IDNO

N.98809.LAY

Description

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.3768.ACH1: “The ethnographer, J. W. Layard, taking notes from an old man sitting outside his lodge. Vao.”

“Self taking notes. Pelur, the old man is talking, while Mataru interprets and Pelur's son [Nasum] takes it in. Behind is Pelur's club house. [Unknown photographer, Vao, 1915, TL1]” [JD 29/3/2009]

“Malekula.
Layard taking notes for [two] old men
[Layard's caption, 1914 - 1915]

John Layard, seated writing notes, opposite him sits cross-legged a man, behind, an older man and a child, behind them a wooden, leaf-thatched house. [H. Geismar 12/02/2003]

Place

Oceania Melanesia; Vanuatu; Malakula; Vao [New Hebrides; Malekula]

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

John Willoughby Layard; Pelur of Togh-vanu, Vao; Ma-taru, of Tolamp, Vao; Nasum, of Tolamp, now of Vao; Melteterop (Pierre)

Photographer

None

Collector / Expedition

Date

1915

Collection Name

Layard Collection

Source

Layard, Richard

Format

Glass Negative Quarterplate

Primary Documentation

Other Information

N.98733.LAY to N.98868.LAY were found in the wooden box now numbered C525/.

Related Image: No print made for the Haddon Mounted Collection.

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. frontispiece with the following caption:
“Self taking notes. Pelur, the old man is talking, while Mataru interprets and Pelur's son [Nasum] takes it in. Behind is Pelur's club house. [Unknown photographer, Vao, 1915, TL1]” [JD 29/3/2009]

Bibliographical Reference: Layard wrote:
“Whilst fully conscious of the pitfalls attending a comparatively short stay under such conditions, these were, however, considerably minimised by the fact that, as known to the Vao natives, I had lived half a year on Atchin, where I had become familiar with many of the problems involved, and was thus primed with a knowledge of the general outlines of Vao culture before I ever set foot on the island. In the second place, I was already known personally to many of the Vao natives who inter-marry with Atchin. In the third place, I had the good fortune to meet immediately with a first-class informant, Ma-Taru, a man in the prime of life, who had once been a member of a Presbyterian Mission school but had renounced Christianity and had returned to Vao in order to rebuild the fortunes of his family through intensive prosecution of megalithic ritual. This man was descended from the former inhabitants of the now submerged island of Tolamp which once flourished between Atchin and Vao, who, owing to historical circumstances to be recounted below, hold a privileged position in the cycle of megalithic rites. His information was therefore of the highest value. Not having time to learn the language of Vao, which is different from that of Atchin though the islands are only three miles apart, my work with him was carried out in pidgin-English supplemented by comparisons with Atchin, which I spoke sufficiently well at that time to serve as a useful check. On matters of tribal history and kinship his information was supplemented by interviews with Pelur, one of the leading men on Vao, whose photograph appears on Plates V and VIII, who knew no pidgin-English and for whom Ma-taru acted as interpreter. Added to this was the fact that I had evolved highly efficient technique of recording and cross-referencing which was the admiration of the natives, who believed therefore that anything I had once learnt I never forgot.” (Layard 1942: xviii – xix).

Named Person: During a research trip to Vao in July 2003, Vao islanders identified the young boy in the photograph as possibly being Mal Taru’s son Melteterop (Pierre) [H. Geismar fieldnotes July 2003]

Named Person: During a research trip to Vao in July 2003, the young child in the photograph was tentatively identified by the descendents of Mal-Taru and Pelur as Mal-Taru’s son Melteterop.

Related Archive: Layard Papers held in the Mandeville Library, University of San Diego (MSS 84. box 31, folder 10): Typed list of photographs entitled: New Hebrides photographs by J. W. Layard. Note on first page says that place names in capitals and personal names in inverted commas.
The caption for the image numbered 383:
‘VAO. Self taking notes. “Pelur”, the old man, is talking while “Mataru” interprets, and “Pelur’s” son takes it all in. Behind is Pelur’s club house.’

Bibliographical Reference: Layard writing about his informants:
“I had the good fortune to meet immediately with a first-class informant, Ma-taru, a man in the prime of life, who had once been a member of a Presbyterian Mission school but had renounced Christianity and had returned to Vao in order to rebuild the fortunes of his family by an intensive prosecution of megalithic ritual. This man was descended from the former inhabitants of the now submerged island of Tolamp which once flourished between Atchin and Vao who, owing to historical circumstances to be recounted below, hold a privileged position in the cycle of megalithic rites. His information was therefore of the highest value. Not having time to learn the language of Vao, which is different from that of Atchin though the two islands are only three miles apart, my work with him was carried out in pigin-English supplemented by comparisons with Atchin, which I spoke sufficiently well by that time to serve as a useful check.
On matters of tribal history and kinship his [another informant, names Ma-taru) was supplemented by interviews with Pelur, one of the leading men on Vao, whose photograph appears on plates V and VIII [see P.3767.ACH1 for photograph of Pelur], who knew no pidgin-English and for whom Ma-taru acted as an interpreter. Added to this was the fact that I had evolved a highly efficient technique of recording and cross-referencing which was the admiration of the natives, who believed therefore that anything I had once learnt I never forgot.” (1942: xix).

Publication: Plate VIII in Layard (1942) reproduces this image with the caption:
“The aged Pelur, of Togh-vanu, holds forth on tribal history which the author records with the help of Ma-taru of Tolamp, whose son Na-sum sits listening too. The scene is the courtyard of Pelur’s lodge.”

CUMAA Exhibition: A reproduction of this image was displayed in Collected Sights in the section Fieldwork and Scholarship with the descriptive label:
“William Rivers’ student John Layard taking notes from local informants. Layard travelled with Rivers in the Pacific after the 1914 meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science held in Australia.” [Sudeshna Guha 27/11/02]

CUMAA Exhibition: 'Exhibited in "Vanuatu Stael: Kastom and Creativity", 2003-February 2006 with following label "Ethnographer J. W. Layard taking notes from an old man, sitting outside his lodge. Vao, near Malakula, Photographer: unknown, 1914-15. UCMAA P.3768.ACH.1” [F. Veys, 26/6/2006]

MAA Exhibition: This photograph was included in the 'Early Cambridge Anthropology' text panel for the 'Introduction Case', in the Maudslay Gallery during its re-display, May 2012, with the caption:
"John Layard recording genealogies and tribal histories from elder Pelur (centre). Maltaru assists while Nasum, Pelur’s son, looks on. Vao Island, Vanuatu 1915. MAA N.98809.LAY" [JD 9/21/2013]

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 17/5/2009]