Ear Ornaments, Beads & Ivory (1 Pair)
date: label: Accession Date
content: 23 Nov 1927
name: label: Collector
content: Dr. Henry B. Collins Jr.
label: Collector
content: Dr. T. Dale Stewart
label: Donor Name
content: Dr. Henry B. Collins Jr.
notes: label: Notes
content: From card: "Ear ornament, approaching a lozenge in shape with pendant beads, five rows of them, white, blue, gold, red, green. 49 cm. long from one ear piece to another. Same as 340325. Illus.: Hndbk. N. amer. Ind., Vol. 5, Arctic, fig. 10A, pg. 217."
label: Notes
content: Illus. Fig. 324 p. 240 in Fitzhugh, William W., and Aron Crowell. 1988. Crossroads of continents: cultures of Siberia and Alaska. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press. Identified there: "Earrings and necklace are combined in a single piece of jewelry purchased on Nunivak Island in 1927 .... Beads were saved and reused for generations, so that this piece includes a few early 19th-century "wound" beads (dark blue-green oblates) along with a variety of newer tube and seed beads."
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=347 , retrieved 11-23-2021; see web page for additional information: Earrings, Yup'ik. A woman's ivory earrings (in the shape of halibut) are connected by a necklace of glass beads that hang below the chin. Yup'ik Elder Annie Blue of Togiak gave the name agluirutet for earrings that are connected with strands of beads. This set was collected on Nunivak Island in 1927. Yup'ik and Cup'ik women, especially those living in villages south of the lower Yukon River, wore earrings, necklaces, and labrets (lip ornaments) in a wide variety of designs that combined glass trade beads with walrus ivory hooks and fasteners. Men also wore labrets and earrings. Beaded jewelry was part of the regalia that people wore during ceremonies and dances. On Nunivak Island, women pierced young girls' ears using a rolled up piece of tin, then inserted braided caribou hair or an ivory pin to keep the holes from closing. Men pierced boys' ears, using the stone tip of a drill.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 23 Nov 2021
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Nunivak Island, Bering Sea / Nunivak Island Quad, 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: 096521
label: USNM Number
content: E340331-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Earring
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 63 cm