Alaska Native Collections – Sharing Knowledge

2001

Estelle Oozevaseuk: Qawawaaq [carved ivory human figurine]. Those are toys.

Branson Tungiyan: These don’t even have faces. They used to use these little ivory dolls for toys. They pretty much used them out on the beach or somewhere outside. They use these little pebbles to make a house, and then they used them pretty much as toys.

Estelle Oozevaseuk: We never called this taghnughhaghwaaq [doll].(1) The small ones are qawawaaq, an inside house play thing. The small ones would be lost when they used them outside. I used to have lots. We always had a good time with those. These belong to girls, not boys.

Branson Tungiyan: Mm-hmm.

Estelle Oozevaseuk: Boys have animal toys.(2)

Suzi Jones: Did you dress them up or just play with them this way?

Estelle Oozevaseuk: Just played. Only the bigger ones are dolls. We’d dress them up.

Suzi Jones: Did they ever have legs or were they usually shaped like that?

Estelle Oozevaseuk: I think only the kind of idol things had legs and arms.(3) These are just toys. That’s why they make it like that. They can stand up anywhere. On the women’s dress parka the hood is like that [U-shaped extension on head of two figures on right side of image].(4)

[From discussion with Jacob Ahwinona, Estelle Oozevaseuk, Marie Saclamana and Branson Tungiyan (Kawerak, Inc.) at the National Museum of Natural History and National Museum of the American Indian, 5/07/2001-5/11/2001. Also participating: Aron Crowell and Bill Fitzhugh (NMNH) and Suzi Jones (AMHA).]

1. According to St. Lawrence Island Yupik Elder Vera Kaneshiro, this type of small figure is a qawawaaq [carved ivory human figurine], which is smaller than a taghnughhaghwaaq [doll]. A taghnughhaghwaaq was made from wood or bone.

2. See E333175.

3. According to Vera Kaneshiro, an alingtiiritaq [amulet/good luck charm/household guardian], as a household guardian, was usually made from wood and was larger than a taghnughhaghwaaq. An alingtiiritaq was placed at the entrance of a home for protection against bad spirits and to scare away enemies. See E063244. An agha [amulet/medicine/aspirin] included animal figures and was used to bring good luck, to protect against harm and for healing.

4. According to Vera Kaneshiro, the top of the head on two figures (right side of image) is shaped like the nasaq [hood] of a woman’s winter gut parka.

Some carved figures were dolls for girls to play with, but others were made for religious purposes. The oldest examples are walrus ivory figurines from the Old Bering Sea and Okvik archaeological periods (A.D. 100-900).(1)

Wood and walrus ivory dolls from St. Lawrence Island resemble those from other regions of the Bering Sea. Most have only a head and torso, without limbs.(2) Girls often dressed their dolls in miniature skin clothing.

1. Collins 1937; Fitzhugh and Crowell 1988; Wardwell 1986

2. Nelson 1899:342-44; Fitzhugh and Kaplan 1982:153-57; Lee 1999; Ray 1977