The architecture of Eskimo peoples represents a diversified and successful means of coping with one of the most severe climates humankind can inhabit.... The popular image of the igloo is but one of the many structures examined by experts Lee and Reinhardt in the first book-length and arctic-wide study of this remarkable subject.Lavishly illustrated with historic and contemporary photographs, drawings, and maps, this volume includes a comprehensive survey of the historical literature on Eskimo architecture around the circumpolar north. Lee and Reinhardt also draw on their own extensive fieldwork to present an extended comparative analysis of the geographic, climatic, and ethnographic aspects of material from four Arctic subregions: Greenland; the Central Arctic; the Northwest Arctic and Bering Strait; and Southwest Alaska, the Bering Sea, Siberia, and the Gulf of Alaska. In an innovative consideration of both material and cultural aspects of dwelling, they and the peoples they describe redefine the very meaning of "architecture."While scholars of the circumpolar north will welcome the meticulous research of this benchmark study, its clear and fluent prose and abundant illustrations make an engrossing read for specialists and nonspecialists alike.

"A wonderful gift to all Alaskans and to thinking people everywhere." --Alaska... History Eskimo Essays introduces the reader to important aspects of the ideology and practice of the Yup'ik Eskimos of western Alaska, past and present.The essays point the way toward a fuller recognition of how Yup'ik Eskimos differ from the popular Western image of the Eskimo that was born largely without reference to Yup'ik reality. By describing the reality of Yup'ik life, "Eskimo Essays" extends our understanding of Eskimos in general and Yup'ik Eskimos in particular. Ann Fienup-Riordan argues that Western observers have simultaneously naturalized Eskimos as paragons of simplicity and virtue and historicized them as victims of Western imperialism. This process has often ignored Eskimo concepts of society, history, and personhood. An original assumption of similarity to Western society has profoundly affected the current Euro-American view of Eskimo history and action. Non-natives have taken an idealized Western individual, dressed that person up in polar garb, and then assumed they understood the garment's maker. The result is a presentation of Eskimo society that often tells us more about the meaning we seek in our own. Moreover, modern Eskimos have risen to the challenge and to some extent become what we have made them. Bridging the gap between informed scholarship and popular concepts, Fienup-Riordan provides a compelling and fresh presentation of Yup'ik life--cosmology, the missionary experience, attitudes toward conservation, Eskimo art, the legal system, warfare, and ceremonies. Ann Fienup-Riordan is an anthropologist who has published widely on the Eskimos of Alaska. She was named Historian of the Year by the Alaska Historical Society in 1991, and in 2000, in recognition of "Hunting Tradition in a Changing World."