IDNO

P.98450.LAY

Description

On Catalogue Card for related image P.3835.ACH1: ‘Menggi’ images and tree surrounded by stone circle. (Pl. XIV fig. 3). Malekula, South West Bay, Seniang district. (references to J. R. A. I. LVIII, 1928).

“Malekula, Southwest Bay.
3. Carved figures. Tarlenunggor. Three images, with tree surrounded by a stone circle in background”
[Layard's caption, 1914 - 1915]

“226. S. W. Bay.”
“Wooden images etc.”
[Layard's caption, 1914 - 1915]

A clearing containing three carved wooden images and a tree surrounded by a stone circle, all connected with the degree taking ceremonies, Tarlenunggor. [JD 8/4/2009]

“Wood and stone images connected with degree taking ceremonies Tarlenunggor. Three images with tree surrounded by stone circle [John Layard, South West Bay, Malakula, 1915, TL1]” [JD 6/11/2008]

View of three wooden figurative carvings, with stylized face and body. [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.

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.61 with the following caption:
“Wood and stone images connected with degree taking ceremonies Tarlenunggor. Three images with tree surrounded by stone circle [John Layard, South West Bay, Malakula, 1915, TL1]” [JD 6/11/2008]

Context: Layard spent about one week in South-West bay during his fieldwork based on Atchin, 1914-15:
“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.

Publication: This image is reproduced by Layard in JRAI (1928) Degree-taking rites in South West Bay, Malekula, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, LVIII, pp. 139-223, plate XIV, 3, with the caption:
“Three images of the Tar-Lenunggor, in front of tree surrounded by stone circle.”
Layard tells us that Tar-Lenunggor [ a grade in the Menggi/Nimangki) has an image with a face “painted red, and on to its head is tied a leaf of the umbrella-palm (niriviu). This leaf is called in this instance “nititei” which means “a baby”, and is so called because it represents the head-covering (nakambat) placed on the heads of images in the higher degrees, the present degree being as yet “small” for the complete article. (1928: 161).
Deacon also describes the rites for this in some detail.

This negative 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 8/4/2009]