IDNO

LS.26754.WHI

Description

On catalogue card: "N.W. Amazon. 175.73 - 76.
(Tribes not identified)
4 groups.
(4 slides)."

A group portrait of Witoto men and women standing outdoors. The men, standing to the left, are wearing moh-hen (loin-cloths), some are wearing neck-ornaments and one is wearing arm ligatures. The women, standing to the right, are wearing leg and ankle ligatures and one is wearing a neck-ornament. [TC 09/06/1999, updated JD 21/10/2019]

Place

S America; Colombia; North West Amazon

Cultural Affliation

South American Indian; Witotoan; Witoto [Huitoto; Uitoto; Ouitoto; Fitita; Guitoto; Hitote; Huitata; Huito; Huitato; Huitota; Komiuvedu; Komiovedu; Murui-Muinane]

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

Related Image: A duplicate print is at the RAI, reference 36156, and annotated by Whiffen in pencil on the reverse as "Witoto."
Photocopies of Whiffen prints at the RAI are now in the UCMAA archive, reference W19/1/3. See Whiffen Collection record for further details. [TC 09/06/1999, updated, JD 02/10/2019]

Bibliographical Reference: Whiffen explains that "the men wear little or nothing but what the Witoto call a moh-hen, that is, a strip of beaten bark-cloth carried from front to rear between the legs and tucked in at either end over a string or strap of bark-cloth bound about the waist" (Whiffen, T. W., 1915: 72). He informs us that "the Amazonian boy is first provided with a breech-cloth when he is five years old. His earliest lesson is in its manufacture, for every Indian fashions his own clothing" (ibid: 73). He then describes how the loin-cloth is manufactured and notes that it is never removed "in the sight of man or woman" and is buried with a man when he dies (ibid: 74). Steward notes that boys and men "wear a bark-cloth breech-clout after the age of five or six years (1963: 753). [TC 01/06/1999]

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]