Tsimshian. <em>Wooden Skull Headdress</em>, late 19th century. Wood, metal, 7 x 6 x 7 in. (17.8 x 15.2 x 17.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Museum Expedition 1905, Museum Collection Fund, 05.588.7366. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 05.588.7366_acetate_bw.jpg)

Tsimshian. Wooden Skull Headdress, late 19th century. Wood, metal, 7 x 6 x 7 in. (17.8 x 15.2 x 17.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Museum Expedition 1905, Museum Collection Fund, 05.588.7366. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 05.588.7366_acetate_bw.jpg)

DOWNLOAD

Download our app and ask your own questions during your visit. Here are some that others have asked.

Does this mean that they were cannibals?

No. These skulls, especially the Ladle with Skull, were actually utilitarian objects.

Combined this object would have been used in a ceremony of rite of passage. To symbolize that a young man was leaving behind the "uncivilized and untamed nature" and become a mature, sophisticated person. The skull symbolizes the rebirth of initiates as they symbolically come back from the dead as part of the ceremony. The head which is made of wood and other materials, would have come off, and they would used the spoon to scoop oils used during ritual from a big container to use during the ceremony. The other skull is actually worn on top of a shaman's head during the ceremonies.

Please tell me more about this.

This Tshimshianskull imagery is usually associated with the Tánis (Hamatsa) ceremony also practiced by the Heiltsuk and Kwakwawa’wakw people. Young males are initiated into the community during a four-part ritual in which they are symbolically transformed from flesh-eating cannibals, a state equated with death, into well-behaved members of society. The skull thus symbolizes rebirth. The transformation symbolizes how the young men are now civilized members of society.

Were the Heiltsuk and Kwakwaka'wakw people cannibals?

No, they were not historically and are not today.

If cannibalism was a form of death, was eating meat of other animals as well?

Not especially, no. The objects you see are used in ceremonies as a symbolic representation a person being reborn by entering the next stage of his or her life.

Was the Tánis ceremony a coming of age event?

The ceremony was for young men to be initiated into the community. In Native societies, there are and were a number of these secretive communities.

Was their secretive community like their version of the freemason?

They are similar in that they were secret, required special initiations, and were male-only. But beyond those general qualities, which apply to most groups that are classified as "secret," they don't share a connection.

What is this?

This wooden Skull Headdress by a Tsimshian artist was used in the Tánis (Hamatsa) initiation ceremonies for young men. The As you may have read on the label, this involves a four-part ritual. Although the objects in this case represent different tribes that may have slightly different practices for the Hamtsa ceremony, the skull likely symbolizes the transformation of initiates from childhood to adulthood.

As you move throughout the Arts of the Americas galleries, keep an eye out for this skull imagery across cultures, which can speak to the duality of life and death. Many viewers only associate skulls with death, but the meaning can vary across cultures.

Wooden Skull Headdress

Arts of the Americas

Skull imagery is usually associated with the Tánis (Hamatsa) ceremony practiced by the Heiltsuk and Kwakwawa’wakw people. Young males are initiated into the community during a four-part ritual in which they are symbolically transformed from flesh-eating cannibals, a state equated with death, into well-behaved members of society. The skull thus symbolizes the rebirth of initiates as they come back from the dead. Skull items such as those seen here are sometimes used during the final stages of the ceremony: ritual feeding of the skull, possibly using special ceremonial spoons, precedes a ceremonial meal for the initiates, and the officiating medicine man might wear a skull headdress.

La imaginería de calaveras está usualmente relacionada con la ceremonia Tanis (Hamatsa) practicada por la gente Heiltsuk y Kwakwaka’wakw. Los hombres jóvenes son iniciados a la comunidad durante un ritual de cuatro etapas en el cual son transformados simbólicamente de caníbales devoradores de carne, a miembros con buen comportamiento dentro de la sociedad. La calavera simboliza el renacimiento de los iniciados cuando regresan de entre los muertos. Artículos de calaveras como los que se ven aquí son a veces usados durante las últimas etapas de la ceremonia: antes de la comida ceremonial para los iniciados, se alimenta ritualmente a la calavera, posiblemente con cucharas ceremoniales, y el hombre medicina que oficia dicha ceremonia puede llevar un tocado de calavera.

CULTURE Tsimshian

MEDIUM Wood, metal

Place Collected: British Columbia, Canada

DATES late 19th century

DIMENSIONS 7 x 6 x 7 in. (17.8 x 15.2 x 17.8 cm) (show scale)

COLLECTIONS Arts of the Americas

ACCESSION NUMBER 05.588.7366

CREDIT LINE Museum Expedition 1905, Museum Collection Fund

CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION Headdress in the form of a carved wooden skull. It is carved from a single, hollowed out piece of wood. The lower jaw is missing and it is attached with four nails to a metal disk with a dome-shaped center. Condition: The work is in stable and fair condition. There is a repaired crack on the proper left side of the back of the skull as well as a repaired splinter at the proper right side of the lower edge. At the top of the skull on the proper right side, there is a large circular wooden plug.

EXHIBITIONS

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view

CAPTION Tsimshian. Wooden Skull Headdress, late 19th century. Wood, metal, 7 x 6 x 7 in. (17.8 x 15.2 x 17.8 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Museum Expedition 1905, Museum Collection Fund, 05.588.7366. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 05.588.7366_acetate_bw.jpg)

IMAGE overall, 05.588.7366_acetate_bw.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph

"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.

RIGHTS STATEMENT Creative Commons-BY

You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.

RECORD COMPLETENESS

Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.