A pair of knife handles from the island of East Timor, located in the Indonesian Archipelago.

Relics

It's never a good idea to put ideas into my head. With the photo cropped it makes the Naga look more life size. I might be wrong but if you look at the upper left window it appears as if there is someone there.

Most cultures have tales of half human, half fish beings that inhabit the sea. The Canadian Inuit call their version of the mermaid a Sedna. It's quite an involved tale but the short version is that an Inuit father threw his beautiful daughter into the sea to save his own ass from a pissed off raven.

These two sculptures are carved from caribou antler. The first carving is of Sedna hanging onto a sled that is being pulled by a Beluga whale. The second carving has her being pulled along by a seal. It is interesting how the carver has used the points of the antler to form her hair and her tail.

Strictly speaking, tribal art usually comes from so called primitive cultures but since this thread is going over like a fart in a submarine I thought something from the UK might clear the air.

This wood carving was purchased from one of your tribe members a few years ago. It is more folk art than tribal art but it does offer a humourous look at a day at the seaside.

By the way folks, the intention of this thread was to see what other things the AA membership collects. Be warned, I am just going to keep adding more of my "weird" crap if none of you has anything to add.

Vlad

Ok Vlad heres something different , found in my grans loft after she died , with a note attatched to give them to me when anything happened to her , they are her 21st birthday cards from 1936 , she knew i was a horder and would look after them , i might start collecting them now as i have a great start  !

cheers

Dan

Thanks for sharing that Dan. I also have a few things that were left for me by my Nana. They have little monetary value but every time I look at them they bring a good feeling.

It's an odd thing but I always think of pre WWII images in black and white so I love to see these old hand coloured items. I think it would be a good thing if you started a collection of them and a whole lot cheaper than advertising items.

Now for something that I am sure will appear very odd to non-Canadian eyes. It is known as Woodland's art and most of it represents the spirits and the legends of the native tribes located around the Great Lakes area of Canada and the US. It is a very new form of art that has come into being in the last 50 years. The founder of this art movement was Norval Morrisseau and he created it to ensure the oral traditions of his people were carried on in a way that would appeal to the younger generation. Back in the 60's and 70's Morrisseau traded many of his paintings for food, a place to sleep and most often for booze. If you were lucky enough to have been the recipient of a few of these paintings you would be a wealthy person now. His work hangs in our major galleries and private collections.

I could never afford one of his paintings but I do have a large one that was painted by his son with his father's assistance and this one that was done by another native artist. The figure with the human head in it's belly is known as a Windigo. The Windigo legend was thought to have been created to discourage canibalism between the tribes. It was said that if you ate human flesh you would become a monster that wandered the forests seeking out more human flesh.

Naga headhunters, Inuit mermaids and canibalistic monsters. You would think there couldn't be anymore odd stuff but I have more. Stay tuned.

The people of Canada's far north are now known as Inuit instead of the more familiar Eskimo. The word Eskimo was a name given to them by the Indians of the southern part of Canada. It meant something like "raw meat eaters" and was not meant to be complimentary. The term Inuit simply means "the people".

I met and befriended some of them back in the 80's when I was working in the oil industry and they are a fascinating people. The modern world has brought many changes to their way of life but they still live in small scattered communities and are clinging on to the old ways as best they can.

Inuit art is interesting because it is not something that was common pre 1950. They were nomadic hunters and creating permanent works of art was not practical when you had to carry your possessions from place to place. It was the tourist trade and international art collectors that popularized the carvings of polar bears and other Arctic related subjects. Most early artists used bone, antler, ivory and soapstone but now they also do printmaking, textiles and even ceramics.

The piece pictured below is an unglazed ceramic work by Roger Aksadjuak from Rankin Inlet on the northwest coast of Hudson's Bay. It is a large piece, about a foot long and weighs close to ten pounds. It shows a polar bear with a human face and one of the two characters riding on his back is half man, half seal. The Inuit have many legends of people changing into animals and these "transformation" pieces are a popular subject for them to represent in their art.

As little feedback as I have had on my Naga headhunter thread there seems to be quite a few views. This could be because people love to see a good train wreck but I would be happy if even one or two viewers find something interesting. I never meant to post so much but I figure why not use this section of the AA site. Like I said before, "take it or leave it".

Three days since my last post in this section. Did you miss me?

On to Greenland.

Greenland has a total population of roughly 58,000. Of that amount 88% are Kalaallit people. In Kalaallit folklore a TUPILAK was an avenging monster fabricated by a shaman from animal parts and sometimes the corpses of children. The shaman would give it life through ritualistic chants. It would then be placed in the sea to seek and destroy an enemy.

Kalaallit carvers now produce these TUPILAKS mainly from reindeer antler to sell to tourists and people like me sitting at their computers in far away places. These two examples come from a small village in the Ammassalik region of East Greenland.

Hey Lummox

I was going through a drawer yesterday when I found this item that reminded me of your Masonic pieces. I did a little research and found out that it is from "The Knights of the Maccabee". It's a Jewish fraternal organization founded in London, Ontario in 1878. The Latin words ASTRA CASTRA NUMEN LUMEN translate to "The stars my lamp" "The deity my light". There is a date of 1900 on the medal.

Vlad

Alfred E Neuman spotted  near the Burmese border

He is certainly a well travelled individual

Relics

That little bugger gets around. I don't know if it just my deteriorating eyesight but I can't look at Burmese Alfred without the 2 sets of eyes going wonky.

Among many other things I have a few souvenir sailor dolls that they used to sell on cruise ships. The bearded one looks like my alcoholic cousin Hamish but the other two resemble Alfred.

Right now there must be someone on the internet going, "Who in the hell is Alfred E. Neuman"?

Now back to the tribal stuff that has the AA site buzzing with the anticipation of, what's next?

Betel nut chewing is popular in areas of the tropical Pacific, Asia and east Africa. The nut is chewed along with a small amount of powdered lime and basicaly they get a mild buzz. The following photos are lime containers from the island of Timor.

It might just be Relics bringing up the Alfred E Neuman character but the centre figure looks a little like the Mad magazine icon.

Fetish bear carved from Jet and decorated with turquoise. The Zuni of New Mexico carved a variety of animals that would empower the owner with certain attributes. The bear was known for it's healing powers. I bought this on the Navajo reservation that lies just east of the Grand Canyon in Arizona. The native lady told me that if I put the bears mouth to my mouth and drew in a breath I would be blessed with the bears healing powers. That was three years ago and since then I have had a hernia operation and a mild heart attack.

 hey vlad, good thread.

Anything fishing in your collection?