Not Given, Columbia River Valley, Oregon, United States, North America
Accession Date:
4 Jun 1921
Notes:
Provenance of this figure is uncertain. From the repatriation case report ("Assessment Of Unassociated Funerary Objects from the Memaloose Islands, Washington and Oregon..."): "This carving is made from a single piece of wood and represents a standing male figure. Behind the figure is a flat rectangular base or plinth and the figure is standing on a box-shaped section. This object was cataloged originally with "Africa"as the provenience (Figure 2), but at some time in the past the catalog card was amended to read "Oregon (or Columbia R. Valley)." "Oregon" is also written on the object next to the catalog number. This is one of two carved wooden figures listed below the other "Mameluke" Island objects in the original accession list. [The other is E316424.] They are both listed with Africa as the provenience... [but] these objects are very different from one another in style and shape. E316425 [this one] looks similar to other carved images from the Lower Columbia River, which may have led to the change in identification on the catalog card. Boyd (1996:122-126) discusses a category of objects called pat-ash made by peoples of the Columbia River area, which included carved wooden images. Boyd (1996:122) interprets pat-ash figures as guardian spirits and notes that they were found in three contexts: near a chief's bed, in winter ceremonies, or at grave sites. Images of some of pat-ash figures from Grave Island and Upper Memaloose Island are included in Boyd (1996: Plate 14). Robin Wright, Curator of Native American Art at the Burke Museum in Washington, suggested that this carving is similar to others from the southern Northwest Coast and pointed out that the skeletal structure showing the ribs and the negative triangles carved on the base are particular features similar to other Columbia River sculptures (Robin Wright, personal communication 2001). Mary Jo Arnoldi, Curator of African Ethnology at the NMNH, believes that some features of this sculpture are very similar to Nubian African sculptures, including the ribs and the negative triangles on the base (Mary Jo Arnoldi, personal communication 2006). Joseph Simms did collect some other material from Nubia. It is difficult to tell whether this carved figure is from Africa or Oregon since the stylistic elements from both sculptural traditions are present on this object. Even if it could be determined to be from Oregon, we would be unable to determine if Simms collected it from one of the Memaloose islands or elsewhere in the Columbia River region."
