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12%OFFThomas F. Thornton - Being and Place Among the Tlingit - 9780295987491 - V9780295987491
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Being and Place Among the Tlingit

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Description for Being and Place Among the Tlingit Paperback. Examines the concept of place in the language, social structure, and ritual of southeast Alaska's Tlingit Indians. This book makes a contribution to the literature on the Tlingit, the Northwest Coast cultural area, Native American and indigenous studies, and to the social scientific and humanistic literature on space, place, and landscape. Series: Culture, Place, and Nature. Num Pages: 280 pages, 7 bw photos, 2 maps, 1 tables. BIC Classification: 1KBBWK; JFSL9; JHMC. Category: (P) Professional & Vocational. Dimension: 5830 x 3895 x 17. Weight in Grams: 409.

In Being and Place among the Tlingit, anthropologist Thomas F. Thornton examines the concept of place in the language, social structure, economy, and ritual of southeast Alaska's Tlingit Indians. Place signifies not only a specific geographical location but also reveals the ways in which individuals and social groups define themselves.

The notion of place consists of three dimensions - space, time, and experience - which are culturally and environmentally structured. Thornton examines each in detail to show how individual and collective Tlingit notions of place, being, and identity are formed. As he observes, despite cultural and environmental changes over time, particularly in the post-contact era since the late eighteenth century, Tlingits continue to bind themselves and their culture to places and landscapes in distinctive ways. He offers insight into how Tlingits in particular, and humans in general, conceptualize their relationship to the lands they inhabit, arguing for a study of place that considers all aspects of human interaction with landscape.

In Tlingit, it is difficult even to introduce oneself without referencing places in Lingit Aani (Tlingit Country). Geographic references are embedded in personal names, clan names, house names, and, most obviously, in k-waan names, which define regions of dwelling. To say one is Sheet'ka K-waan defines one as a member of the Tlingit community that inhabits Sheet'ka (Sitka).

Being and Place among the Tlingit makes a substantive contribution to the literature on the Tlingit, the Northwest Coast cultural area, Native American and indigenous studies, and to the growing social scientific and humanistic literature on space, place, and landscape.

Product Details

Format
Paperback
Publication date
2007
Publisher
University of Washington Press United States
Number of pages
280
Condition
New
Series
Culture, Place, and Nature
Number of Pages
280
Place of Publication
Seattle, United States
ISBN
9780295987491
SKU
V9780295987491
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 15 to 20 working days
Ref
99-50

About Thomas F. Thornton
Thomas F. Thornton is associate professor of anthropology at Portland State University in Oregon.

Reviews for Being and Place Among the Tlingit
"Being and Place Among the Tlingit provides an excellent grounding in indigenous environmental values and how they operate in society. The book will almost certainly become a standard text for Northwest Coast anthropologists, human geographers, even archaeologists, for whom Thornton's discussion of material symbols, such as Chilkat blankets, will serve as a useful reminder of the ways artifacts can actively reference people and places. Finally, because it is a well written book, brimming with helpful examples of the politics of place-making, it will interest scholars studying human-landscape interactions in diverse regions of the globe."
The Northern Review
"This thoroughly researched, well-organized, and well-written book is a pioneering study of the ethnography of the indigenous peoples of the Northwest Coast. Its methods and many of its conclusions could fruitfully be used in studying the toponymy of the Aboriginal nations of coastal British Columbia, Washington, and Oregon. It would work well as a text in upper-level undergraduate and graduate courses in anthropology and First Nations studies. It will also be an invaluable resource for the Tlingit people themselves."
BC Studies
"Thomas Thornton takes the reader on a rich journey into the physical and social landscape of Southeast Alaska. . . . a solid work of ethnography grounded in serious scholarship but written in a language that will also be accessible to most readers."
Alaska History
"This book is about the meaning of place among the Tlingit, but it is also a comprehensive, scholarly essay on the ideal of place in Western philosophy and social science theory."
Journal of Anthropological Research

Goodreads reviews for Being and Place Among the Tlingit


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