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The Inupiaq Eskimo Nations of Northwest Alaska is the first of at least three volumes by Ernest S. Burch, Jr. on Northwest Alaskan Inupiaq culture, the result of more than three decades of research in that region. In this book. Burch presents data on the individual "Nations" that inhabited the region before the twentieth century. Later publications will describe the internal workings of Northwest Alaskan groups and their external relationships. Burch sets forth two goals in producing this valuable addition to Arctic anthropology. The first is to present a comprehensive view of the subsistence and settlement of 11 Inupiaq Nations that inhabited Northwest Alaska before the end of the 19th century. The second is to use those data to support his cellular(read societal or tribal) model of Inupiaq social organization. With respect to the former, he does an outstanding job, giving the reader in-depth views of seasonal patterns of movements and resource use. With respect to the latter, his data are convincing but suggest the need to at least refine the cellular model to deal with the apparent conflict between the concept of territorially defined societies and high levels of extrasocietal relations.
This attractively bound book contains easily interpretable maps and charts along with a number of very interesting photographs and illustrations, some previously unpublished. It is divided into 14 chapters. Chapter 1, Introduction, presents the reasons for the study, some limited background on culture, history, and environment, and the organization for the remainder of the text. Burch's careful discussion of his "bracketing" methodology provides the reader with ample reasons to accept his statements about the characteristics of different societies.
The next 12 chapters describe in depth the subsistence and settlement of eleven societies and one residual area, the "Headwaters District." Burch follows the same format for each society. First, he delineates the territorial boundaries for the society and describes previous historical and anthropological accounts for the area. He then presents the biogeographical setting in which the society existed, especially in relation to subsistence resources, followed by information on the origins of the society (minimal in most cases) and a well-reasoned estimate of population. He recounts the annual cycle of society members, beginning at breakup and following their movements through the remainder of the year....