IDNO

P.98446.LAY

Description

On Catalogue Card for related image P.3842.ACH1: ‘Menggi’ images (Pl. XVI fig. 2). Malekula, South West Bay, Seniang district. (references to J. R. A. I. LVIII, 1928).

“Wood and stone images connected with degree taking ceremonies Monolith erected to for the degree of Na-amel won. [John Layard, South West Bay, Malakula, 1915, TL1]” [JD 6/11/2008]

“221. S. W. Bay.”
“Wooden image with stone circle, erected during degree taking ceremonies.”
[Layard's caption, 1914 - 1915]

“Malekula.
wooden carving with enormous phallus”
[Layard's caption, 1914 - 1915]

View of carved figure with two faces and protruding phallus. Stones and conch shells adjacent. [H. Geismar 24/02/03]

Place

Oceania Melanesia; Vanuatu; Malakula; South West Bay [New Hebrides; Malekula]

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

Layard, John Willoughby

Collector / Expedition

Date

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.

Related Image: See notes for P.3833.ACH1.

Publication: This image is reproduced in Layard (1928: plate XVI, 2) with the caption:
“Image for Muluwan Sumbaran. Note fore-stone with “stone’s child.
Layard describes the stone’s child:
“The stone circle is made up of small stones usually not more than a foot high, but in the case of a circle surrounding an image or monolith carved with the human form the front stone is invariably larger than the rest, and represents a phallus (no-usun), thus supplying the deficiency in the image... Every one of these phallic stones has a small round pebble resting on top of it, called the “stone’s child” (newutun ne-wet). This is the stone which was used for breaking the old pig’s tusk bracelet on the novice’s wrist, but what other significance it has I was unable to learn.” (1928: 154).

Bibliographical Reference: There is some dispute between Layard and Wedgwood’s reading of both him and Deacon with regard to the carved phallus and the phallic status of the erected stones pertaining to these grades. (see Deacon 1934: 336-7).

Publication: Image published in Geismar, Haidy and Anita Herle, 2008. Moving Images: John Layard Fieldwork and Photography on Malakula Since 1914 (Crawford House Publishing, Adelaide), p. with the following caption:
“Wood and stone images connected with degree taking ceremonies Monolith erected to for the degree of Na-amel won. [John Layard, South West Bay, Malakula, 1915, TL1]” [JD 6/11/2008]

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]