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Eskimo Dance and Cultural Values in an Alaskan Village

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 July 2014

Lynn Price Ager
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Extract

Although expressive aspects of a culture are generally believed to be related to the values and sentiments which prevade that culture, few studies to demonstrate the relationship have been carried out on nonverbal, more accurately non-vocal, aspects of culture. This paper is a result of my attempt to view traditional Eskimo dance as an expression of Eskimo values, sentiments, and cultural foci.

Eskimo values and cultural foci are described as I perceived them during eight months of ethnological field research (1973–74) among a group of coastal Eskimos in southwestern Alaska. I cannot vouch for the universality of these values in Eskimo groups throughout the arctic, but my impression from the literature is that they are widely held. The dances I describe, however, are not universal, as dance varies from one region to another and even from village to village within some regions (Theresa Tomczak, personal communication 1972). The community I am reporting on is Tununak, on Nelson Island, Alaska.

Type
Articles
Information
Dance Research Journal , Volume 8 , Issue 1 , Fall/Winter 1976 , pp. 7 - 12
Copyright
Copyright © Congress on Research in Dance 1976

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References

REFERENCES CITED

Ager, Lynn Price. “The reflection of Cultural Values in Eskimo Children's Games,” Proceedings of the Association For the Anthropological Study of Play, in press.Google Scholar
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Nelson, Richard K.Hunters of the Northern Ice. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969.Google Scholar
Lantis, Margaret. “Alaskan Eskimo Cultural Values,” Polar Notes No. 1: 35–48, (Dartmouth College) November, 1959.Google Scholar
Lantis, Margaret. “The Social Culture of the Nunivak Eskimo,” Transactions of the American Philosophical Society 35, (3): 155–323, 1946.CrossRefGoogle Scholar