Fire-bath Hat

Object Details

Collector

Edward W. Nelson

Donor Name

Edward W. Nelson

FROM CARD: "A WHOLE LOON SKIN, SLIT AT THE BELLY, WORN AS A CAP WHILE IN THE SWEAT HOUSE. INVENTORIED 1977."

This object is on loan to the Anchorage Museum at Rasmuson Center, from 2010 through 2027.

Source of the information below: Smithsonian Arctic Studies Center Alaska Native Collections: Sharing Knowledge website, by Aron Crowell, entry on this artifact https://alaska.si.edu/record.asp?id=83 , retrieved 11-4-2021; see web page for additional information: Fire-bath hat, Yup'ik. In the past, men and boys gathered in the men's community house for cleansing sweat baths. Naked except for protective mouth masks filled with wood shavings and wearing bird-skin hats to shield their heads, they basked in the fierce dry heat. The hats were whole skins of loons, crows, and other birds, split at the belly. This one is made from a loon. For protection against the intense heat of sweat baths in the men's house, Yup'ik and Cup'ik men wore hats made from loons, crows, and other birds. These head coverings were whole bird skins, split at the belly and then dried and softened. Bathers also wore respirator masks filled with wood shavings to protect their lungs. Edward Nelson described sweat bathing customs during his 1877-78 travels in the Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta: "In these buildings [the qasgiq (men's community house)] sweat baths are taken by men and boys at intervals of a week or ten days during the winter. Every man has a small urine tub near his place, where this liquid is saved for use in bathing. A portion of the floor in the center of the room is made of planks so arranged that it can be taken up, exposing a pit beneath, in which a fire of drift logs is built. When the smoke has passed off and the wood is reduced to a bed of coals, a cover is put over the smoke hole in the roof and the men sit naked about the room until they are in profuse perspiration; they then bathe in the urine, which combines with the oil on the bodies, and thus takes the place of soap, after which they go outside and pour water over their bodies until they become cool .... On several occasions I saw them go from the sweat bath to holes in the ice on neighboring streams and, squatting there, pour ice water over their backs and shoulders with a wooden dipper, apparently experiencing the greatest pleasure ... ".

The hat is made from the skin of a loon, the white breast at the top of the head and sewn into a pouch-shape with sinew so that the black and white wings are at the sides. To construct the cap, the loon was split up the belly and carefully tanned. Seams were sewn with sinew from the inside of the hat to form a pouch-like shape. The "pouch" fits tightly over the head with the white breast at the top of the head with the black and white wings at the sides of the head.

Record Last Modified

27 Jan 2022

Specimen Count

1

Culture

Eskimo, Yup'ik

Accession Date

1879

Accession Number

008133

USNM Number

E38313-0

Object Type

Hat

Length - Object

31 cm

Place

Yukon River, Lower, Alaska, United States, North America

See more items in

Anthropology

NMNH - Anthropology Dept.

Topic

Ethnology

Record ID

nmnhanthropology_8418409

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/39c7ee14e-eb87-47e4-a297-e3ce25e5d3ec