Board

Item number Z 11449 from the MAA: University of Cambridge.

Public

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Data
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Description

Thick cedar wood board which resembles a box lid or side but is in fact a dowry board. The board is painted with a black design of a creature' s face, with eyebrows, eyes, nostrils and toothy mouth, edged in a black border. Through the centre of the design three black stripes run vertically. Set into the wood and the black painted design are numerous sea otter teeth.; Good

Context

The original European tribal names and, where possible, current tribal names have both been given in separate GLT fields.; The board is a dowry board, or Gyisertal in Kwakiutl and were given by a bride to her husband as part of her dowry, symbolising wealth. Franz Boas described such boards in The Social Organization and Secret Societies of the Kwakiutl Indians 1894, page 421. Furthermore a similar board is illustrated in The Spirit Sings 1986 page 143 N53, where it is stated that as a bride gave the board to her husband she would say, These are my teeth . This board also has the vertical lines running through the centre.