Fishing Implement, Net Buoys Or Floats
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1879
name: label: Collector
content: Edward W. Nelson
label: Donor Name
content: Edward W. Nelson
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "ILLUS. IN BAE 18TH AR, PT. 1; PL. LXX-9; P. 184. 1/83 SITES INUA LOAN. NELSON P. 188-189; "IN ADDITION TO THE WOODEN FLOATS, OTHERS ARE MADE FROM THE INFLATED BLADDERS OR STOMACHS OF VARIOUS ANIMALS. FIG. 9(P1.LXX), ILLUSTRATES A SET OF THREE SUCH FLOATS AND A WOODEN MARKER FLOAT FOR USE ON ONE END OF THE NET." THUMBLESS HAND-BLACKENED FINGER TIPS, CENTRAL BLACKENED DEPRESSION=PIERCED HAND WHICH HAS MYTHOLOGICAL LINKS. LOAN: U.S.I.A. INUA JUN 24 1988. ILLUS.: INUA CATALOGUE. USIA 1988, PL.15, P. 15. LOAN RETURNED DEC 28 1990." USIA Inua catalogue identifies: "Net float ... a series of three uninflated bladder floats attached to a wooden float which would have marked the end of the net. This net float is in the shape of a thumbless hand, a common symbolic representation of uncertain meaning. Usually it is combined, as here, with a hole through the palm of the hand which symbolizes the game that the tunghat allow to escape through the hole in the skyworld for the consumption of humans."
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 https://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=564 , retrieved 10-26-2021; see web page for additional information: Net floats, Yup'ik. This set of net floats includes inflatable gut bladders that were spaced along the top of a fish net, and a wooden hand that floated at one end. Hands with no thumbs represented deities thought to control the passage of game from sky to earth; without thumbs these spirits could not hold the animals back. The circle in the palm represented a passage through which the animals traveled; it was also an eye for them to see into the human world. The float symbolizes the return of migrating fish and invites them to gaze on their human captors.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 30 Jan 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Big Lake, Yukon & Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Yup'ik
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 008133
label: USNM Number
content: E38867-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Net Float
physicalDescription: label: Length - Wooden Float
content: 25.5 cm