Model Of Sacred Taime-Image
date: label: Accession Date
content: 25 Jun 1897
name: label: Collector
content: Mr. James Mooney
label: Donor Name
content: Bureau Of American Ethnology
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "Accession papers contain merely a slip in Mooney's hand reading "Kiowa model of sacred taime image. James Mooney, 1895." Scott, Hugh Lenoc. Notes on the Kado, or sun dance of the Kiowa. American Anthropologist n.s. 13(3): 345-379, 1911, p. 349 "The taimay image is kept with the greatest reverence and is never exposed except at the time of the kado. Mooney tried in vain, for a year, to get a model of it, but, although many Kiowa were familiar with its appearance, it was considered too sacred to be copied, and he left the west without it. Fortunately I was able to procure one, which was sent after him, and it is of this he speaks in the memoir above cited. (i.e., the "calendar history of the Kiowa" in BAE Annual Report 17, 1898). Illustrated: back view, Mooney 1898: pl. lxix; M.P. Mayhall, the Kiowas (Norman, 1962), btw. pp. 222-223 (from same negative). Examined in study collections 6 Nov 74: In good condition except that top feather shown in photo is missing.-W. Sturtevant 6 Nov 74. Slender stick, with a buckskin roll at the center which is formed into balls at one end and painted with face features, and has skin strips and feathers covering this whole center part which is the "image". Also some strings of small blue beads hanging around the neck.
label: Notes
content: Model of Taime. Wooden stick with pointed end to which is tied a buckskin figure. Body painted yellow with crescents and circle in blue, head painted green with features indicated in blue. Multiple strands of blue beads around neck. Figure completely cloaked in mantle of white, downy feathers. Face covered with twisted pendant strips of hide. 35.25" (90 cm). Records: Kiowa model of sacred Taime image. James Mooney, 1895. The Taime image is kept with the greatest reverence and is never exposed except at the time of the Kado. Mooney tried in vain, for a year, to get a model of it but, although many Kiowa were familiar with its appearance, it was considered too sacred to be copied, and he left the west without it. Fortunately, I was able to procure one, which was sent after him. From Scott 1911. Ilustrated in BAE- AR 17, 1898; pl. lxix; Mayhall 1962. (A, C). (from Merrill, William L. et al. 1997. A Guide to the Kiowa Collections at the Smithsonian Institution. Smithsonian Contributions to Anthropology, no. 40. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.)
label: Record Last Modified
content: 1 Dec 2020
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Not Given, Oklahoma, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Kiowa
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 032272
label: USNM Number
content: E176689-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Medicine Object Model