"Robert Spencer's North Alaskan Eskimo - 40 Years Later"
Robert F. Spencer's book, The North Alaskan Eskimo - A Study in Ecology and Society, set a new standard in arctic ethnography, and it has served as the basic reference on North Alaskan Eskimo social organization and ecology ever since it first appeared forty years ago. However, a number of new information sources have become available since Spencer wrote the book. This research project analyzes new information to see which of Spencer's general conclusions have withstood the passage of time and which need to be modified in light of the new evidence. The main hypothesis guiding the research is that almost all of Spencer's major conclusions will be found to be valid for the last two decades of the 19th century, but much less so for earlier periods. The hypothesis will be examined in the light of information contained in (1) published documents dating from the early and middle parts of the 19th century, (2) published documents dating from the 1880s and early 1890s, and (3) the unpublished field records of John Simpson, Froelich Rainey, Robert Spencer, and Ernest S. Burch, Jr.
Whether the hypothesis is confirmed or not, the study will contribute to our understanding of north Alaskan Eskimo social organization and ecology and, more generally, of the structure of moderately complex hunter-gatherer societies.
