Brown Wooden Ladle
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: "38503-8. #38503-ILLUS. IN BAE 18TH AR, PT. 1; PL. XXX-19. FROM CARD: "(DUP. CARD). ILLUS. BAE 18TH AR, PT.1; PL. XXX-16 [sic, this should be Pl. XXX-19]; P.78. LOANED TO ALASKA STATE MUSEUM 3-31-83. LOAN RETURNED 09 23 87."
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=86 , retrieved 11-21-2021; see web page for additional information: Ladle, Yup'ik. The design painted on this serving ladle shows a large seal that has been harpooned. The harpoon line comes out of its back and connects to a float made from an inflated small seal skin. The harpoon shaft (a crossways line) is also shown. When seals were killed, women used a ladle like this to offer them fresh water. A man made all of the wooden utensils needed by his family including serving ladles and spoons. He gathered the wood he needed in summer and crafted these objects during winter in the men's communal house. The drawing of a seal hunt on this ladle recalls a traditional ritual practice. Women greeted seals that their husbands had killed, using an angassaq [ladle] to offer the animal fresh snow or drinking water and to sprinkle moisture on the animal's flipper joints. Her greeting was believed to complete the seal's journey from water to land, to satisfy its thirst, and please its spirit so that it and other seals would come to the hunter again. Paintings on ladles and food dishes represented stories that were owned by individual families.
label: Record Last Modified
content: 21 Nov 2021
label: Specimen Count
content: 1
place: label: Place
content: Kinugumut Village, Kuskokwim River, Lower, 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: E38503-0
objectType: label: Object Type
content: Spoon
physicalDescription: label: Length - Object
content: 27 cm