The Family Silver

Feeding one's self and one's ancestors

One could call these ceremonial spoons the “family silver of Northwest Coast nobility,” says Bill Holm, curator emeritus at the Burke Museum of Indian Art in Seattle. “Our families’ histories are carved on these spoons,” says Tlingit clan leader David Katzeek.

Harvard’s Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology holds nearly 2,000 ethnographic objects—masks, totem poles, rattles, and regalia—made by tribes living between northern California and southeastern Alaska during the nineteenth century, among them 124 spoons. Some of these were purely utilitarian. Others, for use at feasts, have elaborately carved horn handles on which artists rendered figures from local oral histories just as they did on their much-better-known totem poles. For a noble or shaman to serve food or eat with one of these, in itself a potent spiritual act, was simultaneously to honor and nourish ancestral beings. Anthropologist Anne-Marie Victor-Howe, former Hrdy Fellow at the Peabody, now gives the spoons due attention in Feeding the Ancestors: Tlingit Carved Horn Spoons (Peabody Museum Press), and a selection of them is on exhibit at the museum through March of next year (see www.peabody.harvard.edu for details).

Victor-Howe was aided by Holm, Katzeek, and other Tlingit scholars in her interpretations of these carvings, which present a rich cast of animal and human, real and supernatural characters.

Tlingit Shaman Spoon Tlingit Ceremonial Spoon Tlingit Ceremonial Spoon
larger image & details larger image & details larger image & details

The spoon at left has at the base of the handle an eye that represents a personified rock, island, or reef. A shaman wearing a headdress crowned with goat horns stands on it. He holds a land otter’s tail in his hands and mouth and appears to be eating a split otter. At the apex of the handle is a human-octopus being.

The figure at the base of the spoon handle at center is probably an eagle, although several of Victor-Howe’s consultants thought it could be a wolf. Above it sits a man wearing a clan-specific headdress with bear ears. His tongue reaches from his mouth to a land otter he holds in his arms.

A sea lion appears on the spoon at right, with a small bird forming the finial of the handle. In a native legend, a man known as Duktootl’, Blackskin, or Strong Man trained for years to improve his self-discipline and strength and then tore a large sea lion in half.


Hillel Burger 2004, Peabody Museum, President And Fellows Of Harvard College


Larger Images with Detailed Captions

Tlingit Shaman Spoon: 

The handle of a Tlingit shaman spoon depicting a shaman, a land otter, and an octopus. Circa 1840-1865. Mountain goat horn. 101/4 inches long overall. Collected by Edward G. Fast in 1867-1868, when he was a lieutenant in the U.S. Army stationed in Sitka, Alaska.


Tlingit Ceremonial Spoon: 

Tlingit ceremonial spoon with a carving of a man wearing a bear headdress. Circa 1840-1865. Mountain goat horn with a Dall sheep horn bowl. About 8 1/2 inches long. Also collected by Fast.


Tlingit Ceremonial Spoon: 

Tlingit ceremonial spoon showing a sea lion. Circa 1865-1900. Mountain goat horn. 6 inches long.

You might also like

The Roman Empire’s Cosmopolitan Frontier

Genetic analysis reveals a culture enriched from both sides of the Danube.

Tobacco Smoke and Tuberculosis

Harvard researchers illuminate a longstanding epidemiological connection. 

Discourse and Discipline

Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences broaches two tough topics.

Most popular

Small-Town Roots

Professors’ humble beginnings, concentration choices, and a mini history of Harvard and Radcliffe presidents

Vita: Fanny Bullock Workman

Brief life of a feisty mountaineer: 1859-1925

Being Black at Work

Realizing the full potential of black employees

More to explore

Illustration of a box containing a laid-off fossil fuel worker's office belongings

Preparing for the Energy Transition

Expect massive job losses in industries associated with fossil fuels. The time to get ready is now.

Apollonia Poilâne standing in front of rows of fresh-baked loaves at her family's flagship bakery

Her Bread and Butter

A third-generation French baker on legacy loaves and the "magic" of baking

Illustration that plays on the grade A+ and the term Ai

AI in the Academy

Generative AI can enhance teaching and learning but augurs a shift to oral forms of student assessment.