IDNO

N.101821.MF

Description

The Gbizug Tɛndaana’s party of Kpata’ar resting. A group of male elders with three men standing on the periphery, beneath a sacred tree in front of the entrance to the homestead with the tɛndaana (the ritual specialist known as the Custodian of the Earth). [AF 16/4/2008]

Place

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

Cultural Affliation

Tallensi

Named Person

Gbizug Tεndaana

Photographer

?Fortes, Meyer

Collector / Expedition

Fortes, Meyer

Date

October 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: Fortes discusses the politico-jural affairs of the Tallensi in depth and discusses the dynamics of clanship, kinship and ritual allegiance and the complementary roles between two politico-jural functionaries: the chiefs (na’ab) and the Custodians of the earth, (tendanna). The complementary functions of chiefship and tendannaship are rooted directly in the social structure, but are also validated by myths of origin and backed by the most powerful religous sanctions of the ancestor cult and the cult of the earth (Fortes, 1949, p.3).

Some homesteads must have flat-roofed throughout, though the cost in time and labour is great. For this is a taboo (kiher) of the Earth in some places. Almost all senior tendaanas are therefore obliged to have all their rooms flat-roofed.(p.49), because the spirits of his predecessors dwell there and the lineage bayer and indoor shrines dedicated to the Earth are in it. The investiture of the tendanna culiminates in his ritual induction into the zen, which is the final test of his acceptability to the ancestors and the Earth. A chief has special zen (zanto’o), which is not only the sanctuary of the spirits of former chiefs but his council-chamber and the room in which he performs the rites that bless the community during the Great Festivals (Fortes, 1949, p.55). [Alicia Fentiman 23/4/2008]

Context: “Each maximal lineage has a measure of autonomy and this is embodied in the ritual office of tendaana (Master or Custodian of the Earth). Each of the three lineages has its own tendanna-ship, held by the head (kpeem) of the lineage. This office is primarily associated with the cult of the Earth (ten) in its mystical aspect, whose shrines (tengbana) are the sacred spots found in profusion through - groves of trees, a pool, a stream, a pile of boulders, a single tree, or merely a small bare patch in the midst of cultivated fields”. (Fortes, 1945, p.80)

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]