Never in Anger: Portrait of an Eskimo Family

by Jean L. Briggs

Book Overview

In the summer of 1963, anthropologist Jean Briggs journeyed to the Canadian Northwest Territories (now Nunavut) to begin a seventeen-month field study of the Utku, a small group of Inuit First Nations people who live at the mouth of the Back River, northwest of Hudson Bay. Living with a family as their "adopted" daughter--sharing their iglu during the winter and pitching her tent next to theirs in the summer--Briggs observed the emotional...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0674608283
• ISBN13: 9780674608283
• Release Date: January 1971
• Publisher: Harvard University Press
• Length: 408 Pages
• Weight: 1.25 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.7" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

Touching first hand account

Never In Anger was an assigned book for my first year anthropology class at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Jean Briggs' alma mater. This ethnography opened my eyes to the wonderful field of cultural anthropology. Jean's honesty concerning her observations of her adopted family made the story real for me, and would for anyone. Never In Anger is a wonderful study of a culture that highly prizes emotional restraint and family ties. By reading this book, one is forced to draw parallels to today's Western Societial values. Highly recommended!

You try living on the edge of survival in an alien culture..

It's an engaging first-hand account from an anthropologist who went to live with an Inuit family. She gives a very candid account of her own difficulties in adapting to their culture.