Baton

Item number 1954.137 from the MAA: University of Cambridge.

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Data
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Description

Short wooden baton with an octopus head at one end and its tentacles wrapped around the shaft. The handle is slightly flared and undecorated. The ?mouth of the octopus is at the end of the baton, its head and eye has been split in two between itslegs. The legs are incised with circles and dots, characteristic of the octopus' s suckers.; Good

Context

Provenance given as Mamlelekala (Kwakiutl), B.C. This is possibly a phonetic version of the Kwakiutl name Mamalilikulla, a tribal group located near Knight Inlet. Label on baton says Baton used by the leader in the ?Kachime. Such batons were used during the Kwakiutl winter ceremonials for beating time for the dancers and singers. The distribution of the batons was an inherited role performed during the winter dancing societies and perhaps Kachime is a phonetic version of the Kwakiutl name for the leader of a specific dance society (G.Crowther).