Identifier: handbooktoethnog00brit (find matches)
Title: Handbook to the ethnographical collections
Year: 1910 (1910s)
Authors: British Museum. Dept. of British and Mediaeval Antiquities and Ethnography Joyce, Thomas Athol, 1878-1942 Dalton, O. M. (Ormonde Maddock), 1866-1945
Subjects:
Publisher: (London) : Printed by order of the Trustees
Contributing Library: University of California Libraries
Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

View Book Page: Book Viewer
About This Book: Catalog Entry
View All Images: All Images From Book
Click here to view book online to see this illustration in context in a browseable online version of this book.

Text Appearing Before Image:
gns, whether carved or painted,are carried out with remarkable certainty of line, and are highlydecorative; much artistic taste is shown in the shapes of carvedbowls and other utensils. Bows and arrows are used in war and hunting; the former isusually the jilain type and broad, though a narrow pattern,occasionally reinforced with backing, is found among the Tlingit.Clubs of stone, bone or antler (figs. 241-4, 245, h), daggers ofbone and copper, are found, and also cuirasses of wooden plates,recalling the defensive ax-mour of North-East Asia. There areusually three grades of society : hereditary chiefs, commoners,and slaves ; the chiefs form a council, and their respectiveimportance varies according to wealth and personal character. The tribes are divided into clans, each with a totem animalor bird, and descent is reckoned in the female line among thenorthern tril^es. and in the male line among the southern ; theKwakiutl being in a transitional stage between the two systems. PLATE XIV.
Text Appearing After Image:
Wodilcii (;;il;cilli;-lMtll( lipli silil ill- llir l,c;ir. ll;ii<lil ofQueen Cli.-irluHc rsl;ill(ls, iFitn; J). LC,0 NORTH AMERICA 261 Slaves in former days were harshlytreated, and often killed on ceremonialoccasions, such as the building of ahouse (figs. 241, 242). Wealth isgreatly esteemed, and is measuredchiefly in blankets; formerly, sea-otter skins. Extremely valuable arecertain copj^er j^lates (fig. 246) whichhave personal names, and pass fromhand to hand by a sort of enforcedpurchase, the price increasing on eachoccasion. At times of rejoicing awealthy man will distribute property,but it is tacitly understood that therecipients will ultimately return itwith interest. The dead are disj^osedin various ways; they are eitherburied in the earth, or exposed in trees,or put in small mortuary chamberserected on posts, or cremated. Slaveswere often killed at the death of animportant man. Their music is elementar), thesongs are accompanied by beating onboards, and various kinds of re

Note About Images