Boundaries and Passages

This book brings together as complete a record of traditional Yup’ik rules and rituals as is possible in the late twentieth century. Incorporating elders’ recollections of the system of ruled boundaries and ritual passages that guided their parents and grandparents a century ago, Ann Fienup-Riordan brings into focus the complex, creative Yup’ik world view-expressed by ceremonial exchanges and the cycling of names, gifts, and persons-which continues to shape daily life in communities along the Bering Sea coast.

Ann Fienup-Riordan is an independent scholar/anthologist. She was named Alaska History of the Year for The Real People and Children of Thunder: The Yup?ik Eskimo Encounter with Moravian Missionaries John and Edith Kilbuck, also published by the University of Oklahoma Press.