Always Getting Ready / Upterrlainarluta: Yup'ik Eskimo Subsistence in Southwest Alaska

by James H. Barker and Robin Barker

Book Overview

In this remarkable book, James Barker follows the Yup'ik Eskimo of Alaska's Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta through their year's cycle, beginning with spring seal hunting and ending with the winter dancing that celebrates life on the land. Striking black-and-white photographs and accompanying text capture a people alert to every opportunity. Whether they are waiting for the weather to clear for hunting or preparing testimony on the effects of oil exploration,...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0295972351
• ISBN13: 9780295972350
• Release Date: April 1993
• Publisher: University of Washington Press
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 10.3" x 9.9"

Customer Reviews

An Amazing overview of the Yup'Ik Culture

One of the best books and pictures I have yet to read about the life and culture of the Yup'IK people! I am fortunate to live in Bethel and found the book to be a wonderful "snapshot" of a year in the life of substistance living and survival! They are a strong and amazing group of people!

Amazing Work

A beautiful and stunning documentation of the Yup'ik people and their subsistence practices. Awesome photographic work!

Photojournalist's Account of the Real People

Having lived many years among the Yupik in Southwestern Alaska, James Barker does an exceptional job of accurately portraying the cyclical nature of life in rural Alaska. The changing of the seasons and how they affect the gathering and subsistence activities of the Yupik comes across clearly in the photographs. This book is important in the documentation of a way of life that is rapidly being subversed by the global economy which involves oil, stocks, and money.

stunning

James Barker tells a story in pictures and words so richly that either of those media may have sufficed. The photos are powerful -- I was awestruct by the originals when I had the chance to see them in an Alaskan art museum --and they tell a story of an ancient culture in transition. The words are mostly the old stories and traditions that are still being passed down to the next generation.