IDNO

LS.26714.WHI

Description

On catalogue card: "N.W. Amazon. 175.19.
Indian plantation cleared by fire before cultivating".

View of burnt area of forest. [TC 09/06/1999]

Place

S America; Colombia; North West Amazon

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

Whiffen, Thomas William

Collector / Expedition

Date

1908 - 1909

Collection Name

Whiffen CollectionTeaching Slide Collection

Source

Whiffen, Nöel H.

Format

Lantern Slide Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Reproduced in Whiffen, T. W. 1915 as Pl. XXVI, with the caption "Indian plantation cleared by fire preparatory to cultivation".

Related Image: A duplicate print is at the RAI, reference 36148, and annotated by Whiffen in pencil on the reverse as "Indian plantation
- cleared by fire.
- preparatory."
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. [TC 09/06/1999], updated JD 22/10/2019]

Whiffen discusses agriculture in detail (Whiffen, T. W., 1915: 102-106). He explains that "to prepare the plots of ground the smaller trees are felled, the larger ones are burnt" (ibid: 103). After the stumps decay, "there is then a savannah, a clearing" such as the one depicted in this photograph. At this point, "the ground is then broken up with wooden clubs, and therewith the men's labour is at an end. Henceforward the women take charge of the plantation" (ibid: 103). The fire used in this process is not easily obtained. Whiffen informs us that "fire-making is unknown to the tribes south of the Japura, but on the north of that river fire is obtained by friction in a groove" (ibid: 48), therefore "the Indians must keep the family fire burning night and day, and its preservation is the very serious business of every member of the tribe" (ibid: 49). Agriculture is also discussed by Steward, who explains that "men, sometimes assisted by their friends, who are rewarded with a feast, do the heavy work, clearing the fields by slash-and-burn, in which they formerly used a stone axe. Women plant and cultivate with a wooden digging-stick and harvest ground crops" (1963: 751).

Source: In MAA Correspondence Box 1934 is a letter from Noel Whiffen donating his "brother's collection of lantern slides" to the museum, on behalf of the Whiffen family. Louis Clarke replied. The gift is also noted in the annual report for that year in the list of accessions (UCMAA 1934: 3), which mentions that "the collection of lantern slides has also been increased by gifts from ... Mr N. H. Whiffen ... "
For full details see Whiffen Collection record. [TC 09/06/1999, updated, JD 02/10/2019]