Yup'ik masks

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A Yup'ik/Cup'ik dance mask (kegginaquq) with the head of walrus yua. Toggle harpoon points are appended to the lower face, over which two walrusses figures arch, topped by hunters in kayaks. Mask collected from old village of Qissunaq (or Kushunak, the location is near the modern village of Chevak, Alaska) in 1905 by Tununak trader I. A. Lee. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University. Dance mask, probably of tunghat, Southwest Alaska Eskimo, collected in Kushunak, probably in 1905 - Native American collection - Peabody Museum, Harvard University - DSC05634.JPG
A Yup'ik/Cup'ik dance mask (kegginaquq) with the head of walrus yua. Toggle harpoon points are appended to the lower face, over which two walrusses figures arch, topped by hunters in kayaks. Mask collected from old village of Qissunaq (or Kushunak, the location is near the modern village of Chevak, Alaska) in 1905 by Tununak trader I. A. Lee. Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology, Harvard University.

Yup'ik masks (Yup'ik kegginaquqsgkegginaqukdualkegginaqutpl and nepcetaqsgnepcetatpl; in the Lower Yukon dialects avangcaqsgavangcakdualavangcatpl ; in Nunivak Cup'ig dialect agayu) are expressive shamanic ritual masks made by the Yup'ik people of southwestern Alaska. Also known as Cup'ik masks for the Chevak Cup'ik dialect speaking Eskimos of Chevak and Cup'ig masks for the Nunivak Cup'ig dialect speaking Eskimos of Nunivak Island. One of their most popular forms of the Alaska Native art are masks. The Yup'ik masks vary enormously but are characterised by great invention. They are typically made of wood, and painted with few colors. The Yup'ik masks were carved by men or women, but mainly were carved by the men. The shamans (angalkuq) were the ones that told the carvers how to make the masks. Yup'ik masks could be small three-inch finger masks or maskettes (or dance fans, in the Lower Yukon Yup'ik dialects tegumiaqsgtegumiakdualtegumiatpl), but also ten-kilo masks hung from the ceiling or carried by several people. These masks are used to bring the person wearing it luck and good fortune in hunts. Over the long winter darkness dances and storytelling took place in the qasgiq using these masks. They most often create masks for ceremonies but the masks are traditionally destroyed after being used. After Christian contact in the late nineteenth century, masked dancing was suppressed, and today it is not practiced as it was before in the Yup'ik villages. [1] [2] [3]

Masks among Eskimo peoples

Masks among Eskimo peoples served a variety of functions. Masks were made out of driftwood, animal skins, bones and feathers. They were often painted using bright colors. There are archeological miniature maskettes made of walrus ivory, coming from early Paleo-Eskimo and from early Dorset culture period.

Alaska State of the United States of America

Alaska is a U.S. state in the northwest extremity of North America, just across the Bering Strait from Asia. The Canadian province of British Columbia and territory of Yukon border the state to the east, its most extreme western part is Attu Island, and it has a maritime border with Russia to the west across the Bering Strait. To the north are the Chukchi and Beaufort seas—southern parts of the Arctic Ocean. The Pacific Ocean lies to the south and southwest. It is the largest state in the United States by area and the seventh largest subnational division in the world. In addition, it is the 3rd least populous and the most sparsely populated of the 50 United States; nevertheless, it is by far the most populous territory located mostly north of the 60th parallel in North America: its population—estimated at 738,432 by the United States Census Bureau in 2015— is more than quadruple the combined populations of Northern Canada and Greenland. Approximately half of Alaska's residents live within the Anchorage metropolitan area. Alaska's economy is dominated by the fishing, natural gas, and oil industries, resources which it has in abundance. Military bases and tourism are also a significant part of the economy.

