Eskimo Architecture: Dwelling and Structure in the Early Historic Period - Hardcover

Reinhardt, Gregory

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1889963224 ISBN 13: 9781889963228

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 2003

Synopsis

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.

About this title

About the Author

Molly Lee is curator of ethnology at the University of Alaska Museum and professor of anthropology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Gregory A. Reinhardt is professor and chair of the Department of Anthropology, and director of archeology for the Archeology and Forensics Laboratory at the University of Indianapolis.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 2003
• ISBN 10: 1889963224
• ISBN 13: 9781889963228
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 216