Description
Book SynopsisJohan Adrian Jacobsen collected Yup'ik objects during his travels in Alaska. Ann Fienup-Riordan saw the collection being unpacked in 1994, and in 1997 she and Marie Meade returned to Berlin with Yup'ik elders. This book recounts fourteen days during which the elders examined objects from the collection and described how they were made and used.
Trade Review"Taken together, Yup'ik Elders at the Ethnologisches Museum and Things of Our Ancestors are extremely well done, both as products and as examples of a successful collaborative research effort. For those with an interest in northern indigenous communities and cultures the two books are moving accounts of a research partnership that joined indigenous knowledge bearers with academic and museum professionals, the result of which was to place indigenous knowledge at the center rather than at the periphery of the research enterprise and the resulting volumes."
* Museum Anthropology Review *
"A handsomely illustrated, very readable volume."
* H-Net (Am-Indian) *
"A remarkable story and one of 'firsts'. . . . [a] handsomely illustrated, very readable 337-page volume."
* H-AmIndian *
"Every so often a book is published that is meticulously researched, well written, beautifully photographed and illuminating throughout the totality of its contribution. This is just such a book."
* Seattle Art Museum Native Arts of the Americas and Oceania Council *
"This is a remarkable story and one of 'firsts:' the first delegation of native people (eight in all) to a European museum to systematically examine an entire collection of objects from their culture; the first critical biography of the collector, Adrian Jacobsen; and, the first systematic study of his Yup'ik collection. It is all put together in this handsomely illustrated, very readable volume."
* H-Net Reviews *
Table of ContentsForeword by Peter Bolz
Preface: Unlikely Partnerships
Acknowledgments
The Gift: Johan Adrian Jacobsen Brings Treasures from Alaska
The Gift-Givers: Turn-of-the-Century Yupiit and Their Descendants
The Return Gift: The Yup'ik Delegation
First Day: Tools for Ocean Hunting
Second Day: Bows and Arrows for Hunting and War
Third Day: More Tools for Hunting and Fishing
Fourth Day: Wooden and Clay Containers
Fifth Day: Containers of Skin, Gut, and Grass
Sixth Day: Tools for Working on Objects and Materials
Seventh Day: Tools of Daily Life
Eighth Day: Personal Adornment and Human Figures
Ninth Day: Women's Sewing Tools and Belts and Men's Hats
Tenth Day: Ceremonial Regalia
Eleventh Day: Dancing with Masks
Twelfth Day: Toys and Clothing
Thirteenth Day: Heavenly and Ceremonial Cycles
Fourteenth Day and Return to Alaska
Visual Repatriation
Appendix: Additional Masks
Notes
Glossary
References
Index
