Whale Fetish
date: label: Accession Date
content: 10 Oct 1913
name: label: Collector
content: Riley D. Moore
label: Donor Name
content: U.S. National Museum
notes: label: Notes
content: There are 2 objects with this number. One is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027 [the other remains at NMNH - MSC]
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 https://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=324 , retrieved 7-17-2018; see web page for additional information: Figure (for whaling ritual). Carvings of bowhead whales were used in Kamegtaaq, a thanksgiving ceremony held after the whaling season. The whale figure, with a tuft of reindeer hair to represent its spout, was hung above the seal oil lamp in a whaling captain's house. Beginning with the captain, each man and a female partner swung the figure back and forth to each other across the burning lamp. Catching the whale carving reenacted the real hunt, which also requires the cooperation of women and men. Afterward each woman gave her partner a pair of new skin boots (kamek), from which the ceremony gets its name.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 26 Apr 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 2
place: label: Place
content: St. Lawrence Island, Bering Sea, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Yupik, St. Lawrence Island
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 055962
label: USNM Number
content: E280155-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Figure
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 30 cm