Posting of this notice requested by Peter Schledermann
schleder [at] ucalgary.ca.
Dr. Frederica de Laguna, now in her nineties, conducted her first
archaeological fieldwork in Greenland in the mid-to-late twenties and
published shortly afterwards a book about that experience called "Voyage
to Greenland: A Personal Initiation into Anthropology." She is one of
the most outstanding arctic anthropologist/archaeologists of the last
century.
This paperback version is going out of print at the end of July 2000 and
the publisher plans to destroy all remaining copies after that date. The
publisher, Waveland Press, is offering the book at $13.50 plus shipping
cost, with a 20% discount to booksellers. Orders can be sent by e-mail
to info [at] waveland.com or mailed to Waveland Press (address below).
To receive a paperback version of the book titled, "Voyage to Greenland:
A Personal Initiation into Anthropology," by Dr. Frederica de Laguna,
contact the publisher, Waveland Press, listed here.
Waveland Press
Box 400
Prospect Heights, IL 60070 U.S.A.
E-mail: info [at] waveland.com
This book was originally published in hard cover by W.W. Norton, New
York City, in 1977, with 285 pp., 7 maps, 40 pls., and 3 figs. It was
reprinted in 1995 with a new preface and additional illustrations by
Waveland Press. Although Waveland marketed it as a textbook, it was
written for an older, more general audience.
FROM THE AUTHOR:
"This is the account of my first expedition in 1929 when I was assistant
to the famous Danish archaeologist, Dr. Therkel Mathiassen, who was then
just beginning the first systematic archaeological surveys of Greenland.
Although we traveled all over the Upernavik District on the arctic west
coast, the main site we excavated was at Inugsuk, where we found
evidence of contact between the Norsemen and the medieval Eskimo.
The text is based entirely upon my letters home and the journal I kept
in the field, and therefore it gives an eager young woman's impressions,
not the reflections of the later anthropologist that she became. This
experience was to change the course of my whole life. I had gone to
Greenland for six weeks but stayed for the full six months, captivated
by the North and the scholarly adventures of fieldwork. The next summer,
1930, though I was still only a graduate student, I persuaded the
University of Pennsylvania Museum to send me to Alaska. This was the
beginning of a full-time career in anthropology."