1891.49.33

Collection type

Object

Description

'Medicine man's' necklet of thirteen carved ivory pieces, two of which are carved in animal form.

Long description

Necklace. Medicine man's necklet of thirteen carved ivory pieces, two of which are carved in animal form. Seven of the ivory pieces have been restrung to the necklet using modern white cotton string. The remaining charms are hung by thin strips of leather. The necklet is constructed of a U-shaped piece of wood which has been bound by thin strips of leather and a fibrous cord. The ends of the necklet are decorated with white feathers. [NM 14 1 1997]

Geographical reference

Canada

Northern America > North America > Canada

British Columbia Haida Gwaii (Queen Charlotte Islands) NW Coast

Cultural groups

Haida

Person

Field collector Charles Harrison

PRM source Charles Harrison

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1882-1890

Date collected

Between 1882 and 1890 ?

Acquisition information

Purchased: 02/03/1891

Materials and processes

Material Animal Ivory Tooth, Material Bird Feather, Material Animal Hide Skin, Material Plant Fibre, Material Cedar Wood Plant, Process Carved, Process Incised, Process Perforated, Process Strung, Process Bound

Dimensions

Length 315 mm

Object numbers

Accession number: 1891.49.33

Research and responses

The following information comes from Haida delegates who worked with the museum’s collection in September 2009 as part of the project “Haida Material Culture in British Museums: Generating New Forms of Knowledge”:

This necklace was viewed alongside other shamanic objects on Friday Sept 11, 2009. Christian White identified the materials as a cedar wood base (perhaps from a cedar branch) bound with leather. He thought one of the pendants could be a heron figure. [Cara Krmpotich note: this is likely the pendant second from the end, incised with an eye design and a line to delineate the lower beak from the upper beak.] Delegates requested shamanic material not be on display. [CAK 08/04/2010]

This object was viewed and confirmed as Haida by tribal members Vincent Collison, Lucille Bell, and Kwiiawah Jones on 7 September 2007 in preparation for a planned Haida community visit to PRM in 2009 [L Peers, 24/01/2008]

Associated publications

Referred to ('a shaman's untidy necklace of bones') on p. 8 of 'Haida Art in the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, and the Rev. Charles Harrison', by June Bedford, in European Review of Native American Studies, Vol. XII, no. 2 (1998), pp. 1-10. [JC 16 4 1999]

Search terms: Ornament, Medicine, Figure, Neck Ornament, Medical Accessory, Amulet, Animal Figure