Boundaries and passages : rule and ritual in Yup'ik Eskimo oral tradition /

There is little doubt that metaphor is a powerful tool, a method of educating that all cultures have found as useful as it is entertaining. Boundaries and Passages is an excellent narrative of the oral traditions of the Yup'ik Eskimos, who use metaphor to see and justify rules, boundaries, and passages. In short, their total concept of daily life is shaped by their cosmology and is explained through metaphor. Author of five previous works on the Eskimo, Fienup-Riordan skillfully recounts various tales (with notations on differing native interpretations), weaving a verbal tapestry that illustrates the true value of native life. Her discussion of how Christian missionaries drastically altered their lives is straightforward, but emphasizes the continuing native penchant for amalgamation of opposing philosophies. Often she devotes several pages to a complete accounting of a story, related by a native, to thoroughly discuss its impact and its relationship to observed phenomena. The book is a definitive discussion, not one that can be skimmed lightly. In that context, it is an excellent source book and a much-needed treatise on Yup'ik Eskimo history and lifestyle. Upper-division undergraduates and above. F. G. Bock; California Polytechnic State University, San Luis Obispo