In junior high school I collaborated on a project with a small, mostly-female group of students. We were to design a unique, fictional culture and build illustrative cultural artifacts. We would bury said artifacts in a cardboard box filled with soil. Another team would then excavate our artifacts and guess about our culture. After several days of creative deliberation, we designed a pyramid-based matriarchy wherein men were kept underground as slaves, brought out occasionally to build more pyramids. Elvis was God. According to the artifact of my memory, middle school was a confused and hostile culture.
I began this week's illustrations, again, with visual research. I still don't know everything about these artifacts, but my Stebbins Dance Festival book has some interesting statements about them. Part of what I do know I impart below. According to their cultural artifacts, the Yup'ik people practice artful dancing to drums while waving furred objects. They also spend time carving, seal hunting, gift-giving, and telling stories.
FANS
Fans are held and waved about during the dancing ceremony. Men use fans decorated with feathers, and women fans decorated with fur and tundra cotton. Both of the fans I have drawn here are women's fans.
DANCE STICK
The dance stick is the most important object involved in the dance. It is crafted from a wood shaft, carved bone, and fur or tundra cotton. Usually the dance stick is embellished with carven figures representing the owner's accomplishments.
The translation in my book is a bit rough, but the dancing stick is said to function "like a judge and arbiter" (21).
It is also used to command gift-giving and to signal a call for food, and is thus also associated with Christmas (98).
I can't decide whether to depict the tundra cotton as furry or a bit more simplified. The bottom-left dance stick is decorated with an animal tail, a form popular in Stebbins when Stebbins Dance Festival was written.
DRUMS
Drums demand a great deal of respect from dancers. Apparently, if someone carelessly breaks a drum, it is as if the whole village has been destroyed (57).
Thankfully, this statement only applies to people who aren't actually using the drum. It's totally understood if a drum breaks in a fit of mad rythm.
FRY BREAD
Enjoyed by many Native-American cultures in different forms. Possibly evolved into the elephant ear. Currently the subject of controversy between cultural conservationists and nutritionists. Savory versions are often wrapped around meat like a taco. Sweet versions are combined with honey.
Mmm. Note to self. Make sure fry bread in book doesn't resemble a cornflake. Also, further research involving strawberries and powdered sugar may be necessary.
HEADDRESSES
Headdresses are largely ornamental dance attire. I had enormous fun drawing these. It looks as though the wearers' heads are bursting into layer-cakes of flame
CITIZENS'-BAND RADIO
Dubbed the "CB radio" for short. This communication device was popularized in the seventies due to its frequent appearance on The Dukes of Hazzard. It is also popular in villages where phone use is limited.
I began this week's illustrations, again, with visual research. I still don't know everything about these artifacts, but my Stebbins Dance Festival book has some interesting statements about them. Part of what I do know I impart below. According to their cultural artifacts, the Yup'ik people practice artful dancing to drums while waving furred objects. They also spend time carving, seal hunting, gift-giving, and telling stories.
FANS
Fans are held and waved about during the dancing ceremony. Men use fans decorated with feathers, and women fans decorated with fur and tundra cotton. Both of the fans I have drawn here are women's fans.
DANCE STICK
The dance stick is the most important object involved in the dance. It is crafted from a wood shaft, carved bone, and fur or tundra cotton. Usually the dance stick is embellished with carven figures representing the owner's accomplishments.
The translation in my book is a bit rough, but the dancing stick is said to function "like a judge and arbiter" (21).
It is also used to command gift-giving and to signal a call for food, and is thus also associated with Christmas (98).
I can't decide whether to depict the tundra cotton as furry or a bit more simplified. The bottom-left dance stick is decorated with an animal tail, a form popular in Stebbins when Stebbins Dance Festival was written.
DRUMS
Drums demand a great deal of respect from dancers. Apparently, if someone carelessly breaks a drum, it is as if the whole village has been destroyed (57).
Thankfully, this statement only applies to people who aren't actually using the drum. It's totally understood if a drum breaks in a fit of mad rythm.
FRY BREAD
Enjoyed by many Native-American cultures in different forms. Possibly evolved into the elephant ear. Currently the subject of controversy between cultural conservationists and nutritionists. Savory versions are often wrapped around meat like a taco. Sweet versions are combined with honey.
