Wooden Mask
date: label: Accession Date
content: 20 Mar 1931
name: label: Donor Name
content: Victor J. Evans
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "Nass and Skeena Rivers, B.C.. Represents an eagle beak."
label: Notes
content: This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.
label: Notes
content: 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=700, retrieved 3-31-2012: Mask, Tsimshian. Tsimshian individuals acquired supernatural powers, or helping spirits (naxnox), through a series of ritual initiations held by members of that spirit's society. The spirits, like this bird, were represented by masks. During the initiation ceremony, holders of the power “threw” it into the novices so that it became theirs as well. Masks were kept hidden away except at ceremonies.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 16 Feb 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: British Columbia, Canada, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Tsimshian (Ts'msyen)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 113605
label: USNM Number
content: E360364-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Mask
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 23 cm