IDNO

LS.26726.WHI

Description

On catalogue card: "N.W. Amazon. 175.34.
Boro women making cassava."

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.9292.ACH1: “Boro women making cassava”.

Group of four Boro women preparing cassava outdoors beside a malokas (Indian communal house). The woman standing at the left is using a basketry cassava-squeezer. The woman standing at the centre is using a basketry cassava-strainer on a tripod stand. The two seated women are grating cassava into gourd? bowls. On the ground at the right is a basket full of unprepared cassava and a pot. [TC 01/06/199, updated JD 16/10/2019]

Place

S America; Colombia; North West Amazon

Cultural Affliation

South American Indian; Witotoan; Boro [Bora; Meamuyna; Meamuina; Miraña; Miranya; Mirane; Miranha; Miragua; Miraño; Mirania]

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

Publication: Image reproduced in Whiffen, T. W. 1915 as Pl. XXXIV with the caption “Boro women making cassava”. [TC 09/06/1999]

Related Image: A duplicate print is at the RAI, reference 36141, and annotated by Whiffen in pencil on the reverse as "Cassava making - Boro."
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 02/10/2019]

Bibliographical Reference: Whiffen discusses the cassava squeezer and grater in Whiffen, T. W., 1915, pp.98-99
The cassava-squeezer, that essential complement to an Indian household, is another plaited or basket-work article. The squeezer, which is common to the Boro and all the tribes north or south, except the Witoto, the Muenane, and the Nonuya, consists of a long cylinder with a loop at both ends. One is attached to a rafter, and the other to a stout stick, on which a woman sits, and thereby pulls upon the cylinder. The manioc is inserted through the open end before the weight is applied, and the elastic structure widens out to permit the soaked and grated roots to be packed in, till it resembles nothing so much as a well-filled Christmas stocking ; but when pressure is brought to bear on the lower end the cylinder gradually elongates, and thereby contracts, crushing the roots to a pulp, from which the poisonous juice drains away.
The material used to make these squeezers appears to be a species of cane, but is said to be the bark of a palm tree. It is cut into narrow strips and closely plaited into an elastic bottle some seven to ten feet long, and not more than about six inches wide when open. Instead of this cylinder the Witoto use a long web, a rectangular strip about ten inches wide of plaited bark-fibre, about an inch wide. This they wind round the grated manioc after the manner that putties are adjusted on the leg. The tighter they twist the pliable web the greater the pressure upon the crushed roots, and the juice is thus wrung out of them.
The grater that is used to scrape the manioc roots, before they are placed in the squeezer, is a wooden implement made by the Indian women themselves. It is a flat oval. The one in the illustration measures 16 1/2 inches by 5 3/4 inches. The wood is of a bamboo type set with short black palm-spines about an eighth of an inch apart, thicker at one end than the other, but arranged in no regular pattern. These spines are fixed into the wood and project about an eighth of an inch above it. Those in which quartz stones are inserted instead of spines are a valuable commercial commodity north of the Japura. [Full text available on https://archive.org/details/northwestamazon01whifgoog/page/n178, JD 16/10/2019]

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]