To The Aleutians And Beyond

Why do some languages wither and die, while others prosper and spread? Around the turn of the millennium a number of archaeologists such as Colin Renfrew and Peter Bellwood made the controversial claim that many of the world’s major language families owe their dispersal to the adoption of agriculture by their early speakers. In this volume, their proposal is reassessed by linguists, investigating to what extent the economic dependence on plant cultivation really impacted language spread in various parts of the world. Special attention is paid to "tricky" language families such as Eskimo-Aleut, Quechua, Aymara, Bantu, Indo-European, Transeurasian, Turkic, Japano-Koreanic, Hmong-Mien and Trans-New Guinea, that cannot unequivocally be regarded as instances of Farming/Language Dispersal, even if subsistence played a role in their expansion.

In Beyond the Blue Horizon, bestselling science historian Brian Fagan tackles his richest topic yet: the enduring mystery of the oceans, the planet's most forbidding terrain.This is not a tale of Columbus or Hudson, but of much earlier mariners. From the moment when ancient Polynesians first dared to sail beyond the horizon, Fagan vividly explains how our mastery of the oceans has changed history, even before history was written. Beyond the Blue Horizon delves into the very beginnings of humanity's long and intimate relationship with the sea. It willl enthrall readers who enjoyed Longitude, Simon Winchester's Atlantic, or in its scope and its insightful linking of technology and culture, Guns, Germs, and Steel. What drove humans to risk their lives on open water? How did early sailors unlock the secrets of winds, tides, and the stars they steered by? What were the earliest ocean crossings like? With compelling detail, Brian Fagan reveals how seafaring evolved so that the vast realms of the sea gods were transformed from barriers into highways that hummed with commerce. Indeed, for most of human history, oceans have been the most vital connectors of far-flung societies. From bamboo rafts in the Java Sea to the caravels of the Age of Discovery, from Easter Island to Crete, Brian Fagan crafts a captivating narrative of humanity's urge to seek out distant shores, of the daring men and women who did so, and of the mark they have left on civilization.

Beyond the Looking Glass is the story of a young boy who dared to venture outside the boundaries of his small world by stepping through a looking glass that promised not only escape from his rural surroundings, but adventure beyond his limited horizon. Unlike Alice who found a Wonderland when she passed through her looking glass, the author found looking glasses at each turn in the road; mirrors that did not reflect the wonders that lay beyond or the Mad-Hatter characters he was to encounter along the way. Beyond the Looking Glass provides an unique tale of the author's journey through the Rite of Passage toward manhood during the difficult times so many suffered from the Great Depression and World War II. The reader experiences the author's immaturity, then his gradual maturation, as he overcomes many obstacles in his quest to join the navy. At the age of sixteen he succeeds in his quest and spends the war years in the Pacific Theater where he participates in the Saipan and Guam amphibious landings and later the re-taking of the Philippine Islands where his aircraft carrier suffers a kamikase attack. At age fourteen, Bob Quinn's travels begin with the encounter of his first looking glass; a slow moving freight train....

SHARING THE EXPERIENCE AND THE HISTORY At twenty-one, a young man still in college, Dan Holder had an opportunity for adventure when his older stepbrother Kyn asked him to join an expedition. Along with Kyn’s wife Ella and Kyn’s sister Nance, they traveled in a small boat over 1,200 miles down the Yukon River through Canada’s Yukon Territory and into Alaska. That was in 1966, well after the gold rush of 1898 when the river had been heavily traveled by gold seekers aboard small rafts, hand-sewn rowboats, some with sails, and large stern-wheelers. In 1966, the Yukon was basically a wilderness river with a few widely separated small towns along its shore, a number of deserted cabins left by trappers and prospectors, and deserted trading posts. Birds and bears were plentiful. There were no guided tours at that time. The many branching channels of the Yukon Flats downriver from Dawson were a serious challenge. Now as an author, he shares with his readers that experience and the historical background that puts it in perspective. The author also shares the experience of going back to Alaska with Kyn in 1971 on a fifty-five-foot fishing boat. In Seattle, they rerigged the boat from a seiner to a salmon troller. They followed the gold rush route north to brave the challenges of fishing offshore on the Mt. Fairweather fishing grounds. He shares the excitement of nearly being swept onto the rocks by huge waves in a treacherous inlet and riding out hurricane force winds and thirty to forty-foot waves offshore. After leaving the boat, he hiked alone over the infamous Chilkoot trail reaching the snow-covered summit of the Chilkoot Pass near midnight in the Artic twilight on the longest day of the year, not knowing if the trail would be passable. In 2002, the author and his wife Sybille retraced some of the early Alaska fishing voyage on a cruise ship. It was a very different kind of a trip, but it brought back old memories and generated a few exciting new ones. If you enjoy firsthand adventure and if you are intrigued by the atmosphere and the history of the Pacific Northwest, then you should really enjoy this book.

Despite its extreme climate, the North American Arctic holds a complex archaeological record of global significance. In this volume, leading researchers provide comprehensive coverage of the region's cultural history, addressing issues as diverse as climate change impacts on human societies, European colonial expansion, and hunter-gatherer adaptations and social organization.