IDNO

N.34713.ACH2

Description

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.4911.ACH1: Armour.

On Catalogue Card for duplicate image LS.120837.TC1: “Micronesia.
Gilbert Island.
Man dressed in coir armour (incomplete as he should have coir trousers) and wearing a globe-fish helmet.” [typed text]
“(see also No.8.).” [manuscript in ink]

A warrior wearing an armour shirt woven from coconut fibre [sinnet], a back-shield and puffer-fish helmet. holding a serrated sword studded with ?shark’s teeth. [Mark Elliott 27/04/2004]

Full-length profile of a Kiribati roro-buraka (warrior), possibly an officer of the Gilbertese Army, dressed in traditional war kit and carrying a coconut-wood trident lance with a double-edge of sharks teeth. (Traditional the sharks teeth are tied into place with a kind of rope made from one strand of coconut fibre and one of the boy;s hairs taken during a hair-cutting ceremony.) The plaited coir (coconut fibre) armour consists of a te tuta (short shirt or jersey) with diamond-shaped motifs probably worked in black human hair, trousers, and a te otana (cuirass), which has a back plate that protected the head and neck from coral rocks. (These were thrown at his enemy by his female relatives who would stand behind him.) The te katibana (belt) is of woven coir twine, or dried ray skin, 7-10 inches broad, worn around the body as protection from spears. The te barantauti (helmet) is made from the inflated, dried carcase of a porcupine-fish, a close relative of the puffer-fish. The man has bare feet. As the armour is heavy and stiff, making movement difficult, each warrior had an assistant who passed him his weapons. [JD 9/8/2007]

Place

Oceania Micronesia; Kiribati [Gilbert Islands]

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

None

Collector / Expedition

Date

Collection Name

Unmounted Haddon Collection

Source

Format

Glass Negative

Primary Documentation

Other Information

The negative was previously stored in an envelope now numbered C98/10/ which was in a wooden box now marked C98/.The envelope (C98/10/) is rehoused in Neg. Env. Box 1 which is stored in storage box A in the Photo Archive room.

This is one of a series of negatives sectioned within C98/ and headed by a marker with the inscription: “Easter I.”

This catalogue record was updated with the support of the Getty Grant Foundation [Mark Elliott 27/4/2004]