Carved Rattle (Shisha)
date: label: Accession Date
content: 21 Dec 1883
label: Collection Date
content: Oct 1883
name: label: Collector
content: James G. Swan
label: Donor Name
content: James G. Swan
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "See U.S.N.M. [Annual] Report 1888, pl. LIV, fig. 288 [after p.324] .... Niblack. See pl. LIII, [after] p. 324 [for a similar rattle]. Representing the raven. [The card information that follows is from the second/copy of the Anthropology catalogue ledger book entry on this artifact, where it has been added in a different hand from the main ledger page entries:] The lower part of the bird represents the thunder bird. The tail is turned up and carried so as to represent a [blank]. The bird carries on his back a reclining figure which holds its knees. It represents the land otter."
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=632 , retrieved 6-24-2012: Rattle This rattle shows Raven carrying the sun in his beak. On Raven's back, a human-Ulala (Cannibal) figure extends its tongue into the beak of a crested bird, symbolizing the exchange of spiritual power between the two beings. A sparrow hawk design covers Raven's belly. Shamans, who used these rattles in healing ceremonies, believed that healing and clairvoyant powers came from birds and animals. Chiefs carried raven rattles during ceremonies of the Haida secret societies. "The humanoid is being transformed when its tongue goes into the frog or bird; the rattle is showing a transformation that is used for healing. This type of rattle was not used for evil; it was used for good. I think we have to really emphasize that this is a healing rattle." - Delores Churchill (Haida), 2005
label: Notes
content: Listed on page 42 in "The Exhibits of the Smithsonian Institution at the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, California, 1915", in section "Arts of the Northwest Coast Tribes".
label: Record Last Modified
content: 4 Feb 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Skidegate, Queen Charlotte Islands (Haida Gwaii) / Graham Island, British Columbia, Canada, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Haida
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 013804
label: USNM Number
content: E89078-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Rattle
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 35 cm