Context (CMS Context)
Case 26.
Event Date 1/8/1998
Author: maa

Description (CMS Description)
Human effigy. Female image used in the Moguru ceremony, also a charm to make the sago grow. Ref. Head Hunters-Black, White and Brown.p.105.fig.8.
Event Date 1/8/1998
Author: maa

Context (Field collection)
Collected by Alfred Cort Haddon during a visit to Kiwai Island, September 1898 as part of ‘The Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits’.
Event Date 20/4/2017
Author: heather donoghue

Context (References)
Figure appears in Haddon 'Head-Hunters Black, White and Brown' (1901: 105, Fig. 8). Haddon describes large female figures called orara, umburuburu being smaller versions, which are shown to boys during the Moguru ceremony (1901: 104-5).

Landtman 'The Kiwai Papuans of British New Guinea' describes Moguru as a life giving ceremony, involving several episodes that include life-giving medicine for gardens (especially Sago) and the initiation of girls and boys into sexual life (1927: 350-367).
Event Date 20/4/2017
Author: heather donoghue

Context (Production / use)
Museum label attached to object records place of collection as Sumai village, Kiwai Island. Accession register (Z2: 199) records this location for Z 9240 and gives Iasa village, Kiwai Island, for this object. Place field updated to record both locations.
Event Date 20/4/2017
Author: heather donoghue

Description (Physical description)
Dark brown wooden human figure, carved from the whole. Ovoid head tapering at chin with slightly raised face. Elongated nose, perforated at nostrils, forms central ridge. Eyes in-filled with resin and roughly hexagonal pieces of pearl shell. Carved oval mouth with rectangular teeth at top and bottom, traces of white pigment at top. Curved ears project from sides of face. Cylindrical body with arms and hands carved in raised relief at each side. Straight squared legs project from base of torso.
Event Date 20/4/2017
Author: heather donoghue

Description (Labels & Markings)
Collector label adhered to side of lower torso reads: [Black typescript:] '690'.

Museum inscription on reverse of object reads: [Handwritten in white ink:] 'Z 9239 OH 1329.'

Museum label loosely sellotaped around leg reads: [Handwritten in black ink:] 'UMBURUBURU FEMALE EFFIGY USED IN MOGURU CEREMONIES. ALSO A CHARM TO MAKE THE SAGO GROW SEE HADDON, HEAD HUNTERS, P.105, FIG. 8. SUMAI, KIWAI I. C.+D. A.C. HADDON. Z.9239.' [Red circular sticker top left of label.]

Red circular sticker adhered to centre top of head.
Event Date 20/4/2017
Author: heather donoghue

Context (References)
Collecting context see Haddon ‘Head-Hunters Black, White and Brown’ (1901: 95-116) and Herle & Rouse ‘Cambridge and the Torres Strait: Centenary Essays on the 1898 Anthropological Expedition’ (1998).
Event Date 20/4/2017
Author: heather donoghue