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The Last Kings of Thule: With the Polar Eskimos, As They Face Their Destiny
Author(s): Jean Malaurie
Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 998.200497
EAN: 9780226502847
ISBN: 0226502848
Label: Univ of Chicago Pr (T)
Language(s): English Original LanguageEnglish UnknownEnglish Published
List Price: $17.50
Manufacturer: Univ of Chicago Pr (T)
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 489
Product Group: Book
Address: 1985-10
Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr (T)
Studio: Univ of Chicago Pr (T)
Customer Reviews Average rating - 4.5
Rating - 5 Date: 2002-04-12
Content: Although the primary objectives of Malaurie's work were cartographic and geological in nature, he became, by default, a primary voice in describing the Thule culture by recounting his personal experiences and lifestyle during the expedition. Surely, ethnography can never be a truly objective effort, but Malaurie seems to appreciate this and relates cultural information through an admitted cultural filter. Rather than stifle his own reactions in his writing, Malaurie has adequately described, with sensitivity, his personal paradigm shift as well as that of the culture he is inevitably impacting by his very presence. It is inevitable that in any ethnographic description it will be found that something is amiss, lacking, due to the inevitable loss of information that occurs whenever information is transferred across cultural and linguistic lines. This work is one of the few that I have read that treats cultural interaction and exchange with dignity on behalf of the observed and the one observing. And, after all, these lines of distinction regarding observer and the observed shift and change radically during such a period of cultural interaction. Malaurie wonderfully describes this process.
Summary: Accidental ethnographer
Rating - 4 Date: 1998-01-26
Content: Fantastic background to the area both from the antropological and geographical points of veiw. However, when I visited Qaanaaq in 1990 and mentioned this book I found that the local inhabitants were not impressed by their protrayal. Particularly concerning the more private aspects of their society.
Summary: Fascinating, but Qaanaaq inhabitants not so impressed.
Rating - 4 Date: 1997-12-31
Content: Insightful and introspective account of the author's extended study of the Polar Innuit of the Thule district in Greenland. The most recent edition includes the author's bittersweet reflections many years later on modern incursions that threaten the survival of this indigenous culture.
Summary: Worth the effort to find it.
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