Being and Place among the Tlingit

"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

"This remarkable and fine—grained ethnography. . . speaks to broad environmental questions and provides a powerful vision of the roles that place and landscape play in cultural systems."—Julie Cruikshank, professor emerita, Anthropology, University of British Columbia

"This book is a powerful testament to the complexity, durability, and sensitivity of Tlingit ethnoecology that allows us to appreciate more fully what it means to be a 'child of the land' as Tlingit characterize the relationship between clan members and the particular places to which they belong."—Eugene Hunn, professor emeritus, University of Washington

"This book will be a model for Native Alaskan cultural ecology. Case studies are illustrated with the lives of traditional Tlingit elders and the naming of particular places, showing how names, stories, songs, myth, legend, history, artistic designs, food gathering, and material culture (such as boat design) are specific to place."—Richard Dauenhauer, University of Alaska Southeast