Accessibility Tools

An Aleutian Ethnography

by Lucien M. Turner, and Raymond L. Hudson (editor)

Paperback Price $29.95

Buy Now


"In all, this is a welcome addition to the literature on the Aleutian Islands. It presents a variety of new information and is easy to read. It offers a personal glimpse of life in the islands in the late nineteenth century and almost uniquely lets the voices of the Aleut people peek through in a way most ethnographies, especially from that era, do not."
—Debra G. Corbett, Alaska Journal of Anthropology

 

Lucien Turner's ethnographical work in the Aleutians remains unique and is set apart from the work of Dall, Elliott, and Petroff for several reasons. He alone made a concerted effort to learn Aleut and therefore could, more or less, communicate directly with the local population. Turner spent more continuous time in the Aleutians than other researchers, living for extended periods in three primary Aleut communities in the eastern, central, and western islands. He interacted with Aleuts on a day-to-day basis, shared some of their difficulties, and felt at home enough to joke with them. And finally, the collections he made in the Aleutians surpass all others from the late 19th century. The items he shipped from the chain provide researchers and contemporary Unangan glimpses into an irrecoverable past. It is this collection that forms Turner's primary legacy.

Turner's extant ethnographic notes are directly tied to his collections of natural history.Continuing analysis of this collection will reveal new aspects about their culture. A careful reading of his notes will shed light on both the Aleuts near the end of the 19th century and on those outsiders who lived among them. It is our misfortune that neither he nor anyone else ever wrote a cohesive and comprehensive ethnography that might have done for the later half of the 19th century what Veniaminov's Notes on the Islands of the Unalashka District did for the earlier years of that century. Any hope of retrieving an ethnography for that earlier period has gone. We are left, as Turner himself wrote, with only glimpses of "people whose characters are set before us by their works and not by their words."

Lucien Turner was a pioneering nineteenth-century ethnographer.

Ray Hudson lived in the Aleutian Islands from 1964 to 1992, and there his heart remains even though he now lives in Middlebury, Vermont, with his wife Shelly. In Vermont, Hudson continues to write on topics related to the islands. Raised in Yakima, Washington, and a graduate of the University of Washington, Hudson studied woodblock printing with Lu Fang at the Zhejiang Fine Arts Academy, Hangzhou. He is the recipient of the National Education Association's Leo Reano Award for his work with First Americans. In 1990, he received the Governor's Award for the Arts from the Alaska State Council on the Arts. Ray Hudson lived in the Aleutian Islands from 1964 to 1992, and there his heart remains even though he now lives in Middlebury, Vermont, with his wife Shelly. In Vermont, Hudson continues to write on topics related to the islands. Raised in Yakima, Washington, and a graduate of the University of Washington, Hudson studied woodblock printing with Lu Fang at the Zhejiang Fine Arts Academy, Hangzhou. He is the recipient of the National Education Association's Leo Reano Award for his work with First Americans. In 1990, he received the Governor's Award for the Arts from the Alaska State Council on the Arts.

University of Alaska Press Logo

Details

  • Paperback Price: $29.95
  • Paperback ISBN: 978-1-60223-039-2
  • Publication Month: February
  • Publication Year: 2008
  • Pages: 256
  • Illustrations: 50
  • Discount Type: Trade
  • Author: by Lucien M. Turner, and Raymond L. Hudson (editor)
  • ECommerce Code: 9781602230286

Related Titles

Browse Related Titles Tagged Under:

University Press of Colorado University of Alaska Press Utah State University Press University of Wyoming Press