While the Iñupiaq and Yup'ik Eskimos are culturally and ethnically related, separated only by language differences and, often, hundreds of miles of territory, they have developed distinct versions of similar traditional mask forms. In the case of the Iñupiaq, masks are typically less elaborate than those made by their Yup'ik neighbors to the south-east, and usually smaller, covering only the face. [4]

See also

The Yupiit Piciryarait Cultural Center (YPCC), also known as Yupiit Piciryarait Cultural Center and Museum, formerly known as the Yup'ik Museum, Library, and Multipurpose Cultural Center, is a non-profit cultural center of the Yup'ik culture centrally located in Bethel, Alaska near the University of Alaska Fairbanks' Kuskokwim Campus and city offices. The center is a unique facility that combines a museum, a library, and multi-purpose cultural activity center including performing arts space, for cultural gatherings, feasts, celebrations, meetings and classes. and that celebrates the Yup'ik culture and serves as a regional cultural center for Southwest Alaska. The name of Yupiit Piciryarait means "Yup'iks' customs" in Yup'ik language and derived from piciryaraq meaning "manner; custom; habit; tradition; way of life" Construction of this cultural facility was completed in 1995, funded through a State appropriation of federal funds. Total cost for construction was $6.15 million. The center was jointly sponsored by the Association of Village Council Presidents (AVCP) and the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) and at the present the center operated by the UAF's Kuskokwim Campus, AVCP and City of Bethel. The building houses three community resources: the Consortium Library, the Yup'ik Museum, and the Multi-purpose room or auditorium. The mission of the center is promote, preserve and develop the traditions of the Yup'ik through traditional and non-traditional art forms of the Alaska Native art, including arts and crafts, performance arts, education, and Yup'ik language. The center also supports local artists and entrepreneurs.

Yupik dancing

Yup'ik dancing or Yuraq, also Yuraqing is a traditional Eskimo style dancing form usually performed to songs in Yup'ik, with dances choreographed for specific songs which the Yup'ik people of southwestern Alaska. Also known as Cup'ik dance for the Chevak Cup'ik dialect speaking Eskimos of Chevak and Cup'ig dance for the Nunivak Cup'ig dialect speaking Eskimos of Nunivak Island. Yup'ik dancing is set up in a very specific and cultural format. Typically, the men are in the front, kneeling and the women stand in the back. The drummers are in the very back of the dance group. Dance is the heart of Yup’ik spiritual and social life. Every song has a story behind it and some songs is either about hunting or berry picking. Some songs could be about sports or other things that don't really relate to hunting. Traditional dancing in the qasgiq is a communal activity in Yup’ik tradition. The mask (kegginaquq) was a central element in Yup'ik ceremonial dancing.

Qargi

Qargi, Qasgi or Qasgiq, Qaygiq, Kashim, Kariyit, a traditional large semi-subterranean men's community house' of the Yup'ik and Inuit, also Deg Hit'an Athabaskans, was used for public and ceremonial occasions and as a men’s residence. The Qargi was the place where men built their boats, repaired their equipment, took sweat baths, educated young boys, and hosted community dances. Here people learned their oral history, songs and chants. Young boys and men learned to make tools and weapons while they listened to the traditions of their forefathers.

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Yupik peoples ethnic group

The Yupik are a group of indigenous or aboriginal peoples of western, southwestern, and southcentral Alaska and the Russian Far East. They are Eskimo and are related to the Inuit and Iñupiat peoples. Yupik peoples include the following:

Nunivak Island island

Nunivak Island, the second largest island in the Bering Sea, is a permafrost-covered volcanic island lying about 30 miles (48 km) offshore from the delta of the Yukon and Kuskokwim rivers in the state of Alaska, at about 60° North latitude. Nunivak Island is 1,631.97 sq mi in area, 76.2 kilometers (47.3 mi) long and 106 kilometers (66 mi) wide, making it the eighth largest island in the United States. It has a population of 191 persons as of the 2010 census, down from 210 in 2000. The island's entire population lived in the north coast city of Mekoryuk.

The Yupik languages are the several distinct languages of the several Yupik peoples of western and south-central Alaska and northeastern Siberia. The Yupik languages differ enough from one another that they are not mutually intelligible, although speakers of one of the languages may understand the general idea of a conversation of speakers of another of the languages. One of them, Sirenik, has been extinct since 1997.

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Inu-Yupiaq

Inu-Yupiaq is a dance group at the University of Alaska, Fairbanks that performs a fusion of Iñupiaq and Yup’ik Eskimo motion dance.

Nunivak Cup'ig or just Cup'ig is a language or separate dialect of Central Alaskan Yup'ik spoken in Central Alaska at the Nunivak Island by Nunivak Cup'ig people. The letter "c" in the Yup’ik alphabet is equivalent to the English alphabet "ch".

