UA Press releases new anthropology book

September 16, 2019

University Relations

The University of Alaska Press has released Akulmiut Neqait Fish and Food of the Akulmiut, by Ann Fienup-Riordan, Marie Meade and Alice Rearden.

For centuries, the Akulmiut people — a Yup’ik group — have been sustained by the annual movements of whitefish. It is a food that defines them. 

This bilingual book details the lives of the Akulmiut living in the lake country west of Bethel, Alaska, in the villages of Kasigluk, Nunapitchuk and Atmautluak. "Akulmiut Neqait" is based in conversations recorded with the people of these villages as they talk about their uniquely Yup’ik view of the world and how it has weathered periods of immense change. While many predicted that globalization would sound the death knoll for their distinctive traditions, these conversations show ways in which Akulmiut — like Indigenous people all over the planet — have sought to appropriate the world in their own terms. 

To this day, many Akulmiut view both their actions in the world as well as their interactions with each other as having a direct and profound effect on the fish that sustain them. Not only are fish viewed as responding to what people do and say, but the lakes and rivers fish inhabit are likewise viewed as sentient, with the ability to respond both positively and negatively to those who travel there. 

Ann Fienup-Riordan has lived and worked in Alaska since 1973. She has written and edited more than 20 books on Yup’ik history and oral traditions. Her most recent book with the University of Alaska Press, done in collaboration with Alice Rearden and Marie Meade, is "Qanemcit Amllertut/Many Stories to Tell: Tales of Humans and Animals from Southwest Alaska. "

Marie Meade is a fluent Yup’ik speaker and an expert translator. She teaches Yup’ik at the University of Alaska Anchorage. 

Alice Rearden is a fluent Yup’ik speaker and the primary translator and oral historian for Calista Education and Culture, Inc. 

For more information about this title and many more please visit www.uapress.alaska.edu or call 800-621-2736.