Doll
date: label: Accession Date
content: 27 Sep 1883
name: label: Donor Name
content: Charles L. McKay
notes: label: Notes
content: FROM CARD: "LOAN: U.S.I.A. INUA JUN 24 1988. ILLUS.: INUA CATALOGUE USIA 1988, PL.74, P.51. LOAN RETURNED DEC 28 1990." Identified in catalogue as "This doll displays the typical clothing and ornamentation of a young female Yupik speaker. She is wearing earrings, labrets, and beads in her nose. Usually girls stopped wearing nose beads after their first menstruation."
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=116 , retrieved 10-26-2021; see web page for additional information: Doll, Yup'ik. A Yup'ik girl's dolls were toys as well as symbols of her future life as an adult. A girl played house with them, using miniature dishes and tools and blankets made of mouse skins. There was a strict rule against taking a doll outside during winter and breaking it was thought to bring endless cold and storms. Girls took their "pretend children" outdoors only after certain migrating birds - on Nelson Island, the red-throated loon - appeared in the spring. A Yup'ik girl's dolls were toys but also symbols of her future life as an adult. As a young girl she might have many wood, bone, and ivory dolls of different sizes, and played "house" with them using doll-sized dishes, grass mats, blankets (made from mouse skins) and women's tools. Her mother made clothing for the dolls but by the age of eight of so a girl began sewing miniature parkas for them by herself. As discussed by Elders, doll clothing, jewelry (beads, labrets), and tattoos represented styles worn by people in the community. There were strict rules against playing with dolls inside the house or during winter, which if broken might endanger the whole community by bringing endless cold and storms. Girls could take out their dolls in spring only after certain birds (on Nelson Island, the red-throated loon) appeared on their annual migrations. Bringing dolls out of the house in spring when new life begins all around has been interpreted as a ritual of symbolic birth. When a girl had her first menstruation she went through an extended period of restriction from the normal life of the village .... A special feast called "putting away the doll" marked her maturation as a woman. She unwrapped the dolls from her kakivik [sewing bag] and gave them away to her younger companions, a ceremony that marked her new social role and ability to give birth to real children who would become part of the community. She also gave away another girlhood toy, her story knife.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 2 Feb 2022
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Bristol Bay, 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: 013527
label: USNM Number
content: E55904-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Doll
physicalDescription: label: Height - Object
content: 44 cm