IDNO

N.101830.MF

Description

A large group of men standing in the shallow waters at the edge of the river. Many are holding spears and attempting to catch fish. The pools fished lie in the bed of the White Volta River. Communal annual fishing expeditions extend over the period of a month between the close of the dry season and the commencement of the rainy season. They are part of the festival to ensure the fertility of crops, women and livestock, protection from danger, disease and death (Fortes: 1937:133).

Physical Condition: Double-exposed negative.

Place

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

Cultural Affliation

Tallensi

Named Person

Photographer

?Fortes, Meyer

Collector / Expedition

Fortes, Meyer

Date

Collection Name

Fortes Collection

Source

Drucker-Brown, Susan

Format

Glass Negative Halfplate

Primary Documentation

Other Information

N.101822.MF - N.101832.MF were kept in the box now numbered C546/.

The inscription on the metal box numbered C545/ does not fully correspond with the contents.

Context: “Among the Tallensi, a tribe of the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast, the communal fishing expeditions which take place every year are events of this kind. They extend over a period of about a month, between the close of the dry season and the commencement of the heavy rains. ... Fishing therefore is not an activity of an economic off-season. Its calendrical incidence depends primarily on the technique employed, which is suitable only for shallow pool; and the pools are shallowest at the end of the dry season. It is, also, only indirectly correlated with with the dimunition in food supplies which becomes general during the “dry rains,” since fish, like meat is valued as a delicacy and never as a substitute for the staple cereal foods. In any case, the catch is usually too small to influence the economy of food supplies materially. Nevertheless, the luxury value of fish furnishes one of the main inducements to join the fishing expeditions.
But the greatest attraction of these fishing expeditions to young and old, men and women, is the excitement and thrill they provide, the immediate pleasure of participation in communal enterprise with the possibility, however remote, of some gain” (Fortes, 1937, p.132). [Elisabeth Deane 21/11/2007]

Context: Fish (zin) is also prized as a delicate food, and there is always a small supply of dry fish available in the market throughout the dry, and part of the rainy season. The Tallensi fish the pools of the partially dry Volta river communally in the dry season, but with poor success, as far as the householder is concerned. As a rule fish is bought in the market, like meat, only for special purposes. The innumerable food taboos, some differentiating the sexes, some of totemic significance, and very many varying from individual to individual cannot be discussed here. Where necessary reference will be made to them later, in so far as they influence the consumption of protein foods.” (Fortes and Fortes, 1936, pp.249-250)

Bibliographical Reference: Fortes, M and 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. 249 - 250.

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).

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Sarah Worden 12/4/2007] [Alicia Fentiman 23/4/2008}