Customer Reviews

Looking Both Ways: Heritage & Identity of the Alutiiq People.

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In some respects, like photos of traditional items, I really liked this book. But, it is a book written by this group of people about the group. That leads to biases. Read it, but then read some books about them that aren't written by them. Then you'll have a good feel for the group. Since it's a collaboration of writers, there are too many sensibilities that had to be taken into consideration, so it is watered down by trying to please everyone. Sometimes it's so watered down, it doesn't say anything for whole pages. For instance, the beginning pages about their origin has so many origins in it you'd think they were either the mother of all Alaskan Native people or that they married into so many groups that they are made up of everyone. (They do have many customs that are similar to many groups, but I'd like to know why they don't believe they are related to the Yup'ik and Inupiat, when they speak their language and have similar genetics? What's up with that?) However, it's still a good start, and the personal subsistance stories are great. What amazing lives they lived! Just remember its written by them about them. DDD