IDNO

P.801.ACH1

Description

On Catalogue Card: “Bananas, Mer.”

View showing two young banana trees and through them to a pile house with a thatch roof. On the right tree is a wrapped bundle of bananas, called sopsop, with the branch supported by a bamboo pole. [Jude Philp 17/3/1999, updated JD 25/7/2011]

Place

Oceania Australasia; Australia; Torres Strait; Mer

Cultural Affliation

Torres Strait Islander

Named Person

Photographer

Wilkin, Anthony

Collector / Expedition

Haddon, Alfred Cort [Cambridge University Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Straits, 1898 - 1899]

Date

1898

Collection Name

Mounted Haddon CollectionTorres Strait Island Expedition

Source

Haddon, Alfred Cort (Dr)

Format

Quarterplate

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Publication: Printed in Reports I: Plate XXI, fig. 1 with the caption “Pile-dwelling and sopsop banana, Mer (pp. 89, 109, 147)”. The bananas are wrapped in this way when young, when the wrapping is uncovered the skin is red. [Jude Philp 17/3/1999]

Bibliographical Reference: The house in the background is described in Reports IV: 109. [Jude Philp 17/3/1999]

CUMAA Exhibition: ‘Torres Strait Islanders: An Exhibition Marking the Centenary of the 1898 Cambridge Anthropological Exhibition’ at UCMAA, July 1998 to December 2000, with following label "Photograph. Stand of young banana plants. The bananas are wrapped when still green to make them sweeter and to protect them from birds and insects. This type of banana is bright red when taken out ot its casing, and is known as sop sop kaba. Mer, 1898. P.801.ACH1." [F. Veys, 9/8/2006]