Ear Ornaments
date: label: Accession Date
content: 1876
name: label: Collector
content: James G. Swan
label: Donor Name
content: James G. Swan
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "HALIOTIS INLAID. ILLUS. IN USNM AR, 1888, PL. 7, FIG. 23, P. 260."
label: Notes
content: FROM 19TH CENTURY OR EARLY 20TH CENTURY EXHIBIT LABEL WITH CARD: "EAR ORNAMENTS.---RED SKEINS OF WOOL, TO WHICH ARE PENDANT TO-TEMS OF CARVED SHELL, HALIOTIS CALIFORNIANUS, INLAID WITH HALIOTIS KAMSCHATKENSIS. WORN BY NASSES [NASS] INDIAN, NEAR FORT SIMPSON. LENGTH, 9 INS. BREADTH, 1 1/2 INS. BRITISH COLUMBIA, 1875. 20,674. COLLECTED BY J.G. SWAN."
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 http://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=528, retrieved 4-24-2012: Ear ornaments or earrings. Ear ornaments made of yarn and abalone shell were a symbol of nobility. Fathers or uncles hosted potlatches to pierce the ears of their high-born children, nephews, and nieces, and the full measure of prestige was to reach adulthood with four holes on each side. The wise, elderly figure of Mouse Woman appears in Tsimshian sacred histories to offer advice to people in their dealings with supernatural beings. In payment she always asks for the person's wool earrings, which she burns and eats or takes away for lining her nest. Symbolically, ear perforations were connected with hearing, understanding, and wisdom of the kind that Mouse Woman offered.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 29 Dec 2023
label: Specimen Count
content: 2
place: label: Place
content: Fort Simpson, British Columbia, Canada, North America
topic: label: Topic
content: Ethnology
culture: label: Culture
content: Tsimshian (Ts'msyen)
label: Culture
content: Tsimshian (Ts'msyen), Nass River (?)
label: Culture
content: Tsimshian (Ts'msyen), Nisga'a (?)
setName: label: See more items in
content: Anthropology
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: NMNH - Anthropology Dept.
identifier: label: Accession Number
content: 004686
label: USNM Number
content: E20674-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Earring
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 23 cm
label: Width - Object
content: 3.8 cm
label: Length - Object
content: 5.5 cm