IDNO

N.51448.ACH2

Description

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.1065.ACH1: “House at Saibai.”

Two Saibai men standing in front of two pile-houses constructed from probably palm thatch. Palm trees are in the background. (The foreground and bottom half of houses has been cropped by the camera.) [JD 7/10/2008]

Place

Oceania Australasia; Australia; Torres Strait; Saibai

Cultural Affliation

Saibai Islander

Named Person

Photographer

?Haddon, Alfred Cort

Collector / Expedition

Haddon, Alfred Cort [Cambridge University Anthropological Expedition to the Torres Straits, 1898 - 1899]

Date

22 October 1898

Collection Name

Unmounted Haddon Collection

Source

Haddon, Alfred Cort (Dr)

Format

Glass Negative Quarterplate

Primary Documentation

Other Information

N.51448.ACH2 was previously stored in an envelope now numbered C50/31/ which was in a wooden box now marked C50/. The envelope (C50/31/) is rehoused in Neg. Env. Box. 5 which is stored in Storage Box A in the Photo Archive room.

The box contains mostly negatives of objects in the UCMAA collection and a few from Saibai and Darnly Islands. All were taken in 1898. Some of the negatives have corresponding prints in the Mounted Haddon Collection (ACH1) [information from J.Philp 8/2/2000].

Bibliographical Reference: Haddon writes in his 1898 journal of his visit to Saibai, noting on pp. 251-252:
“Sunday Oct 22nd. ... Before our midday dinner I had completed a genealogical census of the island, with the totem of every individual and as I walked through the village I entered the names of the residents of every house. I had not time to trace back the genealogies as far back as possible – as Rivers did for Murray I. – Mabuiag but still what I was able to accomplish will enable me to get a food insight into the social organisation of the people. Rivers did not enumerate the inhabitants of every house – in Murray & Mubuiag the clans are all mixed up – but as I had found that in Kiwai the houses were clan houses I thought the same might occur here more or less. I find that formerly this was the case and that the Snake [Tabu] and wild sweet potato (Daibau) clans lived on one side of the village – and the crocodile (Kodal) dog (Umai) and cassowary [Sam] lived on the other. This division of the village into clan groups was said to tend to clan fights (This is a point that will interest ?Gomme) and so the ministry tried to mix them up. As a matter of fact I find there are still distinct traces of clan groupings in the village.” [JD 10/10/2008]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Jocelyne Dudding 7/10/2008]