IDNO

P.98440.LAY

Description

On Catalogue Card for related image P.3834.ACH1: ‘Menggi’ images. (Pl. XIV fig. 2). Malekula, South West Bay, Seniang district. (references to J. R. A. I. LVIII, 1928).

“209. S. W. Bay. [?Bwimenbar]
Left to Right, Images erected for Mbaturu (2, both tree ferns, Na’avuntal & Binben (both wood)”
[Layard's caption, 1914 - 1915]

On typed list: “209. L. to R. - 2 Mbaturu, Na’avuntal, Binben.” [Mandeville Library, MSS 84, Box 31, folder 10]

“Malekula.
Carved posts.”
[Layard's caption, 1914 - 1915]

“Two images of Mbaturu (TREE FERN), one of Andal, and small one of Mweliwsal. [Layard's caption, 1928, JD 27/4/2009]

View of two carved tree-fern figures, and one wooden figure, with foliage in the background. [H. Geismar 24/02/03] [updated JD 27/4/2009]

Place

Oceania Melanesia; Vanuatu; Malakula; Seniang district [New Hebrides; Malekula]

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

Layard, John Willoughby

Collector / Expedition

Date

1914 - 1915

Collection Name

Layard Collection

Source

Layard, Richard

Format

Print Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

P.98437.LAY to P.98452.LAY were found in the envelope now numbered C523/1/, which was loose in the wooden box now numbered C523/ with N.98453.LAY to N.98589.LAY.

Context: These are figures associated with the grade taking rites of Menggi, that Deacon terms Nimangki in South-West Bay.

Publication: This image is reproduced in Layard (1928), Degree-taking rites in South West Bay, Malekula, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, LVIII, pp. 139-223, plate XIV, 2. with the caption:
“Two images of Mbaturu (TREE FERN), one of Andal, and small one of Mweliwsal.
Layard tells us that the figure for Andal is carved to represent the figure of a man and is painted red and black with white eyes (1928: 158), initially erected inside the men’s house, it is planted in the dancing ground with ceremony after ten days.
Mweliswal has a “tree fern image, with one face, is erected by the mother’s brother and the mother’s father with the help of the child. Round its base are placed bunches of coconut frond, split into many strips, together with leaves of the nator tree, all bound together with cooking leaves. Men of this and all higher grades may be present, and the yams and other food for the feast are placed also round the feet of the image.” (1928: 156)

Bibliographical Reference: Deacon names these grades Nahav Ndal and Nimbinben using the titles Andal and Mwelipmbon or sal and also describes the rites in much more detail. (see 1934: chapter X and XI).

Context: Layard spent about one week in South-West bay:
“Owing to the changes of coastal communication I was not able to remain longer at that time, but I was so struck with the importance of the material that I determined to return at the earliest possible moment. This I was unfortunately never able to do, and when Mr. Deacon proposed going to Malekula I handed these notes over to him as a basis for investigation. The work was done through the medium of Tom Sandu, a native Mission teacher, who acted as interpreter. He was a man of some intelligence, and sufficiently conscious of his own ignorance of native affairs to rely entirely on the accounts of the two old men who acted as informants. These, however, lived a good two hours’ journey from the trader who kindly gave me hospitality. Owing to this and to the fact that my chief informant was old and easily tired, none of my seven days represented more than five hours’ actual work.” (1928: 141). Haddon asked Layard to publish his notes, which were very much a starting point for Deacon (see Deacons photos and biography in this database).
This material, drawn from both fieldnotes and published sources, was later incorporated by Camilla Wedgwood, sometimes inaccurately, to her edition of Deacons fieldnotes (Deacon 1934), resulting in Layard’s insertion of addenda into that text, and a rather irate preface (and exchange of letters with Routledge and Haddon which may be seen in the Deacon papers in the University Library).
It is interesting to compare Deacon and Layard’s material (both photographs and ethnographic data) on the subject of the graded society.

Related Image: Mandeville Library, University of San Diego; Special Collections, MSS 84, Box 31, folder 10: Typed list entitled: New Hebrides photographed by John Layard.
“209. L. to R. - 2 Mbaturu, Na’avuntal, Binben.”
[H. Geismar 24/10/03]

This print has been catalogued with the support of the Getty Grant Fund.

This catalogue record has been updated to incorporate information published in Geismar and Herle, 2008. Descriptions by Haidy Geismar have been updated to incorporate place and peoples' name and indigenous words. [Jocelyne Dudding 27/4/2009]