Stories find you, places know : Yup'ik narratives of a sentient world Cover Image

Book

Stories find you, places know : Yup'ik narratives of a sentient world / Holly Cusack-McVeigh.

Summary:

"On the Bering coast of southwest Alaska, Cusack-McVeigh accompanied storytellers during their daily activities. Hearing many narratives repeatedly over a span of years, she came to understand how stories reflected interactions of people and places. For the Yup{u2019}ik people, places are also social actors that react to human actions and emotions. Stories tell how people learn about each other through encounters on the land, and thereby places also learn about people. Places comment on human behavior through the land's responses to specific actions. Stories variously reveal ideas about human associations and relationships between humans and nonhuman beings. Pointing to a systematic correlation between places and narrative elements that has not been previously explored, this volume makes a unique contribution to the literature on place."--Provided by publisher.

Record details

ISBN: 9781607815822
ISBN: 1607815826
Physical Description: xx, 307 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Publisher: Salt Lake City : The University of Utah Press, [2017]

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 273-286) and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

Preface : my first day in Hooper : a cautionary tale for the anthropologist -- Metaphor and allusion : discourse and metaphors from the land -- The rivers, the mountains, the tundra, and the sea -- 'Too many otters in that one place!' : stories of Palraayak and other water creatures -- 'Assiituq!' : the land can be a dangerous place : understanding the importance of cautionary tales -- Angalkuut : shamans, enemies, and other villages -- The tale of the teakettle ghost : performative aspects of discourse -- Anchoring memory in place : tales of Brother Oscar and the old church -- Haunted places and their symbolic import : narratives from throughout the Yup'ik region -- What haunts these places? : cultural encounters and narratives of resistance -- Sentient places in a sentient world.