Wooden Dish
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1879
name: label: Collector
content: Edward W. Nelson
label: Donor Name
content: Edward W. Nelson
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "Smaller Than No. 38642. OVAL WOODEN DISH. SEPARATE PIECE FITTED AS SLIGHTLY CONCAVE BOTTOM. SIDES & INSIDE RIM PAINTED RED. BLACK PAINTING ON INSIDE BOTTOM OF REINDEER AND MYTHICAL REINDEER ROPED TOGETHER FACING EACH OTHER. 1/83 SITES INUA LOAN. LOAN: U.S.I.A. INUA JUN 24 1988. ILLUS.: INUA CATALOGUE. USIA 1988, PL.13, P.14. LOAN RETURNED DEC 28 1990." Bentwood. USIA Inua catalogue identifies: "A caribou and its inua are illustrated on this bowl, connected via a symbolic lifeline joining the throats of the two animals. The spiritual caribou is shown with spiked appendages instead of hind limbs. Carved and painted lifelines and encircling grooves gave spiritual life even to objects made by humans."
label: Notes
content: This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.
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=88 , retrieved 10-24-2018; see web page for additional information: Bowl, Yup'ik. "When I became aware of life, we already had wooden bowls like this, just our size. Our dad had a large bowl, our mom had a smaller one, and beginning with our oldest brother we all had bowls ... When I walked into the middle of the men's house, I used to see bowls being made by elderly men." - John Phillip, Sr., 2002 This wooden food dish, painted inside with a caribou connected to a caribou spirit, has a carved bottom and a bentwood rim. Everyone had a personal eating bowl which was decorated with inherited family designs. Men and older boys ate in the qasgiq (men's ceremonial house), receiving meals brought there by their wives, daughters, or sisters. In the qasgiq, men carved bowls from driftwood pieces they collected during summer. Making new dishes was part of preparing for the Bladder Festival (Nakaciuryaraq) when the souls of seals were symbolically returned to the sea.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 30 Jan 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Nulukhtulogumut, Yukon & Kuskokwim Delta, Alaska, United States, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Eskimo, Yup'ik
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 008133
label: USNM Number
content: E38644-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Bowl
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 24.2 cm
label: Width
content: 15.5 cm