#kwakiutl

[arthistoryanimalia]

For #WorldOrcaDay here are 2 examples of #orca (aka killer whale) headdresses from the Northwest Coast that the dancer could animate with moving parts:

1. Haida - “dancer could roll its eyes or move lower jaw” Carnegie Museum of Natural History

2. Kwakiutl - “dancer pulled strings to make the pectoral fins, tail flukes & jaw move” Field Museum

[noosphe-re]

[emperornorton47]

Man-eating bird, Kwakiutl

[usunezukoinezu]

'' At one point in the film we see, in slow motion, an eagle swoop down and lift a fish from the waters of Alert Bay, a background voice saying, “Our people were so, so rich; rich with wealth, not money…. We had a really good system here that went on since the beginning of time.” In cases like that, the verb “to be” (“potlatch is”) is best conjugated not in the simple present but in what has been called the “prophetic perfect,” a tense that bespeaks a perennial life constantly blooming in the present moment. ''

-Lewis Hyde, The Gift

[memoriae-lectoris]

The Bella Coola and the Kwakiutl societies of the Pacific Northwest provide a striking example of how establishing connections between kin groups sometimes took precedence over sexual or reproductive issues in determining marriage. If two families wished to trade with each other, but no suitable matches were available, a marriage contract might be drawn up between one individual and another’s foot or even with a dog belonging to the family of the desired in - laws !

[cankersoresob]

[arthistoryanimalia]

For #WorldOtterDay + #Woodensday:

Top: wooden sea otter effigy feast bowl, Kwakiutl culture Bottom: wooden bowl with sea otter at one end & human at other, Haida culture

Both collected in 1897, now on display at Field Museum in Chicago.

[donwidmerpaperarts]

“Transformation” is a handmade paper artwork featuring watermarks as a significant part of the design. Swipe to see it backlit. Read more about the creation of this piece on my brand new blog (link in profile). This framed piece is now 50% off the listed price on Etsy, with code TRANSFORM. #donwidmerpaperarts #handmadepaper #watermarks #hamatsa #totems #masks #pacificnorthwest #kwakiutl https://www.instagram.com/p/CdYwkU_rcTy/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[formlines]

Ḱumugwe’

Troy Kwakseethala

[joeinct]

Kwakiutl person dressed as a forest spirit, British Columbia, Photo by Edward S Curtis, 1914

[adobe-outdesign]

Have you reviewed the Natu line yet? I feel they’re forgotten about these day

I honestly really like this line. There's just something really appealing about a bunch of barely-moving psychic birds that stand around witnessing The Horrors(TM) 24/7.

Natu doesn't strictly speaking need to exist, but it's different looking enough from its evo—possessing tail feathers, a distinct wing pattern, and a completely different body shape—that it still stands on its own visually if not conceptually.

In addition to the vaguely indigenous patterns, it also has a very nice color palette, using green, red, and yellow. It looks colorful enough due to the different hues, but the limited amount keeps it pretty coherent. The completely flat eye also helps convey the "staring in the future" idea nicely.

Xatu is a really solid continuation of Natu's main traits, keeping the same palette and distinctive eye and markings, but expanding the design to include a much more well-defined body shape and increasing the complexity of the patterns.

Another neat thing is that it expands upon the vague artistic notions of Natu by gaining a totem pole theme, what with it not moving and having a "second head" with its chest markings (it's even named after the xat, a pole specifically used as a memorial to the dead).

I do sort of wish this line had been a bit more specific about which cultures and totem poles they were aiming for, as they all different significance and mashing them all together feels a bit wishy-washy. Still, it's not the point of being inconsiderate by any means, just vague.

Honestly, I have no problems with these two beyond that, but I do think they could use an evo (or something mega-esq). Totem poles are not only beautiful, but can be extremely complex, often sporting multiple figures in one pole depending on culture and meaning. One of the world's tallest story poles was carved by the Kwakiutl tribal chief Mungo Martin and looks remarkably like the line, to get an idea of what I'm thinking:

Add more markings, give it an entire (true) second head or beak, make it taller... really, the concept is right there. The line's not particularly strong either, so it could use the boost.

Anyway, overall, this is a very strong line with striking visuals and a strong, straightforward concept. Aside from some inspirational vagueness, it's dang near perfect in my book.

