Carving Item Number: 2807/1 from the MOA: University of British Columbia

Description

Carved tupilak (tupilaq). The head of the creature appears to be an animal with black circular eyes, a large snout with big round nostrils, an open mouth with four canines and its tongue sticking out through the teeth. The body of the creature is in the position of someone crawling on all fours with their arms bent, but also with a small carved point where a tail would be.

History Of Use

In Greenlandic the word ‘tupilak’ means an ancestor soul or spirit, and previously referred to mysterious, sinister spirits. Today, however, the word is mainly used to refer to small figures carved in tooth, bone or stone for the tourist market. Traditionally, a tupilak spirit could be called upon to help against a foe by a shaman secretly creating a figure made from various bones or other parts of animals and then singing a spell over it. The tupilak was often put out to sea so that it could find the enemy itself and kill him. However, this course of action was not without risk because if the tupilak’s victim had greater powers of witchcraft than its creator, he could repel its attack and instead send the tupilak back to kill its originator. In the twentieth century, when Europeans began exploring East Greenland, tupilaks were produced from materials such as wood, bone, tooth and antler points for the Europeans to collect as souveniers.

Item History

What

Name
Carving
Identification Number
2807/1
Type of Item
carving
Material
baleen ? and sperm whale tooth
Overall
height 3.8 cm, width 4.2 cm, depth 11.5 cm

Who

Culture
Inuit
Previous Owner
Sherri Zysk
Received from
Sherri Zysk (Donor)

Where

Holding Institution
MOA: University of British Columbia
Made in
Greenland
Collected in
Point Barrow, Alaska, USA

When

Creation Date
before 1965
Collection Date
during 1964
Ownership Date
before July 28, 2010
Acquisition Date
on July 28, 2010

Other

Item Classes
carvings & sculpture
Condition
good
Accession Number
2807/0001