Qasgiq men’s house model

Within the confines of a small wooden box, carefully constructed from cedar planks, we recognize, illustrated by finely carved ivory figurines, a moment of elaborate dancing and singing inside a Yup’ik men’s communal house, known as a qasgiq.

Two figures in the center of the piece are dancing, holding an animal effigy in one hand, probably a leopard seal with spotted fur. The other hand behind my back.

Eight other characters are seated on either side of the stage on a bench surrounding the room. Four are musicians beating their large sealskin drums, and the other four represent spectators.

Qasgiqs were important social and ceremonial dwellings reserved for men, where ceremonies and festivals (songs, dances, oral traditions) took place. Men and boys over the age of 5 slept there, with the young being trained by their elders through oral tradition. They were taught survival and hunting techniques, kayak making, tools and crafts.

Semi-buried the qasgiq made from driftwood insulated with humus was traditionally organized according to the following plan: guests and spectators of the ceremony entered through the summer passage, located at ground level, while the masked dancers and shaman entered through the winter passage, semi-buried.

Guests and musicians were seated on benches built directly into the building’s walls. The dancers and shaman would then emerge onto the central stage, through the hole in the floor created for the central hearth. Illuminated by the light from the chimney window built vertically into the roof, their entrance produced a surprise effect.

Among the Yupi’k there was a religious belief and practice based on the conception of spiritual entities found in nature and to be treated with respect. Rituals were based on this belief, as was respect for the animals killed. Shamans, both men and women, had religious leadership because they were in touch with the guardian spirits.

The Yup’ik festival season on the Bering Sea took place in winter and early spring. Periods when families had time for these activities as they were not busy looking for food. Festivities included animal masks or effigies, and spiritual dances.

The Bladder Festival, shown here, was an important ceremony dedicated to respecting animals, including seals.

Prior to the 19th century, Inuit artists rarely, if ever, addressed the idea of narrative directly in their art. Ancient figurines, whether human or animal, were depicted in a static, frontal pose, with virtually no movement to suggest their activities or intentions.

On the other hand, the figures in this model, created at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, are shown engaged in a particular choreographed action. Each plays a specific role in the re-enactment of a complex ceremonial event. Taken as a whole, the work presented the viewer with a visual narrative of this event.

According to Donald ^Ellis2, this change in perception when approaching the concept of narrative is also reflected in the complex pictographic art that developed during the 19th century. Although we don’t know all the causes of this change, it’s possible that contact with Western culture inspired important changes in the Aboriginal artist’s thought process, and that a hitherto unrealized concept of communication appeared in the traditional repertoire of artistic expression.

Although rarely seen outside institutional collections, comparable models of dance houses can be found in the following museums: The de Young Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; The National Museum of the American Indian’s Heye Collection at the Smithsonian; The Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology; and the Sheldon Jackson Museum, Sitka, AK)³. It’s possible that these models were commissioned by non-natives, anthropologists or simple collectors, in order to better understand these otherwise highly secretive ceremonies.
_________________________________________________

1- Nelson, E. W. (1899). The Eskimo about Bering Strait. In J. W. Powell (Ed.), Eighteenth Annual Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution. Washington

2- Donald Ellis Gallery 2012, catalog, pl. 18 Inventory # E3762 and web gallery Inv E.4265

3- Ann Fienup-Riordan.1996, The Living Tradition of Yup’ik Masks,
University of WA Press, pp. 37, 122-123

Price: €9,800