Mmm. Note to self. Make sure fry bread in book doesn't resemble a cornflake. Also, further research involving strawberries and powdered sugar may be necessary.
HEADDRESSES
Headdresses are largely ornamental dance attire. I had enormous fun drawing these. It looks as though the wearers' heads are bursting into layer-cakes of flame
CITIZENS'-BAND RADIO
Dubbed the "CB radio" for short. This communication device was popularized in the seventies due to its frequent appearance on The Dukes of Hazzard. It is also popular in villages where phone use is limited.
mmm bread
ReplyDeleteMe, too, on the bread. That stuff is so good. And I love your middle school recollections: a curious and hostile environment, indeed. If humans got stuck there, our population problems would be over.
ReplyDeleteI like these drawings. It's too bad we can't slip in a sample of fry bread to get the full effect.
Hello! My 5th-6th grade Stebbins students took a look through your blog this afternoon and these are the comments that we had:
ReplyDelete1. Fry bread is delicious but we usually just eat it plain or with peanut butter and jelly.
2. Another important food for potlatch is akutaq (a-goo-tac)which is also called eskimo ice cream. It is berries mixed up with crisco or white fish and sometimes sugar. A local favorite!
3. Qaspeks are worn by female members of the community fairly regularly. The ladies in school wear one almost every day.
4. We don't have our Potlatch in the gym, we have it at the Community Center also called the Hall. Many villages do use their school for many things though.
5. Potlatch is a very fun time. We gather with two other villages. It happens in late March or early April, so it is very cold, but the days are getting longer. We stay up all night dancing and listening to stories. It is so fun.
6. Only a few of my students were familiar with the concept of a 'dance stick'. We have one in our display case but I am not certain if they are used currently.
7. We love the dance fans, but the bottom one is definitely more like the ones that we use today.
This is a short summary of the comments that my students had. They were all very impressed by your sketches. Thank you for sharing and we will check back in again!
Matt Anderson and the 5th and 6th graders of Stebbins School
Oh! And the drums have a handle coming out of the bottom!
ReplyDeleteHere is a website on which you can look at a video of Stebbins. There may be some good images that you can use.
I will also send Deb some pictures that I have and my after school group will be taking more.
Matt Anderson
Students, Matticus and Deb,
ReplyDeleteThank you so much for your feedback! I can't tell you how valuable it is to have some firsthand responses. Tell your students not to worry; akutaq aplenty will be drawn. I have enjoyed it myself in the past. And the fry bread looks like it would make an amazing PBJ. Pictures would be terrific! It is often difficult to get a full view of the drum because most pictures show it being played and held in the lap. I haven't been able to recognize the instrument use to strike it yet--it looks like the stem of a feather. Can anyone help me solve the mystery?
Nancy,
ReplyDeleteI have an expert on the subject drum striking, 6th grade Casey Jack who tells me that they simply use a piece of 1/4 inch dowel, about 18 - 24 inches long.
The drummers will often hold the drums aloft in the latter portions of their songs when things get louder and more intense. That is where the handle comes in really... um... handy.
Nancy,
ReplyDeleteI have a few more comments from other, slightly older students for you.
Hi, my name is Dylan from Stebbins and I really like you pictures because of the dance fans and all the other drawings. I think that you should put those pictures in the book that Deb is writing. The thing I like about the dance fans are that they are very puffy and they look very beautiful to dance with. I would make no changes to your pictures because they are very good drawings.
Hi my name is Paul James from Stebbins and I really like the way you wrote about Stebbins and I like the way you drew the pictures of our cultural ways. By the way, we do not make our dunce fans like that, we make our dance fans out of grass and caribou beard. The caribou beard goes straight up and is not as wavy as you drew it. But everything else is good. Thanks for writing about Stebbins.
Hi, my name is Sidney from Stebbins and I like the way that you wrote about Stebbins. I really like your drawings. I’m really hoping you would write more about Stebbins. If you know what I mean. I wish we made dance fans the way that you drew them. By the way, thanks for writing about Stebbins. THANK YOU.
This is a wonderful opportunity for our students, thank you!
Matt A.