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may be terms that Eskimos use when talking she argues well for a basic trend of consistency English to the white man (because that is what in this development. the white man taught them), but that is not the The major effort is applied to this dynamic way they talk Inuktutin. aspect of Eskimo personality, transferral of Despite its faults, thework is, overall, a values and their eventual internalization, but genuine contribution to our knowledge, and perhaps as important a contribution is Briggs’ Spalding is to be complimented for persevering characterization of Eskimo values and group and for putting the material on record for our personality themselves. The salient values of benefit. nurturance, nonviolence, generosity, auto- Albert C. Heinrich nomy, and emotional control can be Professor of Anthropology maintained only at such costs to the University of Calgary personality as the development of extreme Calgary,Alberta T2N IN4 sensitivity to humiliation or defeat, and the construction of elaborate mechanisms to avoid aggression and too-close emotional involvement. This picture of considerable ASPECTS OF VALUE SOCIALIZA- vulnerability will not please the apologist for TION. By JEAN . BRIGGS.Ottawa: National the Eskimo but will ring true to any reasonably Museums of Canada, 1979. (National Museum experienced and close observer. Briggs does of Man Mercury Series, Canadian Ethnology not whitewash the Eskimo in this account, but Service Paper No. 56). 51 pp. Gratis. she is not unsympathetic, and her exposition provides a picture which shows a consistency At the outset the author expresses the hope between basic emotional and philosophical that her paper “will contribute both to the premises and the intrapsychic system. understanding of Inuit personality and culture While both the publishers of the series and and to the theory ofvalue socialization, in the author prepare the reader for an essentially general.” While limitations of training prevent preliminary report, this little book goes well this reviewer from evaluating adequately the beyond that objective in development of second of these objectives, I am sure that analysis and state of preparation. The text is Arctic anthropologists and experienced lay supplemented by a useful glossary of native observers will agree that her portrayal of terms as well as by a detailed set of footnotes Eskimo personality in its cultural setting is which the serious reader should not overlook. believable as well as penetrating. Dr. Briggs focuses her analysis on Canadian Inuit who David Damas were the subjects of her field studies, but her Department of Anthropology generalizations will likely apply to north McMaster University Alaskans, Greenlanders and possibly as well to Hamilton. Ontario Yupik-speaking Eskimos. Briggs applies standard theoretical and methodological tools of the culture- and SUFFIXESOF THE ESKIMO DIALECTS personality-oriented anthropologist, and she OF CUMBERLANDPENINSULA AND relies on a background of repeated and NORTH BAFFIN ISLAND. By KENN long-term field trips to the Canadian Arctic as HARPER.National Museum ofMan Mercury well as a high degree of language mastery. Her Series. Canadian Ethnology Service Paper No. approach is one of close observation and 54. Ottawa, 1979. 1 I x 8% inches, I I I pages, 2 detailed analysis of several childrearing appendices. Soft cover. Gratis. episodes from an obviously far more expansive corpus of such observational material. For students of Canadian Inuttitut during the In concentrating on the processes of nineteen-fifties, written texts were few and enculturation of values there is a vivid picture often hard to come by. Peck and Thibert were given of the socialization environment where the staple references, together with the lessons are taught with effectively reinforcing regional glossaries of LeFebvre and Peacock. affect. At the same time the guise ofplay Spalding and Schneider made their excellent softens any possible trauma. initial contributions during the sixties, and in While some personality theorists today tend 1970 Trine1 opened a decade of works ranging to discount the conditioning effects of from primers and vocabularies by untrained childhood training on eventual personality enthusiasts to abstruse applications of constellations, Briggs’ evidence for continuity linguistic principles. and transition from childhood experiences to One of the latest aids to learning Inuttitut is adult value orientation and personality Kenn Harper’ book of the suffixes used in the structure strengthens such associations, for dialects of northern Baflin Island. isIt 376 REVIEWS

