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Description

A house beam styled after a soul-catcher, with a killer whale design. [CAK 26/05/2010]

Longer Description

A house beam styled after a soul-catcher, with a killer whale design. The beam is displayed vertically in the museum as a post, although its proper orientation is horizontally as a beam or lintel. The two halves of the beam are mirror images, with a killer whale head on each end and a symmetrical human figure in the centre. The whales are depicted with a large round black eye set within a white circle. Between the eye and the snout is a split-U design with brown and green elements. The snout is brown as is the outline of the mouth. Within the mouth are two rows of teeth - top and bottom - painted white. Under the eye is a split-U design featuring green cross-hatching. Each killer whale has a fin that runs along the bottom of the beam. The fin is decorated with a face in black and white, with a mouth with teeth, small nose and ovoid eyes. Moving to the tip of the fin from the face is a green and brown design. Behind the killer whale heads are white S-shaped patterns with a central green S-shape outlined with a thin brown line. In the centre of the beam is a crouched human figure with knees tucked under the chin and hands tucked under the jaw. The mouth is closed and decorated with brown paint, while the nose, eyes, and eyebrows are accented with black paint. What would be the bottom of the beam is plainly carved and painted white. As it stands vertically, the 'bottom' of the beam consists of an unpainted carved segment that may have been where the beam was attached to the structure of the house. At the top of the beam are two cut-aways where two fins would likely have been attached (see Research Notes). [CAK 26/05/2010]

Previous description: A large house post, carved with totems, used as a support in an Indian house at Fort Simpson which belonged to a sub-chief of the Kit-spak-lots branch of the Tsimshian. This one represents the killer whale with the demon Skana inside it.

Publications History

Illustrated in black-and-white and discussed at length in 'On Two British Columbian House-Posts with Totemic Carvings, in the Pitt-Rivers Museum, Oxford by E. B. Tylor in Journal of the Anthropological Institute, Vol. I (1898), pp. 136-7. [JC 22 5 1996]

Illustrated (sketch only) on page 7 of Birds and Animals: A Pitt Rivers Museum Colouring Book, by Francia Turner and Julia Cousins (Oxford: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford, 1986). Caption (same page) reads: 'Whale. This is a killer whale with the demon, Scana, living unside. It was made by the Haida people of British Columbia. Each group of the Haida has a special animal which is their emblem.' [JC 10 9 2004]

Discussed briefly on pages 538-40 of Totem poles, by Marius Barbeau (Hull, Quebec: Canadian Museum of Civilization, 1990 [1950]). [CW 16 5 2001]

Primary Documentation

Accession Book Entry - Dr EB Tylor, Oxford [1 of] Two large carved mythological totem posts from British Columbia Masset, Queen Charlotte Id.
Added Accession Book Entry - These are now known to be Tsimshian, from Fort Simpson see cards for details [LW]
Added Accession Book Entry - Killer whale with demon Skana inside it
See also letter from donor [bound in accession book III 49] which reads: 'University Museum, Oxford [embossed on paper] Nov. 21 1901 My dear Balfour, This letter will serve as the formal record of any gift of the Totem-Post from Masset to the Pitt-Rivers Museum. As I learn that there was no written presentation of the two House Posts from the same village, deposited by me some years ago, I now transfer them permanently to the Collection under your charge. Sincerely [? - this word is difficult to make out] Edward B Tylor'. [CW 24 2 2000]

'Additions to Museum' Notebook entry [page 20] - 1887 Dr E. B. Tylor 2 Mythological Totem posts from British Columbia

Related Documents File - See RDF for a photocopy of a handwritten letter from R. H. Hall to James Innes, dated 3 August 1887, referring to the original placement of the house posts, and the fact that they had been renovated while still in British Columbia. [CAK 02/09/2009]

Related Documents File - Discussion of the provenance and style of this beam can be viewed on Tape 8, time 33:00 - 36:00 and at the start of Tape 9, within the Haida Project 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]

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 beam was viewed on Monday Sept 14, 2009. Delegates characterised this as ‘definitely Haida carving'. Christian White explained that the eyes are definitely Haida, and that the colours suggest it was a Kaigani Haida house beam. Jaalen Edenshaw offered that even if this pole was collected in another group's territory, it was made by a Haida carver.
The orientation of this ‘pole' should be as a ‘beam' or lintel. It was described as being modelled after a soul-catcher. Delegates thought it likely this was originally paired with another lintel, perhaps the one shown in George MacDonald's ‘Haida Art' book, held in the collections of the Canadian Museum of Civilization (CMC). The similarity between the two beams is so great that Jaalen Edenshaw and Kwiaahwah Jones (both familiar with the photo in the book) thought that this was the same object. Ruth Gladstone Davies wondered if the two beams fit together at one time, to create a beam in the round, rather than two separate beams. The fins are missing from the killer whale. Kwiaahwah Jones added that if the fins were painted solidly black, then the killer whale is an Eagle crest, however if they were striped or spotted white, then they the whale would be a Raven crest. The example in ‘Haida Art' has solid black fins, indicating that one belonged to an Eagle person. Delegates suggested that measurements be taken of this beam and the beam at the CMC, including dimensions for where the fins would have been attached, to see if they match.
Delegates requested the label describing the killer whale as a ‘demon' spirit be removed as this is extremely offensive. This is a mistranslation of the word sgaana, which translates as both killer whale and spirit. However, as killer whales are the most revered supernatural being for Haidas, it is deeply troubling and inaccurate for them to be described as demons.
The research session with this beam can be viewed on Tape 8, time 33:00 to 36:00 and at the start of Tape 9, which can be found in the Haida Project Related Documents File. [CAK 01/06/2010]

These were previously thought to be Haida, from Masset, Queen Charlotte Island, but Dr. Douglas Cole of Simon Fraser University, BC, identified them through the Tylor correspondence. (See RDF).
.1 HOORTS the bear killing TOIVATS the hunter - the ancestral totem of the 'Bear' clan. .2 the killer whale (ORCA ATER) represented with the demon SKANA residing within it.

The Canadian Museum of Civilization has in its collections what appears to be a duplicate, or very similarly carved, house post in its collections. In "Haida Art", by George MacDonald, this post is both described and illustrated. MacDonald has orientated the post as a beam, and draws attention to its similarities with soul catchers. He attributes its collection to George Emmons, and identifies the beam as Haida. A copy of the image and description from the book have been placed in the RDF. The beam in the CMC's collection still has two dorsal fins. Examination of the post/beam in PRM's collection shows two locations where dorsal fins may have at one time been attached. [CAK 02/09/2009]

It should be noted that Tylor's 1898 publication on the house post recognises a dual meaning for the word 'Skana' (or 'Sgaana') in the Haida language. Tylor is accurate in his translation of the word as 'killer whale', though less accurate in his translation of the word as 'demon'. He does, however, note that the second meaning of 'skana' can be 'spirit'--a much less malicious connotation, and closer to the Haida usage of the word. It is unclear where the description of the post (using Haida vocabulary) originated. [CAK 02/09/2009]