Maureen and Mike Mansfield Library

Type of Document	Master's Thesis
Author	Kuntz, Benjamin
URN	etd-05232007-125303
Title	HUNTERS IN THE GARDEN: YUP’IK SUBSISTENCE AND THE AGRICULTURAL MYTHS OF EDEN
Degree	Master of Arts
Department	English
Advisory Committee	Advisor Name Title David L. Moore Committee Chair Dan Flores Committee Member Nancy Cook Committee Member
Keywords	subsistence nature writing
Date of Defense	2007-05-08
Availability	unrestricted
Abstract Yup’ik writers and Yup’ik subsistence offer valuable challenges, parallels, and alternative models to mainstream nature writing’s discourse surrounding human relationships to the land, a discourse that carries an inherent agricultural bias. An introduction to western Alaska’s Nunivak Island provides context for Chapter 1, which demonstrates the fluidity of cultural, geographical, and historical margins through discussion of the works of Yup’ik journalist John Active and historian and ethnographer James Clifford. Chapter 2 provides an overview of Yup’ik subsistence centered around the community of Bethel, Alaska, then subjects mainstream nature writing, represented mostly by Wendell Berry, to critiques supplied by Canadian anthropologist Hugh Brody, who asserts that “Western” discourse carries traces of the myths of Eden and the curses of the book of Genesis. Chapter 3 returns to the geography and stories of Nunivak Island before detailing the contributions that Yup’ik writers like Oscar Kawagley and John Active have to offer back to the prevailing discourse, contributions that stress the importance of sharing and kinship and stress the dangers of commodification.
Files	Filename Size KuntzThesisFinal.pdf 241.14 Kb