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The Afterlife of the Pocket Watches

But what happened after the Inuit found these pocket watches? We know from the catalogue entry that Dr. John Rae traded them back in 1854. The Times wrote on October, 23rd: 

“The articles brought home by Dr. Rae had all been worn as ornaments by the Esquimaux, the coins being pierced with holes, so as to be suspended as medals.” 

What does that mean, being worn as ornaments? While the author specifies that coins were pierced, we can find the same marks on some pocket watch fragments. 

Fifteen years later, Ookbarloo tells Charles Francis Hall the story of Ad-lark, who owned a pocket watch. I will use Hall's spelling for the names just for consistency, while I would like to point out, that Hall had quite a unique way of spelling. Taqulittuq, Halls translator translated the story:

 "When she was at Ok-kee-bee-jee (Pelly Bay), which was in the winter of 1853-4), she saw a woman who had a watch, with chain and key, which she always kept very carefully by her. This mother was mother-in-law of In-nook-poosh-ee-jook, […]. She and her husband went to a big tent not very far from Keitchille, and among the frozen mass of human bones and bodies that were lying around in it she saw one Kob-lu-na body that had a bright white (probably silver) chain around the neck. She knew at once what the chain was for, as some of the other Neitchille Innuits had just come into possession of several watches and chains, which she saw." (Hall 1879, 595)

Interestingly, Ad-lark must have seen pocket watches and the chains before. By seeing the chain, she immediately knew what it was for and which kind of object was under the dead man's clothes. Carefully she removed the ice, afraid of touching the dead man. While Ad-lark kept her watch intact with the chain and key, other watches were taken apart. Ookbarloo tells Hall: 

“Old Ook-bar-loo said it was like this, of the same size and kind; that is, it was of white (silver) metal. It was not of such metal as my gold pen, though she (Ook-bar-loo) had seen many parts of watches—watches that had been taken to pieces—that were of the same color with my gold pen."  (Hall 1879, 596)

When I had the chance of analysing the pocket watch fragments in the National Maritime Museums, some interesting interventions in the objects became clear. Drilling holes through the edge of the case, some of these may have been worn like medals, as it is written for coins in The Times' article. As an example, I refer to the two silver watch cases AAA 2067 and AAA 2071.



When I tried to find out why this was done, I checked what kind of ornaments the Netsilingmiut had worn. The objects were mostly defined as amulets (today mostly referred to as aarnguaq/aarnguat): Objects, that had an Agency and gave the wearer certain skills or powers. I cannot make this conclusion with certainty, so I bring it up as an idea that needs further research, especially the help of Inuit knowledge.

By analysing the objects formally, I suggest that Netsilingmiut wore the pocket watch fragments on the same places as the men of the Franklin expedition wore them. I would like to refer to an officers capband, that In-nook-poosh-ee-jook wore around his head when Rae met him first, or to uniform buttons, that motivated McClintock to get into contact with four Inuit hunters (McClintock, 231). The art historians Susanna Burghartz, Lucas Burkart and Christine Göttler, use the idea of a site of mediation: A site where people encounter each other and where they trade knowledge. This might be a certain place, but also a situation or an activity. By focusing on the site, objects become silent messengers between the parties. They tell us today how people negotiated different modes of knowledge.  Using this concept to analyse the situation Ad-lark found, the dead man's body and especially the way he wore the pocket watch became a site of mediation, where Ad-lark wore the watch in the same way. 

Interestingly, seventy years later, Atqâralâq, a Pâdlermiut who lived around 700 km further away, wore a pocket watch around her neck. The social anthropologist Knud Rasmussen wrote about her, her husband Igjugârjuk and his first wive, Kibgarjuk. Atqâralâq stood out: She wore the watch around her neck, finger rings, and she possessed the bigger and more elegant tent, in which Rasmussen's party was invited. She was an amulet person, a person who is adorned. Every Pâdlermiut family has one. The amulets must be found far away, be in the possession since childhood and must be exchanged.  Unfortunately, Rasmussen does not write about the Agency each object had. With this in mind, I consider it likely that Netsilingmiut as Ad-lark used the pocket watches also as aarnguat. 
(Knud Rasmussen, Observations on the Intellectual Culture of the Caribou Eskimos, Kopenhagen: Gyldendalske Boghandel, Nordisk Forlag, 1930, 33/49)

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