Heiltsuk (Bella Bella). <em>Ladle with Skull</em>, 19th century. Cedar wood, bear fur, cord, pigment, 29 x 8 3/4 x 9 5/16 in. (73.7 x 22.2 x 23.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Museum Expedition 1905, Museum Collection Fund, 05.588.7297a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 05.588.7297_SL1.jpg)

Heiltsuk (Bella Bella). Ladle with Skull, 19th century. Cedar wood, bear fur, cord, pigment, 29 x 8 3/4 x 9 5/16 in. (73.7 x 22.2 x 23.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Museum Expedition 1905, Museum Collection Fund, 05.588.7297a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 05.588.7297_SL1.jpg)

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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.

How is the hair attached to this?

That's real fur on both heads, the big skull and the smaller animal head and they would use a glue made from boiling animal sinews.

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 someone killed to make this or is it wood?

It's made of wood!

Oh! It's kinda scary

I can see why! However, this would have been used in initiation ceremonies for the Heiltsuk First Nation. Skull items like these were sometimes used in the final stages of a ceremony where young men are initiated into the community by being symbolically transformed from "wild" cannibals to proper members of society.

Is this human hair?

It's actually bear fur! The object is made of wood with fur and paint on parts.

The Ladle is a ritual object created by an artist of the Heiltsuk First Nation. It would have been used in ceremonies that focused on the transition of young men into adulthood.

Tell me more.

This ladle would have been used in winter ceremonies by the Heiltsuk who live in British Columbia. It is distinctive for its depictions of multiple skulls and faces (in the bowl, the skull-like head carved on the handle, a skeletal face painted on the handle, and an additional face painted on the bowl's exterior) and the large size of the ladle.

Ladle with Skull

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 Heiltsuk (Bella Bella)

MEDIUM Cedar wood, bear fur, cord, pigment

GEOGRAPHICAL LOCATIONS

Place collected: Bella Bella, British Columbia, Canada
Place found: Wáglísla, British Columbia, Canada

DATES 19th century

DIMENSIONS 29 x 8 3/4 x 9 5/16 in. (73.7 x 22.2 x 23.6 cm) (show scale)

COLLECTIONS Arts of the Americas

ACCESSION NUMBER 05.588.7297a-b

CREDIT LINE Museum Expedition 1905, Museum Collection Fund

CATALOGUE DESCRIPTION The object is a large carved wooden ladle (a), decorated in black and red paint, with a separately carved wooden skull (b) nesting in its bowl. At the end of the ladle's handle is an animal head. Both skull and animal head have pieces of fur attached.

EXHIBITIONS

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is not on view

CAPTION Heiltsuk (Bella Bella). Ladle with Skull, 19th century. Cedar wood, bear fur, cord, pigment, 29 x 8 3/4 x 9 5/16 in. (73.7 x 22.2 x 23.6 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Museum Expedition 1905, Museum Collection Fund, 05.588.7297a-b. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 05.588.7297_SL1.jpg)

IMAGE overall, 05.588.7297_SL1.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.

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.

How is the hair attached to this?

That's real fur on both heads, the big skull and the smaller animal head and they would use a glue made from boiling animal sinews.

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 someone killed to make this or is it wood?

It's made of wood!

Oh! It's kinda scary

Is this human hair?

It's actually bear fur! The object is made of wood with fur and paint on parts.

The Ladle is a ritual object created by an artist of the Heiltsuk First Nation. It would have been used in ceremonies that focused on the transition of young men into adulthood.

Tell me more.

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Ladle with Skull

Arts of the Americas

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