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The face is carved with fairly naturalistic features, and the surface has been cut with shallow parallel grooves about the forehead, eyes, and cheeks to portray the wrinkling of advanced age. The eyebrows, mustache, and beard were once overlaid with another material, perhaps white mountain goat hide, held in place with wooden pegs. The eyes have been cut through with narrow vision-slits below the irises, probably done since the time it was the property of the doctor, as most shaman's masks are unsighted. It may have been worn to represent an ancestor or other significant participant in the history and mythology of its clan ownership. (From the Catalog of the Thaw Collection of American Indian Art, 2nd ed.)
ProvenanceLt. George T. Emmons collected from a Chilkat shaman, Raven moiety, Klukwan, Alaska 1884-1893: American Museum of Natural History, New York City (E/686); Staatliches Museum fur Volkerkunde, Dresden, Germany, 1898; Everett Rassiga; George Terasaki, New York City
BibliographyVincent, Gilbert et al. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2000, p.384.
Fognell, Eva and Alexander Brier Marr, eds. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection at the Fenimore Art Museum, 2nd ed. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2016, p. 425.
Culture
Tlingit
Mask
Date1830-1860
DimensionsOverall: 8 × 6 1/4 × 3 in. (20.3 × 15.9 × 7.6 cm)
Object numberT0215
Credit LineLoan from the Eugene V. and Clare E. Thaw Charitable Trust
Photograph by John Bigelow Taylor, NYC
Label TextThis mask formerly belonged to a Chilkat shaman of the Raven moiety of Klukwan, Alaska. Lt. George T. Emmons recorded that the identity of the image represents the spirit of an old man, and was once used to manifest the power of this spirit-being in ceremonies for healings and divinations. After the shaman's death and the breakdown of cultural taboos against the handling of doctor's paraphernalia, the mask was worn on general ceremonial occasions.The face is carved with fairly naturalistic features, and the surface has been cut with shallow parallel grooves about the forehead, eyes, and cheeks to portray the wrinkling of advanced age. The eyebrows, mustache, and beard were once overlaid with another material, perhaps white mountain goat hide, held in place with wooden pegs. The eyes have been cut through with narrow vision-slits below the irises, probably done since the time it was the property of the doctor, as most shaman's masks are unsighted. It may have been worn to represent an ancestor or other significant participant in the history and mythology of its clan ownership. (From the Catalog of the Thaw Collection of American Indian Art, 2nd ed.)
ProvenanceLt. George T. Emmons collected from a Chilkat shaman, Raven moiety, Klukwan, Alaska 1884-1893: American Museum of Natural History, New York City (E/686); Staatliches Museum fur Volkerkunde, Dresden, Germany, 1898; Everett Rassiga; George Terasaki, New York City
BibliographyVincent, Gilbert et al. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2000, p.384.
Fognell, Eva and Alexander Brier Marr, eds. Art of the North American Indians: The Thaw Collection at the Fenimore Art Museum, 2nd ed. Cooperstown, New York: Fenimore Art Museum, 2016, p. 425.
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