MUSEUMS
Yupiit: Sophisticated Science in an Unforgiving Landscape

The Yup'ik people, inhabitants of Alaska's sub-arctic tundra on the Bering Sea coast, have no word for science, yet their tools were so well designed that they allowed the Yupiit to live for generations in a land nobody else would inhabit. The exhibition "Yuungnaqpiallerput (The Way We Genuinely Live): Masterworks of Yup'ik Science and Survival," brings to the Anchorage Museum, remarkable 19th and early 20th century tools, containers, weapons, watercraft and clothing in an exploration of the scientific principles and processes that have allowed the Yup'ik people to survive their extreme environment.

The exhibition, developed with the guidance of Yup'ik elders, scientists, and educators, and with major support from the National Science Foundation, is on view through October 26, 2008. Featuring "masterworks" ranging from snow goggles to a needle made from a crane wing bone to elegant bentwood hunting hats, The Way We Genuinely Live elucidates the science behind the design and technology of these objects. The exhibit includes demonstrations of tools, as well as science outreach to schools.

The book associated with the exhibition has been awarded a 2008 William Mills Prize Award (named for the librarian at the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, England) in recognition of its interplay among archival materials, museum artifacts, and personal knowledge illustrating science in the daily lives of Yup'ik people.

More information is available at www.anchoragemuseum.org.

Credit: Photographer Chris Arend. Copyright 2007 Anchorage Museum.