Yup'ik Bird Book
The Yupik Bird Book came about as an effort to compare the western approach to the
natural world with the traditional Yupik cultural view of nature. I chose the topic
of birds as a focus because it is something I am familiar with in the two traditions,
both linguistically and scientifically.
Birds reveal a great deal about a culture, both in regard to specific aspects of its
way of life as well as about its general world view. Among the Yupik people, many
bird species are important for their food value, where others have symbolic value
for religious purposes. Others, such as the gray jay, have peripheral values, which
transition somewhere between the practical and spiritual. One bird, the Raven, predominates
over all others in its status as the creator of all things and the "bearer of daylight"
to the world.
The names of these bird species quite often are indicative of their cultural significance.
In the western tradition, names also reveal a great deal about their approach to the
natural environment. On the one hand, with the western emphasis on scientific taxonomy,
it seems to be a very clinical approach, but when one digs deeper into the underlying
meaning of the Greek and Latin taxonomic terms, one finds a rich heritage akin to
that of Yupik tradition. It gets even better with the constellation of common names.
These represent English-speaking and other language traditions around the world and
validate the need for scientific names so scientists can refer to them cross-linguistically.
There are some interesting differences, however, in the naming of birds between the
Yupik and Western traditions. Where Yupik people often use onomatopoeia (naming an
animal according to the sound it makes) to describe bird species found in their region
of Alaska, this method was seldom employed by English speakers in bestowing common
names on birds. Onomatopeia is almost never used in scientific taxonomy. On the other
hand, the names of scientists or naturalists who first described many bird species
have been included in both the scientific and common English designations. This practice
was never used by Yupik people. It is interesting that this egoistic naming custom
is now out of vogue among western scientists, and many human names given to birds
in the past have been dropped in favor of more generic terms.
In hopes of making this book useful to teachers and students in either a science or
Yupik language and culture class, I am including some possible student activities
below.
Possible Student Activities
- Choose your favorite bird and draw a picture of it, labeling all of the parts. (Any good bird book includes a generic drawing of a bird, including its labels, in the front of the book.)
- As a class project, bring a game bird to school (from your freezer) and dissect it. As you dissect it, draw the parts of the bird's entrails and label them.
- Describe your favorite bird completely, using the following criteria: Names, general description, voice, feeding habits, nesting habits, similar species, and range. Use three sources, including the Internet.
- Using the same bird, ask family members for the Yupik name(s) and the possible significance of the name(s). The Yupik Language Dictionary is a good source to search for the significance of names, although you will have to keep an open mind in this regard.
- Ask a family member for a Yupik legend and/or story about your favorite bird. Type it up and do a hand drawing, illustrating the story line.
- Repeat numbers 3, 4 and 5 as many times as appropriate for classroom purposes.
- Present your findings to the class verbally, using a large-scale drawing to illustrate the birds. This should include retelling the legends or stories to the class.
- Do a finished draft of your findings, legends/stories, and hand illustrations, then collate them in book format and publish, using school copying and binding equipment. Distribute to students, village contributors, other village schools and state libraries.