Carving - Model of a Shaman's Grave
date: label: Accession Date
content: 7 Jun 1912
label: Collection Date
content: 1878 to 1909
name: label: Collector
content: Gov John G. Brady
label: Donor Name
content: Mrs. Edward H. Harriman
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "Box, painted inside with totemic designs in which a "Doctor" [shaman] is lying in state. The figure wears only a breechclout of painted leather. Loaned to Renwick Celebrations 12/17/81, Returned 1982. Illus.: p. 34, pl. 190, Celebrations catalogue, Smithsonian Press, 1982. [Caption from Celebrations catalogue is taped to back of card:] Model of Grave, 1880-1912, Tlingit Indians; Alaska, wood, sinew, nails, paint. For most Tlingits a funeral consisted of cremating the corpse and placing its ashes in a box ina "grave house." It was thought that the soulds of the deceased would be more comfortable in the afterworld near a fire. From the position of the body and the type of box, this Tlingit model most likely represents the grave of a shaman. Funerary practices for shamans were much more involved than those for ordinary persons. The shaman himself usually selected his grave site. There were strictly prescribed ways for preparing the body and for leaving it inthe grave house. Once it was installed in the house, villagers feared and avoided the site. Anyone passing the grave made an offering of tobacco to the spirt of the shaman. Tlingits believed that the body of a shaman did not decay but rather dried up and that the fingernails continued to grow - even through the boards of the grave house."
label: Record Last Modified
content: 7 Jul 2021
label: Specimen Count
content: 2
place: label: Place
content: Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Tlingit (?)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 054171
label: USNM Number
content: E274274-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Figure