МАЭ № 4270-96

Visor-hat

Kodiak Eskimos

Russian circumnavigations and half round-the-world sea expeditions

wood, sea lion whisker, woolen thread, paint, cotton thread, sinew

length including the whiskers 81 cm; visor: length 30 cm, width 20 cm, height 10.5 cm

“Some Koniags wear wooden caps, pointed and decorated on the top with sea lion whiskers with beads on the end, others cover only their eyes with hinge plates on which they place various small pebbles, many of them have wooden hats decorated to look like the heads of seals which they often use to hunt these animals.” (Davydov 1812: 17) This visor hat is different in its method of construction and decoration from those of the Aleuts. Most likely, it was made by the Kodiak Alutiit. Lydia Black was of the opinion that the MAE’s collection includes yet another visor hat that can be attributed to the Kodiak Alutiit: No. 2868—44. She relies on the opinion of A. L. Pinart who visited the Kunstkamera in 1873, and determined that this headgear was of Alutiiq origin (Black 1991: 69). It is possible that A. L. Pinart based his opinion about the ethnicity of hat No. 2868—44 on information from museum employees. It was noted on a very old museum label from the middle of the 19th Century that the hat was a Kodiak Alutiiq article. However, in terms of its method of construction, use of color and decoration, hat No. 2868-44 is not materially different from those of the Aleuts. On the other hand, in its color scheme and ornamentation it is similar to hat No. 2868—84 which all scholars have attributed to the Aleuts.

Ethnography of America