Fishhook Decorated with an Ivory Seal
Unknown people (Alaska Native)
Western Arctic
Arctic
late 19th or early 20th century
Brass, copper, ivory, and sinew
Overall: 1 11/16 in. (4.3 cm)
Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth: Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College
29.58.7934
Geography
Place Made: United States, North America
Period
19th century
Object Name
Tools and Equipment: Hunting and Fishing
Research Area
Native American
Native American: Arctic-Western Arctic
On view
Label
The ivory seal on the fishing hook at center was likely carved from walrus tusk. Cast into the water, the seal’s spirit helped the person fishing attract their prey. Other small carvings in this case portray ducks, puffins, and other animals that live in or near the water. These were traded with settler communities, but within Inuit, Yup’ik, and Iñupiaq communities, adults used these carvings to teach children about the local Arctic environment.
Today, Indigenous-led activism and knowledge of the arctic ecosystem, which includes caring for fish and ensuring their survival, informed a recently implemented international ban on commercial fishing in center of the Arctic Ocean. Who is protecting the water in your community?
From the 2023 exhibition Liquidity: Art, Commodities, and Water, curated by Michael Hartman, Jonathan Little Cohen Associate Curator of American Art
Course History
ENVS 80, BIOL 148, Polar Science, Policy, and Ethics, Ross Virginia, Spring 2012
ENVS 80, BIOL 148, Polar Science, Policy, and Ethics, Ross Virginia, Spring 2013
ANTH 74, The Human Spectrum, Nate Dominy, Spring 2022
First Year Student Enrichment Program - Cultures, Identities and Belongings, Francine A'Ness, Summer 2023
Exhibition History
Anthropology of Religion, Harrington Gallery Teaching Exhibition, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, Anthropology 48, March 30-May 2, 2004.
Liquidity: Art, Commodities, and Water, Israel Sack Gallery and the Rush Family Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, July 29, 2023-June 16, 2024.
Survival/Art/History: American Indian Collections from the Hood Museum of Art, Alvin P. Gutman Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, November 18, 2000-April 7, 2002.
Thin Ice: Inuit Traditions within a Changing Environment, Friends and Owen Robertson Cheatham Galleries, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, Juanuary 27-May 13,2007.
Publication History
Nicole Stuckenberger, Thin Ice: Inuit Traditions within a Changing Environment, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2007, cover, no.20.
Robert L. Welsch and Luis A. Vivanco, Cultural Anthropology: Asking Questions About Humanity, New York: Oxford University Press, 2015, 461 pp., ill. p. 359.
Provenance
Source unknown [possibly New Hampshire Historical Society, Concord, New Hampshire]; catalogued, 1929.
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