UA Press and UA Museum Publish Eskimo Architecture

Submitted by Kerynn Fisher
Phone: (907) 474-6941
02/04/03

The University of Alaska Press in partnership with the University of Alaska Museum has published Eskimo Architecture: Dwelling and Structure in the Early Historic Period by Molly Lee and Gregory A. Reinhardt.

Lavishly illustrated with historical and contemporary photographs, drawings, and maps, Eskimo Architecture takes readers on a tour across the arctic, examining the structures built to withstand one of the most severe environments inhabited by humans. The stereotypical image of arctic housing, the igloo, is only one of the structures the authors discuss. Also included are seasonal winter and summer dwellings, transitional housing used in spring and fall, and ceremonial structures, all built using locally available materials such as whalebones, caribou antlers, narwhal tusks, and driftwood. The authors’ clear and fluent prose make this book an engrossing read for anyone interested in the incredible dwellings of arctic indigenous peoples.

The authors compare architecture across four Eskimo/Inuit subregions -- Greenland, the Central Arctic from Baffin Island to the Mackenzie Delta, the Northwest Arctic and Bering Strait, and Southwest Alaska and Eastern Siberia -- in the early years following Western contact, before the indigenous cultures were influenced by new building techniques and materials.

As Andrew Tooyak, Jr. writes in the foreword, "I have seen the house where my father was born, as I have seen the house where I was born. The difference between the two homes may represent just a millennia."

The idea for Eskimo Architecture grew out of a research project Lee conducted as a graduate student at the University of California, Berkeley in the mid-1980s. After collaborating on an article on Eskimo dwellings, Lee and Reinhardt realized they had more material than could be covered in just one article. They have now produced the first comprehensive survey of their topic in a beautiful, large-format, heavily illustrated edition. Examining a vast amount of historical literature and drawing on extensive fieldwork of their own, they focus on the design of the structures and also explore the influence of geography, climate, and culture on architecture.

Eskimo Architecture is available in hardback for $45 from the University of Alaska Press, the University of Alaska Museum Store, and bookstores (ISBN 1-889963-22-4, 232 pages, 8.5 x 11, dust jacket, over 170 black and white photos and illustrations on high-quality paper, maps, bibliography, index).

Molly Lee is Curator of Ethnology and History at the University of Alaska Museum and Professor of Anthropology at the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Gregory A. Reinhardt is Professor and Chair in the Department of Anthropology and Director of Archaeology for the Archeology and Forensics Laboratory at the University of Indianapolis.

The authors will present a free public lecture on Eskimo architecture at the UA Museum on Wednesday, March 26 at 7 p.m., followed by a book signing.

For more information, contact Jennifer Collier, Marketing Director, University of Alaska Press at (907) 474-6413 or Kerynn Fisher, Communications Coordinator, UA Museum, at (907) 474-6941.