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2.4.10.wavFor the Aleut, the winter was the time for celebrations. Village chiefs would extend invitations to neighboring villages to attend a feast. These celebrations were important for maintaining good relations between villages. Aleuts would also hold feasts to celebrate a successful whale hunt.
At these celebrations, people gathered to feast, sing, dance, tell stories, and play games. Both men and women had roles in the dances. Each village had stories and songs about its ancestors. Men and boys enjoyed wrestling. They also played games with rings and sticks. Women's and children's games often involved balancing.
Masks were an important part of Aleut gatherings. They were often used during ceremonial dances at celebration feasts. Examples of these distinctive and artistic ceremonial masks are seen below.
They made entirely different burial masks. These masks had enormous noses, high foreheads, prominent chins, wide mouths, and incised circles or slits for eyes. They added a circle, spiral, or rectangular design painted red or green on the forehead between the eyebrows.
Aleuts had elaborate funeral rites. Unique among Alaska Natives, Aleuts would mummify the body of an honored person. The purpose was to preserve the individual's spiritual power. The people placed the wrapped body in a box along with his or her personal belongings. A mask like the one on the right would be placed with the mummy. Occasionally, the family of the deceased had slaves killed to show their grief.
Funeral Mask, Unga Island, 1869
Ceremonial Aleut Masks
Aleuts have been making masks for thousands of years. The Aleut mask below, carved from whale bone, is 3,000 years old!
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