Chevak Cupʼik or just Cupʼik is a subdialect of Hooper Bay–Chevak dialect of Yupʼik spoken in southwestern Alaska in the Chevak by Chevak Cupʼik Eskimos. The speakers of the Chevak subdialect used for themselves as Cupʼik, but the speakers of the Hooper Bay subdialect used for themselves as Yupʼik, as in the Yukon-Kuskokwim dialect.

Cup'ik, also spelled Cupik, typically refers to the Central Alaskan Yup'ik people. The plural form is Cup'it.

Cugtun is an endonym that may refer to either of two Yup'ik dialects:

The Messenger Feast or Kivgiq, Kevgiq, is a celebratory mid-winter festival in Alaska traditionally held by Iñupiaq and Yup'ik peoples after a strong whale harvest.

Kuspuk Alaskan hooded overshirt

A kuspuk is a hooded overshirt with a large front pocket commonly worn among Alaska Natives. Kuspuks are tunic-length, falling anywhere from below the hips to below the knees. The bottom portion of kuspuks worn by women may be gathered and akin to a skirt. Kuspuks tend to be pullover garments, though some have zippers.

Yupik doll

Yup'ik doll is a traditional Eskimo style doll and figurine form made in the southwestern Alaska by Yup'ik people. Also known as Cup'ik doll for the Chevak Cup'ik dialect speaking Eskimos of Chevak and Cup'ig doll for the Nunivak Cup'ig dialect speaking Eskimos of Nunivak Island. Typically, Yup'ik dolls are dressed in traditional Eskimo style Yup'ik clothing, intended to protect the wearer from cold weather, and are often made from traditional materials obtained through food gathering. Play dolls from the Yup'ik area were made of wood, bone, or walrus ivory and measured from one to twelve inches in height or more. Male and female dolls were often distinguished anatomically and can be told apart by the addition of ivory labrets for males and chin tattooing for females. The information about play dolls within Alaska Native cultures is sporadic. As is so often the case in early museum collections, it is difficult to distinguish dolls made for play from those made for ritual. There were always five dolls making up a family: a father, a mother, a son, a daughter, and a baby. Some human figurines were used by shamans.

Yupik clothing

Yup'ik clothing refers to the traditional Eskimo-style clothing worn by the Yupik people of southwestern Alaska. Also known as Cup'ik clothing for the Chevak Cup'ik-speaking people of Chevak and Cup'ig clothing for the Nunivak Cup'ig-speaking people of Nunivak Island.

The consequential mood is a verb form used in some Eskimo–Aleut languages to mark dependent adverbial clauses for reason ('because') or time ('when'). Due to the broader meaning of the term mood in the context of Eskimo grammar, the consequential can be considered outside of the proper scope of grammatical mood.

Yupik cuisine

Yup'ik cuisine refers to the Eskimo style traditional subsistence food and cuisine of the Yup'ik people from the western and southwestern Alaska. Also known as Cup'ik cuisine for the Chevak Cup'ik dialect speaking Eskimos of Chevak and Cup'ig cuisine for the Nunivak Cup'ig dialect speaking Eskimos of Nunivak Island. This cuisine is traditionally based on meat from fish, birds, sea and land mammals, and normally contains high levels of protein. Subsistence foods are generally considered by many to be nutritionally superior superfoods. Yup’ik diet is different from Alaskan Inupiat, Canadian Inuit, and Greenlandic diets. Fish as food are primary food for Yup'ik Eskimos. Both food and fish called neqa in Yup'ik. Food preparation techniques are fermentation and cooking, also uncooked raw. Cooking methods are baking, roasting, barbecuing, frying, smoking, boiling, and steaming. Food preservation methods are mostly drying and less often frozen. Dried fish is usually eaten with seal oil. The ulu or fan-shaped knife used for cutting up fish, meat, food, and such.

References

  1. ↑ www.mnh.si.edu: Agayuliyararput (Our Way of Making Prayer)
  2. ↑ Feinup-Riordan, Ann (2005). Yup'ik Elders at the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin: Fieldwork Turned on Its Head. University of Washington Press.
  3. ↑ Lynn Ager Wallen (1999), The Milotte Mask Collection, Alaska State Museums Conceps, Second Reprint of Technical Paper Number 2, July 1999
  4. ↑ Sean Mooney, The Art of the Spirit World: Volume III The ARCTIC. The Steven Michaan Collection of North American Tribal Arts
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