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Catalog Data

Donor Name:
Lucien M. Turner  Search this
Length - Object:
4.5 cm
Culture:
Aleut (Unangax^ ; Unangan; Unangas)  Search this
Object Type:
Charm
Place:
Aleutian Islands, Alaska, United States, North America
Accession Date:
16 Dec 1879
Notes:
FROM CARD: "FIGURE, LYING ON BACK, HEAD LEANING FORWARD AND HELD IN FRONT PAWS. BACK HEAVILY DECORATED WITH LINES AND DOTS. SINGLE LINE DOWN STOMACH. BACK FLIPPERS AT SIDES. ILLUS.: HNDBK. N. AMER. IND., VOL. 5, ARCTIC, FIG. 10, PG. 172. ...USED AS DECORATIONS ON WOODEN HATS, AS AMULETS, AND POSSIBLY AS FASTENERS ON KAYAKS. INVENTORIED 1979."
This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.
Illus. Fig. 118a, p. 113 in Black, Lydia. 2003. Aleut art = Unangam aguqaadangin. Virginia Beach, VA: Donning Co. Publishers.
Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on this artifact http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=544, retrieved 5-15-2014: Charm, Unangax^ (Aleut) In oral tradition sea otters are transformed humans, descendants of an incestuous brother and sister. Small ivory carvings of otters were hunting charms that a man carried on his person or tied to his kayak for success. Engraved designs on the charm indicate the animal's ribs and spine, home to its soul. "Since the Aleuts believed the sea otters to be transformed humans…they made every effort to decorate their baidarkas [kayaks], their kamleikas [gut parkas], and all spears as finely as possible, supposing that the sea otter, loving women's handiwork, would come of his own accord to the hunter who is a dandy..." - Ivan Veniaminov, from "Notes on the Islands of the Unalashka District," 1834.
Record Last Modified:
14 Feb 2022
Specimen Count:
1
Topic:
Ethnology  Search this
Accession Number:
79A00065
USNM Number:
E35905-0
See more items in:
Anthropology
Data Source:
NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
GUID:
http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/3df955dd9-77c6-4d6a-9d33-df402daf8503
EDAN-URL:
edanmdm:nmnhanthropology_8405700