In the roadless Brooks Range Mountains of northern Alaska sits Anaktuvuk Pass, a small, tightly knit Nunamiut Eskimo village. Formerly nomadic hunters of caribou, the Nunamiut of Anaktuvuk now find their destiny tied to that of Alaska’s oil-rich North Slope, their lives suddenly subject to a century’s worth of innovations, from electricity and bush planes to snow machines and the Internet. Anthropologist Margaret B. Blackman has been doing summer fieldwork among the Nunamiut over a span of almost twenty years, an experience richly and movingly recounted in this book.
A vivid description of the people and the life of Anaktuvuk Pass, the essays in Upside Down are also an absorbing meditation on the changes that Blackman herself underwent during her time there, most wrenchingly the illness of her husband, a fellow anthropologist, and the breakup of their marriage. Throughout, Blackman reflects in unexpected and enlightening ways on the work of anthropology and the perspective of an anthropologist evermore invested in the lives of her subjects. Whether commenting on the effect of this place and its people on her personal life or describing the impact of “progress” on the Nunamiut—the CB radio, weekend nomadism, tourism, the Information Superhighway—her essays offer a unique and deeply evocative picture of an at once disappearing and evolving world.
"[Upside Down] is an important work for those interested in ethnographic research and indigenous peoples living in the Arctic. . . . Blackman demonstrates that to go to small northern communities is to engage with community people, to be open to how they accept or reject change, and to accept that they have ideas about how you will conduct your research--that you too will change."--Allice Legat, Arctic
“Everyday life among the Nunamiut . . . is exquisitely chronicled in this collection. . . . Blackman writes with an engaging style that effectively draws the reader into the depths of each story. These essays are a refreshing departure from standard ethnographic writing and provide a more personal glimpse of the joys and struggles involved in anthropological field research.”—Library Journal
"In a series of essays more personal than field notes, more analytical than a journal, anthropologist Blackman recounts the summers she spent among the Nunamiut, an Eskimo group living in Alaska north of the Arctic Circle. . . . Blackman's visits span her life from a graduate student to wife and mother to divorced scholar whose career flourishes as she becomes 'the' authority on Nunamiut masks, offering an interesting parallel to the tribe's response to advancing society. Readers interested in Native Alaskans and anthropology will enjoy Blackman's unvarnished look at both."—Booklist
"Captivating and remarkably informative. Essays on Eskimo culture become essays on fundamental human nature, and the residents of Anaktuvak Pass become neighbors, friends, and confidants. The reader is drawn into the village culture not by formal instruction, but by osmosis."—Choice
“This book may be one of the best ways to introduce students to anthropology because it gives a first hand look and feel on many aspects of the fieldwork experience in the 21st century. The one is respectful, considerate of the villagers’ privacy, and it is frank and honest about ups and downs of this type of work.”—William Schneider, Etudes/Inuit/Studies
“A fascinating blend of memoir and ethnography that exposes the public and private dimensions of anthropological research and writing."—Edmund Searles, Polar Record
“A nice and well-written book and well-edited. In terms of ethnography the book certainly is not a maverick. For the student of anthropology, however, it makes for good reading, especially for those who are interested in the field work process itself.”—Cornelius H. W. Remie, Anthropos
“Like the arctic summer, where daylight seeps into night and turns Nunamiut daily rhythms ‘upside down,’ anthropologist Margaret Blackman’s essays seep across the deceptively tidy boundaries between academic writing and intimate journal, between Brockport, New York, and Anaktuvuk Pass, Alaska, between a place and a self. Go there with her. You’ll be glad you did.”—Phyllis Morrow, editor, When Our Words Return: Hearing, Writing, and Remembering Oral Traditions of Alaska and the Yukon
“Margaret Blackman probes the very conventions of anthropology, examining her summers spent with the Nunamiut for insight into the challenges of her personal life, melding their story with hers. Looking outward, she looks within.”—Judith Kitchen, author of The House on Eccles Road