IDNO

P.9290.ACH1

Description

On Catalogue Card: “Menimehe captive”.

On Catalogue Card for duplicate image LS.26729.WHI: "N.W. Amazon. 175.41.
A Menimehe captive”.

A three-quarter-length portrait of young woman, annotated as a 'Menimehe captive', standing facing the camera outdoors. She is standing in front of a malokas (Indian communal house). [TC 01/06/1999, updated JD 22/10/2019]

Place

S America; Colombia; North West Amazon

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

?Whiffen, Thomas William

Collector / Expedition

Date

?1908 - 1909

Collection Name

Mounted Haddon CollectionWhiffen Collection

Source

Format

Print Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Publication: Image reproduced in Whiffen, T. W., 1915 as Pl. LIII with the caption “A Menimehe captive”. [TC 01/06/1999]

Related Image: A duplicate print is at the RAI, reference 36133, and annotated by Whiffen in pencil on the reverse as "Menimehe (captive)."
Photocopies of Whiffen prints at the RAI are in the UCMAA archive, reference W19/1/3. See Whiffen Collection record for further details on RAI collection. [JD 02/10/2019]

Biographical Reference: This girl was probably captured during warfare. However, there appears to be a vast difference between the treatment of "prisoners" and "slaves". Whiffen describes the killing and anthropophagous consumption of "prisoners" (Whiffen, T. W., 1915: 119-124), but informs us that "slavery among the Indians themselves is little more than a name, for a slave belongs to a chief, and soon becomes identified with his family" (ibid: 60). He also states that "a woman slave may be purchased from the chief by the gift of some small present to his wife. After that the girl is free" (ibid: 61). Steward states that "young persons are taken captive and later merge into the community" (1963: 756). The fate of the girl depicted, then, is unclear. [TC 01/06/1999]

Biographical Reference: Although Whiffen’s book is primarily ethnographic, he also uses the methods of physical anthropology. He mentions physical appearance when discussing the differences between tribes and language groups (Whiffen, T. W., 1915: 57-58). In Appendix 1, (ibid: 269-279) His discussion of "physical characteristics", is illustrated with photographs. Appendix II postulates the "Mongoloid origin" of Amazonian peoples (ibid: 280-281), while Appendix IV is a series of "colour analyses and measurements" charts of physical statistics (ibid: 283-290). [TC 01/06/1999]