PR (Wolf 2020): 056 - Boundaries and Passages: Rule and Ritual in Yup’ik Eskimo Oral Tradition (ABSTRACT)

This book brings together a complete a record of traditional Yup’ik rule and ritual as possible in the late twentieth century. I have tried to highlight recurrent themes, meanings, and metaphors to convey what is unique to the Yup’ik view of the world. The cosmology and ritual cycle of the Yup’ik people are much more sophisticated than most people ever imagined, and I have document that complexity and creativity the best I know how. Boundaries and Passages addresses the organization of ethnographic detail by the anthropologist and the place of that detail in the lives of the people the anthropologist represents.

Key words: Yup’ik, rules and rituals, western Alaska, wolf