As the first profound anthropological descriptions of that region, the publications of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition, undertaken in the first years of the 20th century, marked the beginning of a new era of research in Russia. Jochelson's work the Yukaghir and the Yukaghirized Tungus, for which he also draws on results of his earlier fieldwork in that area, was an important milestone for Russian and North American anthropology that provides to this day a unique contribution to thoroughly understanding the cultures of northeastern Siberia.
The book presents authentic texts in two Yukaghir languages, Tundra and Kolyma Yukaghir, an isolate group of languages spoken by few small communities in Siberia. The major goal of the book is to make primary Yukaghir data accessible for readers who have no previous knowledge of these languages. Each text is provided with a detailed morph-to-morph translation following thecurrent linguistic standards, as well as with idiomatic English translation. In addition, the book contains Yukaghir-English vocabularies for both Yukaghir languages, with cross-references to all text occurrences of each word, a set of comprehensive morphemic and grammatical indices to text corpora, and abrief overview of basic ethnographic and grammatical facts. The principles of text representation are described in a user's guide. The book will serve as a useful source of data for scholars of the Yukaghir languages and cultures, as well as for anyone interested in cross-linguistic or cross-cultural studies.
The Historical Dictionary of Yukaghir has two main purposes. First, it is intended as a relatively complete source of information on the lexicon of Yukaghir. Tundra and Kolyma Yukaghir are closely related, highly endangered languages spoken in the extreme North-East of Siberia. No modern comprehensive lexicographic description of these languages is available for the international linguistic community. The dictionary presents all known varieties of Yukaghir in comparative format. Some of the materials included come from published sources, others were obtained by the author through fieldwork and are published for the first time. The dictionary also contains examples of now extinct early forms of Yukaghir, which began to be recorded in the late 17th century. Second, the dictionary provides a first reconstruction of the common ancestor of all known Yukaghir varieties. The proto-Yukaghir stems are established based on internal reconstruction, comparison between various Yukaghir idioms, and external data. Although the dictionary does not attempt to provide etymologies for all Yukaghir words, it includes possible cognates of some Yukaghir stems from other languages, mainly Uralic and Altaic. Since Yukaghir forms are not only cited in their modern shape but are reconstructed, the dictionary will provide a foundation for future etymological work and contribute to investigating the genetic affiliation of Yukaghir, usually classified as isolated. The book will also be useful for linguists interested in the distant genetic relations between language families and the reconstruction of the ethnic and linguistic situation in prehistoric northern Asia.
Anthropologists Alexia Bloch and Laurel Kendall tell the story of their journey retracing the nineteenth-century Jesup North Pacific Expedition to the remote easternmost extension of Siberia and the northwest coast of North America.
Roman Jakobson's writings range over the entire field of general linguistics, as well as embracing Slavic linguistics and literature theory. Jakobson has had a tremenduous influence on the development of linguistic theory. He was a founder of and prime mover in the Prague Linguistic Circle. On the basis of the new structuralist concepts, he set forth bold theories of general linguistics and illustrated them with brilliant demonstrations based on Slavic and other languages. Taking a leading role in the elucidation of the structural linguistic field of phonology, Jakobson used these insights to develop new trends in historical phonology. Altogether, his linguistics appears to incorporate the technical design of modern theoretical concepts, but at the same time transcends purely formal modeling through its interdisciplinary focus upon historical and poetic matters. Jakobson was enormously successful in presenting innovative theoretical insights and relating them to possible practical applications. Specifically, his work on the general processes of language acquisition and loss, on child language and aphasia, opened up entirely new methods for linguists and doctors alike. The series Selected Writings represents the whole range of Roman Jakobson's field of research.
The first systematic comparative study of the defensive armor and fortifications of aboriginal Native Americans. From the Chickasaw fighting the Choctaw in the Southeast to the Sioux battling the Cheyenne on the Great Plains, warfare was endemic among the North American Indians when Europeans first arrived on this continent. An impressive array of offensive weaponry and battle tactics gave rise to an equally impressive range of defensive technology. Native Americans constructed very effective armor and shields using wood, bone, and leather. Their fortifications ranged from simple refuges to walled and moated stockades to multiple stockades linked in strategic defensive networks. In this book, David E. Jones offers the first systematic comparative study of the defensive armor and fortifications of aboriginal Native Americans. Drawing data from ethnohistorical accounts and archaeological evidence, he surveys the use of armor, shields, and fortifications both before European contact and during the historic period by American Indians from the Southeast to the Northwest Coast, from the Northeast Woodlands to the desert Southwest, and from the Sub-Arctic to the Great Plains. Jones also demonstrates the sociocultural factors that affected warfare and shaped the development of different types of armor and fortifications. Extensive eyewitness descriptions of warfare, armor, and fortifications, as well as photos and sketches of Indian armor from museum collections, add a visual dimension to the text. “This succinct book is well written and systematically organized and it will serve as the starting point for any future studies on the subject.” —Military History of the West “This book provides the first and only comprehensive survey of armor, shields, and fortifications [of American Indians]. . . . It has left me with a new appreciation for the sheer diversity of warfare, armor, and fortifications used by Native Americans, and it shatters stereotypes about the nature of aboriginal warfare.” —Wayne Van Horne, associate professor of Anthropology, Kennesaw State University
Inuit art, both ancient and contemporary, has inspired the interest of scholars, collectors and art lovers around the globe. This book examines Inuit art from prehistory to the present with special attention to methodology and aesthetics, exploring the ways in which it has been influenced by and has influenced non-Inuit artists and scholars. Part One gives the history of the main art-producing prehistoric traditions in the North American arctic, concentrating on the Dorset who once flourished in the Canadian region. It also demonstrates the influence of theories such as evolutionism, diffusionism, ethnographic comparison, and shamanism on the interpretation of prehistoric Inuit art. Part Two demonstrates the influence of such popular theories as nationalism, primitivism, modernism, and postmodernism on the aesthetics and representation of twentieth-century Canadian Inuit art. This discussion is supported by interviews conducted with Inuit artists. A final chapter shows the presence of Inuit art in the mainstream multi-cultural environment, with a discussion of its influence on Canadian artist Nicola Wojewoda. The work also presents various Inuit artists' reactions to Wojewoda's work.
Examines the use and avoidance of flesh foods, including beef, pork, chicken, and eggs, camel, dog, horse, and fish, from antiquity to the present day. Simoons finds that the recurrent theme of maintaining ritual purity, good health, and well-being underlies diet habits. He emphasizes that only a full range of factors can explain eating patterns, and stresses the interplay of religious, moral, hygienic, ecological, and economic factors in the context of human culture. From publisher description.
