Drawing on decades of immersive fieldwork, this author delves into the complexities of Inuit cultures, focusing on interpersonal relationships and the intricacies of their language. Her research explores the cultural construction of emotions, family dynamics, and the management of conflict within hunting camps and families, while also examining the emotional underpinnings of values such as nonviolence and autonomy. She investigates the socialization of children through playful interactions and the psychological uses of personal names and the conceptualization of time. More recently, her work has shifted towards linguistics, with a dedicated effort to document a previously undocumented dialect of Inuktitut, aiming to create a comprehensive bilingual dictionary. Her anthropological approach is grounded in empirical observation and personal experience, drawing inspiration from developmental psychology and psychoanalytic thought without adhering to rigid theoretical frameworks.
Describes emotional patterning of the Utkuhikhalingmiut, a small group of Eskimos who live at the mouth of the Back River, in the context of their life as seen as lived by the author. Based on field work conducted between June 1963 and March 1965.
An examination of the interactions between Chubby Maata, a three-year-old Inuit girl, and the adults in her world. In these dramas, Inuit adults enact with their children the plots that drive Inuit social life; they act out problems and create children who think and feel like Inuit.
A genteel reconstruction of the love affair of Lucretia Borgia and the Venetian future Cardinal, Pietro Bembo, scholar and poet - based on the pair's elegant correspondence (1502-5).