essentially an annotated dictionary, a This book is written as a reference for the successor and companion to his 1974 grammar serious student of lnuttitut (Kenn Harper of the same regional dialects. 305 suffixes are prefers to use the term “Eskimo” when the listed in alphabetical order, followed byan text is in English). The language is a readable appendix of verb tenses and a second appendix compromise between the esoteric and the listing and classifying the root forms of the common, and in general the work suffixes. complements such contemporaries as Ivan The introduction identifies the dialects KalmBr’s super-specialist study of case and treated and the characteristics of the language, context, and Alex Spalding’s sequential then explains the choice of orthography - that approach to learning the language. adopted by the Inuit Cultural lnstitute in 1976. Although Kenn Harper’s book stands on its The introduction concludes with a description own merit, it is a tribute to the author’s of the concept of “base entry”, which is the resilience and memory that he produced this building-block of the dictionary. Harper work after losing ten years of research notes in explains that in Inuttitut the stems of words the fire that destroyed his home in Arctic Bay can end in any of the three basic vowels (a), several years ago. (i), and (u), or in any of the three consonants Keith . Crowe - velar (), uvular (q), and alveolar (). The Deparfmenrof Indian and Northern Affairs form of the suffix may vary according to the Ottawa, Ontario ending of the stem that it adjoins, and the form KIA OH9 chosen by the author as his prototype of each suffix is called a “base entry”. Each base entry is discussed in six sections indicating the character of the suffix (noun or verb), its posiiion within a word or sentence, TRUELOVE LOWLAND, DEVON IS- LAND, CANADA: A High Arctic Ecosystem. its meaning, its alternative forms, examples of EDITEDBY L.C. BLISS.Edmonton: Universit usage, and general comments. Kenn Harper of Alberta Press, 1977. ISBN 0-88864-014-1 calls the objects of his study “derivational 714 pp. $20.00. suffixes”,seemingly identical to what Lawrence Smith, inhis parallel work on This book includes 37 papers summarizing LabradorInuttitut, calls “derivational the findings of a major integrated investigation into the structure and function of high arctic postbases”. This confusion of terms is perhaps ecosystems. The studies represent part of the a reflection of the nascent nature of linguistics. Canadian contribution to the International The organization might have been improved Biological Programme and were conducted out by the identification of those suffixes that of the Arctic Institute of North America base “delete” or “assimilate” any consonant that camp in the Truelove Lowlands, Devon Island, precedes them, but perhaps the process is ..T. explained well enough in the example The overall ecosystem project objectives were to: sentences. 1) determine population numbers and Compound suffixes are listed by Harper as standing crop of major biological base entries if their component parts are not components; readily apparent, and if the conjunction 2) determine rates of energy flow through imparts a special meaning, as in “junnangit” the total system; which usually means “cannot”, but may mean 3) determine the efficiency of the system in “never” or “refuses to”. He lists jj and ut as capturing and utilizing energy at different trophic levels; base entries that combine to form a compound 4) determine the environmental and suffix, but this seems to me to be an biolo ‘cal limiting factors for the growth unnecessary dissection of the suffix jjur (an and gvelopment of important plant and instrument). animal species; and The appendix dealing with suffixes of tense 5) develop staticand dynamic models of high arctic ecosystem function andthe is fairly conventional, and doesn’t indulge in function of its component parts. refinements such as distinction between tense This project, like all other ecosystem andaspect. Onpage 90, however, Harper modelling projects, setsout to attemptthe introduces the novelty of a suffix ni that impossible, attain the unattainable and resolve indicates a past event that occurred unknown the unresolvable - when judged in absolute to the speaker. terms. When judged in terms of what it did accomplish rather than what it did not, The summary of base entries provides a Professor Bliss, his advisors,and project useful tabular key to the various forms of each researchers deserve a round of a plause as the suffix, according to the type ofvowel or book represents a major contritution to our consonant that they follow. knowledge of high arctic ecosystems.