Harpoon Item Number: 1087/1 from the MOA: University of British Columbia

Description

Long light grey-brown bone harpoon that tapers to a pointed tip. Wider end is incised at an angle.

History Of Use

Harpoons like this were made for sale to visitors. It is twice the size of the harpoons normally used in hunting.

Cultural Context

The Yamana (Yaghan) people are often referred to as extinct. Throughout the Americas, many indigenous groups were exterminated following European contact. Most commonly, people succumbed to introduced diseases against which they had no immunity. However, numerous groups also “disappeared” through devious sleight of hand. They were recorded as being extinct, enabling governments to ignore them and colonizers to take over their lands with relative impunity. In some cases, the loss of their language was enough for government to present a people as being extinct. For other groups, it was something as simple as the adoption of European clothing. Frequently, the marker used by government was the death of the last apocryphal “full-blooded Indian,” a practice that posited an equivalent between blood quantum and existence of a culture. Most of these situations applied to the Yamana people. However, small communities of people continue to self-identify as Yaghan in both Chile and Argentina.

Item History

What

Name
Harpoon
Identification Number
1087/1
Type of Item
harpoon
Material
whale bone
Overall
height 53.0 cm, width 3.4 cm, depth 1.2 cm

Who

Culture
Yahgan
Previous Owner
B.C. Provincial Museum
Received from
B.C. Provincial Museum (Transferring institution)

Where

Holding Institution
MOA: University of British Columbia
Made in
Tierra del Fuego, Chile

When

Ownership Date
before December 16, 1985
Acquisition Date
on December 16, 1985

Other

Condition
good
Accession Number
1087/0001