Voyage to Greenland: A Personal Initiation into Anthropology

by FREDERICA DE LAGUNA

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In 1929, Frederica de Laguna accompanied Dr. Therkel Mathiassen, a Danish archaeologist and Arctic explorer, to Greenland to make the first archaeological survey ever undertaken there. The expedition was to take them to unexplored territory where they hoped to discover what had been the culture of the first Eskimo inhabitants. In this book, comprised mostly of a journal and letters to her family, de Laguna tells of her experiences in a Greenland that is now completely gone. Informal, engaging, wonderfully descriptive and informative, the account is full of the excitement and adventure of the opportunity of a lifetime. De Laguna tells of daily life on the island of Inugsuk, setting up camp, the clothes made of sealskin, seal hunting from kayaks, falling asleep to the sound of icebergs knocking against the shore, the hard physical work of digging, and the thrill of discovery of the first significant specimen.