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Description

Carved bone 'soul-catcher' with inlaid haliotis shell. [CAK 16/06/2009]

Longer Description

Carved bone 'soul-catcher' with inlaid haliotis shell. The soul-catcher is carved from a a single piece of bone that has been hollowed it. On the exterior, it is carved as two symmetrical halves. Each half is decorated with formline designs carved in relief and incised. There are paw or fin elements in the centre of the soul-catcher with a circular inlay of haliotis shell underneath. On each end of the soul-catcher, nearer the top, are eye-like designs inlaid with oval pieces of haliotis shell. The ends have been carved with split-U designs. Underneath, sections of the bone have been carved out in a U-shape. There are two circular designs carved at the middle top of the soul-catcher. Between these circles is a loop of string that allows the soul-catcher to be hung or worn on the body. [CAK 16/06/2009]

Research Notes

The following information comes from Haida delegates who worked with the museum's collection in September 2009 as part of the project “Haida Material Culture in British Museums: Generating New Forms of Knowledge”:
This soul-catcher was viewed alongside other shamanic material on Friday Sept 11, 2009. Diane Brown explained that soul-catchers were used by medicine men, or sgaaga, when a person was sick and their spirit had left them. The medicine man could then use the soul-catcher to suck the illness out of the body and blow the spirit back into the body. Ruth Gladstone Davies blew through this soul-catcher. Christian White noted that soul-catchers were often made from the leg bone of a bear. He thought that this soul-catcher might possibly still have a plug or stopper in it made from cedar bark. Delegates requested shamanic material not be put on display. [CAK 12/05/2010]

This object was viewed and confirmed as Haida by tribal members Vincent Collison, Lucille Bell, and Kwiiawah Jones on 7 September 2007 in preparation for a planned Haida community visit to PRM in 2009 [L Peers, 24/01/2008]

Primary Documentation

Accession Book Entry - 'DR F. BOAS, Central Park Museum, New York "soul-catcher" of bone (thigh bone), carved. Haida, British Columbia.'
Additional Accession Book Entry - 1898.35.1 No. given. NM.

Card Catalogue Entry - Carved 'soul-catcher' of thigh bone with inlaid haliotis shell. Small length of a twisted white cord is strung through two holes on the top of the object.

Pitt Rivers Museum label - NORTH AMERICA, CANADA, BRITISH COLUMBIA, HAIDA Soul-catcher d.d. DR F. BOAZ [sic] [CAK 16/06/2009]

Written on object - 'SOUL-CATCHER' HAIDA - B.C. Pres. by Dr. F. Boaz [sic], 1898. Pitt Rivers Museum.

Related Documents File - The Haida Project Related Documents File contains video of research sessions and interviews with Haida delegates from September 2009 as part of the project ‘Haida Material Culture in British Museums: Generating New Forms of Knowledge'. It also includes post-visit communications that discuss object provenance. For extensive photographic, video, and textual records documenting the Haida research visit as a whole, including but not limited to preparations of objects for handling, travel logistics, British Museum participation, transcribed notes from research sessions and associated public events held at PRM, see the Haida Project Digital Archive, stored with the Accessions Registers. Original hand-written notes taken during research sessions have been accessioned into the Manuscripts collection, in addition to select other materials. [CAK 02/06/2010]