The Life of the Copper Eskimos

First published in 1922, The Life of the Copper Eskimos has long been regarded as a classic of Arctic ethnography. In this groundbreaking work, pioneer anthropologist Diamond Jenness describes in vivid detail the everyday interactions, practices, customs, and beliefs of the Copper Inuit (Inuinnait) with whom he lived from 1914 to 1916--people who were, at the time, barely touched by contact with the Western world. Featuring a new introduction that expertly sets the stage for Jenness's observations, this exceptional volume offers modern readers a rare glimpse into a vibrant and dynamic peoples' past ways of life.

The preface is written by Barnett Richling, who recently retired as Chair of the Department of Anthropology at the University of Winnipeg.

Diamond Jenness (1886-1969) was born in New Zealand. Jenness attended Victoria University College and graduated with first class honors in 1908. Later he studied at Balliol College, Oxford. He received both a B.A. in Lit. Hum. and a diploma in Anthropology at Oxford in 1911. From 1911 to 1912 he was designated Oxford Scholar in Papua and was sent by the university to make anthropological studies among the Northern d'Entrecasteaux off the east coast of New Guinea. The results of this first fieldwork were published as The Northern d'Entrecasteaux (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1920). From 1913 to 1916 he served as ethnologist with the Canadian Arctic Expedition. He is remembered as a trailblazing anthropologist and a highly distinguished Arctic scholar.

Barnett Richling is a senior scholar in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Winnipeg.