Woman's Knife
date: label: Accession Date
content: 21 Dec 1866
name: label: Donor Name
content: Roderick R. MacFarlane
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "ILLUS. IN USNM AR, 1890; PL. 56, FIG. 3; P. 416 (ULU) BLADE OF SHEET IRON, INSERTED WITHOUT RIVETS INTO A SLIT IN THE HANDLE OF WALRUS IVORY. THE LATTER IS EXCAVED ON BOTH SIDES TO FIT THE HAND AND ORNAMENTED WITH WHALEBONE PLACED THROUGH PERFORATIONS IN THE UPPER BORDER WITH SLIGHT VARIATIONS. ILLUS. HNDBK. N. AMER. IND., VOL. 5, ARCTIC, PG. 353, FIG. 7A."
label: Notes
content: Source of the information below: Inuvialuit Pitqusiit Inuuniarutait: Inuvialuit Living History, The MacFarlane Collection website, by the Inuvialuit Cultural Resource Centre (ICRC), Inuvik, N.W.T., Canada (website credits here http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/posts/12 ), entry on this artifact http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/items/21 , retrieved 12-17-2019: Ulu with an iron blade and ivory handle. The handle has a transverse slot along the bottom edge into which the blade has been inserted, and an elongated perforation has been cut through the handle to provide a hand grip. Seven holes have been drilled through the top of the handle, through which strands of baleen have been laced, probably to enhance the grip when working with slippery materials. The curved cutting edge has been sharpened by filing along both sides. More information here: http://www.inuvialuitlivinghistory.ca/item_types/58: An ulu is a knife with a crescent-shaped blade attached to a handle made of wood, bone or antler. The design of an ulu ensures that the cutting force is centred more over the middle of the blade than with an ordinary knife. Ulus are used for skinning animals, scraping skins, cutting hides when sewing as well as for other household tasks. They are sometimes called 'women's knives' since they usually are associated with women's tasks.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 21 Apr 2020
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Northwest Territories, Canada, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Inuit, Inuvialuk (Inuvialuit)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 66A00090
label: USNM Number
content: E1630-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Knife