[thehipone]

more Owlk art!!! Inspired by Kwakiutl indigenous art because the patterns on the Stranger and the Owlks' architecture reminded me of it

[transgenderer]

According to the expressions used by the Kwakiutl, a wife is "obtained in war" from a foreign tribe. The chiefs make war upon the princesses of the tribes. The subject of one of the favorite folk tales is the story of a man who makes war against the chiefs of foreign tribes and, by the mere threat of an attack, induces them to give him their daughters, either to be his own wife or that of one of his brothers or near relatives Boas and Hunt, 1905, 209). The fiction is also maintained in the actual marriage ceremonies, which occasionally include a sham battle between the wooing party and the relatives of the bride, or in which the groom's party is subjected to tests that show that the powers of the bride's father cannot vanquish them.

Aside from this fiction, marriage is conducted on the basis of the pot-latch. Setting aside minor details, an agreement is first reached between the parents or, after their death, by those who assume the parents' re-sponsibility. The payment to be made to the girl's parents having been agreed upon, a binder is paid by the grooms representatives. When the number of blankets setled upon has been accumulated by loans from the groom's numayma, the bride price is delivered to the house of the brides father. In addition to the stipulated price, blankets are paid to call de princess and to still others to "lift the princess from the floor of the house Then the bride is handed over to her future husband's party, and her father gives her husband blankets to represent her mat (le'we), food, and household goods, such as boxes, baskets, dishes, and spoons needed by the young couple. The value of these is often almost, if not quite, equal to the pries paid. In some cases, the bride's father gives at the same time a copper, names, and privileges to his son-in-law, but ordinarily this payment is deferred until a later time, generally after the birth of a child, when "the repayment of the marriage debt" takes place. This does not consist of blankets, but of "bad things, trifles," which include food, house. hold goods of all kinds and particularly a copper, names, and privileges which are handed over in the "privilege box." The value of the goods paid at this time is far in excess of what the bride's father has received. It is important to note that the only payment in the recognized standards of value is made by the groom. All the return payments are in objects.

The fiction that the marriage is one between two tribes or villages is maintained throughout. The groom's party is said to arrive by canoe, and when repaying the marriage debt, the father-in-law is supposed to arrive on a catamaran- two canoes tied together and covered with a platform of planks. The mast of the catamaran is the copper given to the son in law.

After the repayment of the marriage debt, the obligations of the contracting parties have been fulfilled, and the marriage is ended. If the young wife continues to stay with her husband, she stays

"for nothing," which is not dignified. A new contract has to be made in the same way as the first one, but the payments are generally much less. The whole matter seems to be a little more of a formality, although proud and rich people may make the same extravagant payments as they did in the first marriage. In the records of marriages in which many children are born, there are no references to this attitude, although the principle of the end of the marriage after the repayment of the marriage debt is clearly in the minds of the Indians. The repayment of the marriage debt may be delayed for several years and the children born during this period receive names and privileges from their maternal grandfather. Undue delay of the repayment of the marriage debt is liable to cause trouble. When a certain man seemed to evade this duty, his son-in-law had an image representing his wife carved. At a feast to which he had invited the people, he put a stone around the neck of the image and sank it in the sea. Thus he blemished the rank of his father-in-law.

Often, after the annulment of a marriage through repayment of the marriage debt, the woman is married to another man. I shall give an example of this later on. After four marriages, her high rank is established, and it seems to be assumed that after this she should stay with her last husband.

The advance in social rank arising from the potlatch features of the marriage often overshadows entirely the primary object of a marriage, namely, the establishment of a family. Instead of this, the transfer of names and privileges becomes the primary consideration, and fictitious marriages are performed, the sole object of which is the transfer of names, privileges, and property previously described.

Difficulties arise when no daughter is available through whose marriage a name may be transmitted to her offspring. It cannot be done directly through the marriage of a son. For instance, a certain chief had two wives and only one son. The son married two wives but had no issue. Then the chief "turned the left side of his son's body" into a woman and gave him the name belonging to the eldest daughter of his line. Soon another chief, who wished to get the names belonging to the father of the man whose one side had been turned into a woman, wooed her, and the whole marriage ceremony was performed. The young man stayed in his father's house, but when the time for the transfer of names occurred, the appropriate ceremony was performed just as though a real marriage had been performed. Sham marriages of this type are the device resorted to in such cases.

If there is no son, the father may call his foot, or one side of his body, his daughter. The marriage ceremony is performed as though these were the women married, and the names are transferred in the usual manner.

Kwakiutl Ethnography, Boas