KRUPNIK, Igor and Michael CHLENOV, 2013 Yupik Transitions: Change and Survival at Bering Strait, 1900-1960, Fairbanks, University of Alaska Press, 400 pages

The 6th Inuit Studies Conference, held in Copenhagen, Denmark, in the spring of 1988, witnessed the appearance of Igor Krupnik and Michael Chlenov. It was perhaps one of the few times or even the first time the two young Russian anthropologists had presented papers beyond the Russian borders. During the conference, Krupnik, then in his 30s, approached me to discuss Charles Campbell Hughes and the Siberian Yupik (Eskimos) of St. Lawrence Island, Alaska. What I did not know then was that Krupnik and Chlenov had each been working in Chukotka since the 1970s, carrying out detailed and invaluable research on the social and cultural histories of Yupik (Eskimo) communities on the Russia’s northeast Asian coast. Their focus was on the major social and economic shifts that the Yupik and, to some extent, their neighbors, the Chukchi, had experienced. Thus, by 1988, over a period of almost 20 years, the two men had already gathered an astounding compilation of information. Their data serve as the opening acts of Yupik Transitions: Change and Survival at Bering Strait, 1900 to 1960. The book in its entirety is a phenomenal and most impressive endeavour. It begins with a Foreword by anthropologist Ernest S. Burch, Jr., who passed away before the book’s publication. To paraphrase Burch’s words: In a very real sense, Burch’s Foreword is the review of the book. As he touches on each of the text’s general foci, one can only agree with him. What is particularly astounding for anyone who has worked with either the Russian or American Yupik populations is the immense effort, the obvious devotion, and the degree of deep and sensitive research that one finds here. Indeed, few can boast of focusing more than 40 years on a single project with such intensity and care. Yupik Transitions reflects quite magnificently the seemingly boundless intellectual and sheer physical energies of both authors. For those already familiar with Siberian Yupik communities, the appearance of a well-known name is likely to generate an “aha” moment—a sudden flash of light: “So this is where ‘that name’ comes from on the Russian (or American) side of Bering Strait.” Examples drawn from the experiences of Yupik individuals, lineages, clans, and tribes populate the text, bringing the plight of Indigenous communities faced with major social, political, and cultural changes directly into the reader’s personal viewing space. For instance, Krupnik records how “[…] the young hunter Walunga traveled by boat with his two wives and several children” from Avan, on the Russian side, to settle on St. Lawrence Island in 1922 (p. 142). In the text, Willis Kepeglu Walunga, one of Walunga’s descendants, is shown with his wife, Nancy Aghnaghaghniq Walunga, Conrad Akulki Oozeva, and Krupnik. Krupnik worked closely with them to trace the histories of their St. Lawrence Island and Russian ancestors. If this were the only such example, the book would not be unusual. However, Yupik Transitions is filled with photographs, interview segments, and detailed descriptions that begin in 1971 with recollections of Russian Yupik elders, whose memories stretch back into the late 1800s, and continue forward to 1960. The book is simply alive with the people and their surroundings, both verbal and photographic, that are at the heart of the narrative Krupnik and Chlenov have written. Yet, most who appear in the text are now gone and, as Krupnik notes in the preface, “This work is, therefore, an ethnohistory, or simply a history” (p. xxvii). Often, as with the Walunga example, the impact of change is illustrated in clear and yet poignant ways. Sometimes, for example, a family migrated to St. Lawrence …