collection. Yup'ik Elders at the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin recounts fourteen days during which the elders examined objects from the collection and described how they were made and used. Their descriptions, based on oral history and firsthand experience with similar objects, are imparted through songs, stories, and personal narratives. Woven together with Jacobsen’s writings, technical descriptions, and accession information, the narrative presents a vast array of knowledge. For example, Jacobsen had observed that large grass mats were woven for use as sleeping mats in houses and were often taken on journeys; a Yup’ik elder demonstrates how the grass mat would be folded and fitted into a kayak. Another elder describes a dance in which fox masks similar to those in the collection were used. Yet another elder, inspired by a carving of a paalraayak, launches into a story about the creature, which was sometimes encountered in the mountains near her home. An introductory essay describes Jacobsen's life and trip to Alaska and the region as it was then and as it is today. Informal snapshots show the elders interacting with the objects and miming their use, while Barry McWayne's large color photographs make possible the "visual repatriation" of this extraordinary collection. Yup'ik Elders at the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin also includes extensive notes summarizing accession information, a glossary of Yup'ik object names, and a detailed index. This is the first time a major Arctic collection has been presented from the Natives' point of view, an example of "reverse fieldwork" that can enrich understanding of Native American collections the world over.

Yup'ik Elders at the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin: Fieldwork Turned on Its Head

Collections, Catalogs & Exhibitions

Honorable mention for the Victor Turner Award for Ethnographic Writing from the Society for Humanistic Anthropology Honorable mention for the 2008 William Mills Prize for Non-Fiction Polar Books Survival in the harsh subarctic environment requires great resourcefulness and ingenuity. The Yup'ik people of southwest Alaska meet the challenge by using traditional technology and by following a philosophy that recognizes the personhood of all living things and the environment. Their use of nature's resources is a testament to the mutual respect and generosity that exists between humans and the animals, plants, land, and sea that sustain them. Wastefulness being disrespectful, Yup'ik elders made use of every last scrap from hunts and harvests: seal guts became warm, waterproof, and breathable parkas; the skins of fish were fashioned into waterproof mittens, while their heads and entrails were stored in naturally refrigerated pits as insurance against future famine. Dried grasses became anything from insulating socks to bedding to sled rope, or even goggles to protect against snow blindness; rancid seal oil mixed with tundra moss became "Yup'ik epoxy" for caulking and gluing; and driving snow was manipulated to provide a defense against its own dangers. Although tools have changed, Yup'ik people today continue to engage in many traditional harvesting activities, using these new means to accomplish distinctly Yup'ik ends. In Yuungnaqpiallerput / The Way We Genuinely Live, Yup'ik elders examine tools and daily-use items, explaining how they were made and for what purpose. Just as Western science relies on the testing of hypotheses, Yup'ik science developed its technologies through systematic trial and error, yielding ingenious and effective solutions to life's challenges. The elders also delve beyond the practical aspects of these artifacts to elucidate the ways in which their creation and use are part of Yup'ik cosmology and traditional spiritual values. Every item carries special significance, and the actions associated with each should be undertaken with awareness and deliberation, for nothing goes unnoticed by the consciousness of the surrounding universe. Ann Fienup-Riordan explores these manifestations of Yup'ik technology by following the seasonal cycle of harvests and ceremonial renewals, a journey revealing the beauty of these artifacts that extends beyond the aesthetic surface to connect with the living pulse of the universe.

Yuungnaqpiallerput / The Way We Genuinely Live: Masterworks of Yup'ik Science and Survival

History

Americas

Ellavut / Our Yup'ik World and Weather is a result of nearly ten years of gatherings among Yup'ik elders to document the qanruyutet (words of wisdom) that guide their interactions with the environment. In an effort to educate their own young people as well as people outside the community, the elders discussed the practical skills necessary to live in a harsh environment, stressing the ethical and philosophical aspects of the Yup'ik relationship with the land, ocean, snow, weather, and environmental change, among many other elements of the natural world. At every gathering, at least one elder repeated the Yup'ik adage, "The world is changing following its people." The Yup'ik see environmental change as directly related not just to human actions, such as overfishing or burning fossil fuels, but also to human interactions. The elders encourage young people to learn traditional rules and proper behavior--to act with compassion and restraint--in order to reverse negative impacts on their world. They speak not only to educate young people on the practical skills they need to survive but also on the knowing and responsive nature of the world in which they live.

Ellavut / Our Yup'ik World and Weather: Continuity and Change on the Bering Sea Coast

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

The Yup'ik people of southwestern Alaska were some of the last Arctic peoples to come into contact with non-Natives, and as a result, Yup’ik language and many traditions remain vital into the twenty-first century. Wise Words of the Yup’ik People documents their qanruyutet (adages, words of wisdom, and oral instructions) regarding the proper living of life. Throughout history, these distinctive wise words have guided the relations between men and women, parents and children, siblings and cousins, fellow villagers, visitors, strangers, and even with non-Natives. Yup’ik elders have chosen to share these wise words during Calista Elders Council gatherings and conventions since 1998 for instrumental reasons—because of their continued relevance and power to change lives. The Calista Elders Council, which represents some thirteen hundred Yup'ik elders, recently spearheaded efforts at cultural revitalization through gatherings with younger community members. In describing the content of traditional instruction as well as its central motivation—“We talk to you because we love you”—elders not only educate Yup’ik young people but also open a window into their view of the world for all of us. Wise Words of the Yup’ik People will serve as a valuable resource for the Yup'ik people and those who wish to learn more about their lives and values.

Wise Words of the Yup'ik People: We Talk to You because We Love You

University Of Nebraska Press

The Yup'ik people of southwestern Alaska were some of the last Arctic peoples to come into contact with non-Natives, and as a result, Yup’ik language and many traditions remain vital into the twenty-first century. Wise Words of the Yup’ik People documents their qanruyutet (adages, words of wisdom, and oral instructions) regarding the proper living of life. Throughout history, these distinctive wise words have guided the relations between men and women, parents and children, siblings and cousins, fellow villagers, visitors, strangers, and even with non-Natives. Yup’ik elders have chosen to share these wise words during Calista Elders Council gatherings and conventions since 1998 for instrumental reasons—because of their continued relevance and power to change lives. The Calista Elders Council, which represents some thirteen hundred Yup'ik elders, recently spearheaded efforts at cultural revitalization through gatherings with younger community members. In describing the content of traditional instruction as well as its central motivation—“We talk to you because we love you”—elders not only educate Yup’ik young people but also open a window into their view of the world for all of us. Wise Words of the Yup’ik People will serve as a valuable resource for the Yup'ik people and those who wish to learn more about their lives and values.

Bison Books

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Fienup-Riordan, Ann. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Fienup-Riordan, Ann

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Fienup-Riordan, Ann. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Tengautuli Atkuk / The Flying Parka: The Meaning and Making of Parkas in Southwest Alaska

Freeze Frame: Alaska Eskimos in the Movies

The Living Tradition of Yup'Ik Masks: Agayuliyararput : Our Way of Making Prayer

Freeze Frame: Alaska Eskimos in the Movies

Yup'ik Elders at the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin: Fieldwork Turned on Its Head

Yuungnaqpiallerput / The Way We Genuinely Live: Masterworks of Yup'ik Science and Survival

Ellavut / Our Yup'ik World and Weather: Continuity and Change on the Bering Sea Coast

Ellavut / Our Yup'ik World and Weather: Continuity and Change on the Bering Sea Coast

Wise Words of the Yup'ik People: We Talk to You because We Love You

Wise Words of the Yup'ik People: We Talk to You because We Love You