Give Me My Father's Body: The Life of Minik the New York Eskimo, by Kenn Harper, Steerforth Press, South Royalton, VT, 2000
When Arctic explorer Robert Peary came home in September 1897, he brought with him a thirty-ton meteorite, an ethnological collection, and a group of Polar Eskimos for the American Museum of Natural History, which were immediately put on display. No matter that fo...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Article |
Language: | English |
Published: |
Ubiquity Press
2001-05-01
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Series: | Bulletin of the History of Archaeology |
Online Access: | http://www.archaeologybulletin.org/article/view/240 |
Summary: | When Arctic explorer Robert Peary came home in September 1897, he
brought with him a thirty-ton meteorite, an ethnological collection, and a group of
Polar Eskimos for the American Museum of Natural History, which were immediately put on
display. No matter that four of the six Eskimos died: the Museum just removed them from
temporary exhibits and catalogued in them permanent collections. Of the two surviving,
one returned to Greenland the following summer, the other remained in the household of a
Museum administrator, William Wallace. This little orphan named Minik became the "New
York Eskimo" of the title, and the phrase aptly summarizes his oxymoronic
life. |
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ISSN: | 1062-4740 2047-6930 |