Carved Ivory Otter Charm
date: label: Accession Date
content: 16 Dec 1879
name: label: Donor Name
content: Lucien M. Turner
notes: label: Notes
content: 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."
label: Notes
content: This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.
label: Notes
content: Illus. Fig. 118a, p. 113 in Black, Lydia. 2003. Aleut art = Unangam aguqaadangin. Virginia Beach, VA: Donning Co. Publishers.
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=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.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 14 Feb 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Aleutian Islands, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Aleut (Unangax^ ; Unangan; Unangas)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 79A00065
label: USNM Number
content: E35905-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Charm
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 4.5 cm