Search tips for the Eskimo


Getting Started:

 

When searching for websites on Eskimo culture, think of different tribe names (Inuit, Yupik, Inuvialuit, Chukchee, Inupiat, Copper Eskimos, Yupiaq, Alutiiq, Netsilik, Iglulik, Tauremiut, Tlingit, etc.) or locations where you may find northern indigenous groups (Canada, Newfoundland, Quebec, Alaska, Arctic, Northwest Territories, North Pacific Rim, Greenland, Bering Strait, etc.). Add specific words to these searches, depending on what aspect of the culture you are looking for (food, nutrition, hunting, education, religion, language, customs, family life, kinship, sustainability, etc.).

 

Use general encyclopedias like Wikipedia or Encylopaeida Britannica to identify some main facts about the group you are studying, and follow up with a source that is more in-depth, like the Encyclopedia of North American Indians. Continue to search for more focused websites that have been written/produced by experts (authors, scholars, organizations) within the field. Add terms to your search that indicate scholarliness (research, foundation, center, centre, society, studies, university, museum, institute, etc.) or that will ensure you retrieve sites from official sources (.ca, .gov, .edu).

 

To find useful bibliographies that will include many different and relevant sources (i.e. Selected Resources on Arctic and SubArctic Prehistory and Ethnology), include terms like, bibliograph* or reference*, in your web search.

 

Always, always, always evaluate websites with a skeptical eye and make sure you know the qualifications of the website author. As you go through the citations that other students have provided on the Eskimo bibliography within this wiki, take special note of the names of the expert authors. You may want to search on their names specifically to see what else they have published.