IDNO

N.101817.MF

Description

A market scene depicting a group of women, men and children standing around three shea-nut traders sitting on the ground with large baskets and piles of shea-nuts. In the centre of the frame stands a young woman wearing a head scarf, perineal band, armlets and bracelets; she is holding a smaller bowl of shea nuts. [AF 7/5/2008]

Physical Condition: The negative is damaged in the bottom right-hand corner.

Place

W Africa; Ghana; Upper East Region [Gold Coast; Northern Territories]

Cultural Affliation

Tallensi

Named Person

Photographer

?Fortes, Meyer

Collector / Expedition

Fortes, Meyer

Date

July 1934

Collection Name

Fortes Collection

Source

Drucker-Brown, Susan

Format

Glass Negative Halfplate

Primary Documentation

Other Information

N.101811.MF - N.101821.MF were kept in the box now numbered C545/.

The inscription on the metal box numbered C545/ does not fully correspond with the contents. [Jocelyne Dudding 10/4/2007]

Context: “The market is a fundamental economic institution in Tale society, but we have space here only for a cursory comment on its function in relation to our main theme. Every kind of raw foodstuff, from grain to wild fruits and many varieties of cooked food can be purchased in the market. A visit to the market shows at once what the state of the domestic larder is; high prices indicate empty granaries, low prices, plentiful domestic supplies. The cooked food offered in the market illustrates the seasonal variation in supplementary diet very well. As soon as Bambara beans or frafra potatoes are lifted they appear, both raw and cooked in the market. The food most commonly sold in the market is porridge (saɣabo), the staple cereal food; but other cereal and pulse confections can be bought there, many kinds being especially prepared for sale, and rarely, if ever, cooked for home consumption. Such are maasa -fried millet cake, guor and kameha, both made of flour cow-pea. A number of women carry on a regular trade in these luxury goods and thus reap a steady income. Beer is always on sale in the Tale markets, manufactured and sold by a few regular women traders, all Nankansi as far as we know. Only in the markets have we seen intoxicated men; never at ritual gatherings. The market is also the main supplier of tobacco, which most mature men and many old women chew or smoke, but which only a minority are able to grow for themselves, and of kola nuts, imported from Ashanti by foreign traders, and universally chewed as a stimulant by by men, women, and even older children. Curdled milk (bigbihir), a luxury food, is generally obtained there too. The market represents the point of contact between the basic subsistence economy of the natives and the money economy which exists side by side with it.”
(Fortes, M. and Fortes, S., 1936).

Context: In reference to cooking ingredients, it is noted that, “Fats and seasonings have a very important place in Tale cookery, and, like vegetables, are the woman’s responsibility. But they are mainly market commodities and a man will frequently give his wife money to purchase them. The only fat used is shea butter (kpaam). It is obtainable all the year round. It is made of the nuts of the shea fruit (kpi) which are carefully preserved after the fruits have been eaten.” (Fortes, M. and S. Fortes, 1936, p.251) [Alicia Fentiman 15/4/2008]

Fortes, M., & Fortes, S.L., 1936, ‘Food in the Domestic Economy of the Tallensi,’ Africa: Journal of the International African Institute,’ Vol. 9, No. 2, Problems of African Native Diet., pp. 237-276.).
Bibliographical Reference: Fortes, Meyer, 1945. Dynamics of Clanship Among the Tallensi (London: Oxford University Press).

Bibliographical Reference: Fortes, Meyer, 1949. The Web of Kinship Among the Tallensi (London: Oxford University Press).

Bibliographical Reference: Fortes, Meyer, 1987. Religion, Morality and the Person: Essays on Tallensi Religion (London: Oxford University Press).

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Jocelyne Dudding 10/4/2007] [Alicia Fentiman 16/4/2008]