Amulet consisting of a boar's tusk [.3] with two long thin pieces of bone [.1-.2] strung together. [CAK 27/05/2009]

Collection type: Object
Description: Amulet consisting of a boar's tusk [.3] with two long thin pieces of bone [.1-.2] strung together. [CAK 27/05/2009]
Long description: Amulet consisting of a boar's tusk [.3] with two long thin pieces of bone [.1-.2] strung together. The long thin bones pieces are perforated at one end. [.1] has a greater diameter than [.2]. [.1] is slightly thicker and squared on one end, and thinner and rounded at its other end. The boar's tusk [.3] is hollow and perforated at the end where the root would have attached. The tusk is crescent-shaped and three-sided. [CAK 07/07/2009]
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 1891
Date collected: By 1891
Acquisition information: Purchased: 1891
Materials and processes: Material Boar Tooth Animal, Material Animal Bone, Material String, Process Perforated, Process Carved, Process Strung
Dimensions: Length: max 111 mm, Length: max 115 mm, Length: max 103 mm
Object numbers: Accession number: 1891.49.117.1 Accession number: 1891.49.117.2 Accession number: 1891.49.117.3
Research and responses: 1891.49.117 .1 and .2 are very similar to those objects collected by Capt Pike from a shaman's grave in Skidegate. Given the potential shamanic associations of these objects (Harrison also had a close relationship with the Massett shaman K'udee or Kootay) it is possible that they were worn through the septum of the nose, a practice of shamans commonly depicted in Haida carvings. [CAK 27/05/2009]
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 amulet was viewed alongside shamanic objects on Friday Sept 11, 2009. Christian White identified the material as wild pig tusk, which would have been traded for as wild pigs are not native to Haida Gwaii. See also the entries for 1891.49.110 and 1891.49.118 .1-.3 [CAK 31/03/2010]
Associated publications: Referred to 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, Amulet, Nose Ornament, Medical Accessory