Casine" sic Kazig. 9 carved figures, 4 musicians with drums, seated on bench opposite entryway. 4 dancers, 1 in hole. 3 lamp stands in position near benches. (9 figures total). Made from various soft conifer wood, nails, black paint.
Donor:
Alaska Commercial Company, Benjamin Bristol, and Older University Collections
Collection place:
Western Alaska
Verbatim coll. place:
Alaska
Culture or time period:
Alaskan Eskimo
Collector:
Harry Marcus Weston Edmonds
Collection date:
1890-1891
Materials:
Antler (material) and Gut (animal material)
Object type:
ethnography
Object class:
Carvings (visual works)
Function:
4.1 Dwellings and Furnishings, 5.1 Religion and Divination: Objects and garb associated with practices reflecting submission, devotion, obedience, and service to supernatural agencies, and 5.7 Objects made for sale, souvenirs, models, and reproductions
Accession date:
1904
Department:
Native US and Canada (except California)
Dimensions:
width 42 centimeters, length 64 centimeters, and height 33.5 centimeters
Comment:
Native name and meaning: Kazig = public house. Conservation: vacuumed inside and out. Restoration: Model restructured according to photograph in publication noted below. [p. 129, 130] Dowels holding figures were, in some cases replaced and glued (with Elmers Glue), one side only, to the figures or the structure. Photo: Yes. Published: Ray, Dorothy, Jean Ed., The Eskimo of St. Michael and Vicinity As Related by H.M.W. Edmonds, 1966, University of Alaska; also Ray, Eskimo Art (1977), fig. 143. Ray: "Four drummers and four dancers greet a man emerging from the underground entrance to a kazgi, St. Michael, 1890 or 1898....H.M.W. Edmonds...said in his manuscript that the figures were out of proportion to the building....A photograph of the exterior with the roof on and two drying racks above it [like LMA 2-144] was also included in Edmonds'' manuscript...The drum players wear black pants, and two of the dancers, red-brown pants....Three of the drumheads have been recovered.