The Eskimo storyknife complex of Southwestern Alaska

Abstract

This paper is a study of the special form of play among Eskimo girls which is known as "storyknifing.” It consists of telling stories to one another and illustrating these stories in snow or mud with a sharp pointed object. Formerly, carved ivory, bone, baleen, or wooden storyknives were used for the drawings, but storyknives are being replaced by common metal tableknives, filed metal strips or other substitutes. Stories are of two main types: biographical accounts of events in village life, and tales which are passed down from friends or family and contain well-known themes. Analysis of stories and accompanying illustrations points out similarities and differences in the knifestory complex as it now exists throughout southwestern Alaska with brief reference to its form farther north at Unalakleet and Barrow. The conclusion is that this complex developed as an enculturation device among aboriginal Eskimos because many tales have a moral. Ethnographic information from the story texts was extracted and explained to point out the references to aboriginal material culture and subsistence patterns in the traditional tales and the juxtaposition of ancient and modern elements in the biographical accounts.