No open-access location is known for this record yet.
No open-access location is known for this record yet.
At Gambell on St. Lawrence Island, at Kobuk, and in other ancient Alaskan Eskimo villages, grandfathers and grandmothers still amuse their grandchildren with a well-known Eskimo pastime, the string-figure game (ayakhaak). The tradition predates the arrival of the first white explorers and belongs to that rich body of folklore that helped Eskimos while away the long, dark winter nights. String-figure games often possess a short song accompanying the action. These rhythmic songs and chants help outline and demarcate the action, so that the games become miniature musical plays. Music-making of this type is quite different from the usual Eskimo story-dancing. It uses no large drumming ensemble, no organized group of mime dancers, and no privately owned songs and dances. It involves only the teller and the listener, usually a grandparent and grandchild. Among Alaskan Eskimos, the relationship between these generations is very close, and the children are often named after their grandparents. The games are an intimate, personal form of musical and social communication and contain a great deal of warmth and humor. Theyare most often played after the evening meal of tuktak (fermented walrus meat) and akutuk (Eskimo ice cream made from berries and cooked fats). In earlier times, the player at the string-figure game would always carry a small roll of smooth sinew obtained from reindeer or cari-
Loading…
Imported from OpenAlex (CC0) — nothing here is generated.