IDNO

N.102171.MF

Description

According to the annotation this image depicts “The ‘eldest son’ fitted with his father’s gown, Buntuya’s funeral”. Two men are standing opposite each other in the foreground, one is wearing a cloth tied in the toga-style and a cloth cap while the other wears what appears to be a white woven smock (Buntuya’s son?). In the background, there is a thatched, adobe hut with clothes strewn on the roof. Attached to the hut are bows and arrows, gourd pots and containers, and other unidentifiable objects. On the ground behind Buntuya’s son? two nugo illa caps (basketry cap with attached antelope or bushcow horns) are visible. These caps were only worn on funerary occasions.

Place

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

Cultural Affliation

Tallensi

Named Person

Buntuya

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.102167.MF - N.102179.MF were kept in the box now numbered C550/.

Context: Context; Fortes writes in depth about the rules of inheritance among the Tallensi and distinguishes the items distributed at death between brothers and sons. “Brothers are taught to be closer to one another than father and son - this one aspect of their social equivalence, as we have previously observed. In theory this holds for any brother of the same inner lineage, in practice it is only full or half-brothers who feel such close bonds. Now any land a man acquires by his own efforts goes to his sons, not to his brothers. There is no question about this. The sons have contributed by their labour to the acquisition of the land and this is their title to it. Cattle acquired by purchase also belong to a man’s sons; but their heir to the patrimonial property, if he is a proxy father to or a father’s brother’s sons older than the man’s own sons, has titular control over the use to which they may wish to put any of their father’s livestock. It is different with clothes and weapons. Clothes are very intimately associated with a person; they are a sort of extension of his individuality, as was suggested in an earlier chapter. A man’s bow, his quiver of arrows, his knife, and his spear are also thought of as symbols of himself as an individual in a way that land is not. The fiction is that such personal effects should be inherited by a man’s brothers, not his sons. Thus when a man’s funeral is finished his brothers of the inner lineage assembles in his zen. His oldest son fetches all his personal effects in. But the brothers do not divide them amongst themselves. At most they might take an arrow apiece from the dead man’s quiver. The other personal effects they will restore to sons. ‘We have seen it and now you keep it’, they say. A full or half-brother, especially one who has farmed with the deceased, may, if he desires, takes some garments. He may take all if the dead man’s children are too young to farm for themselves, as he then becomes their proxy father in fact as well as in name. Even then he might return some of the clothes to the sons when they are old enough to use them.” (Fortes, 1949, p. 279). [Alicia Fentiman, 29/4/2008]

Context: The deceased’s sons and daughters have their heads shaved as a sign of mourning and ritual purification and assume full responsibility for conducting the necessary mortuary rites. For a man, the sons, especially the elder, assume primary responsibility. Fortes reports that the “most sacred duty owned by son to parent....is the performance of his or her funeral ceremonies. This is the case in spite of the fact that funeral rites are also the concern of the whole lineage and clan” (1945: 122). The children will confer among themselves and direct the senior son to consult with the lineage elders to set a date for the funeral. This will take place anywhere from one to three years after the death. Many factors enter into their decision. Until the funeral is properly held, however, the person’s spirit resides between the world of the living and the world of the ancestors in a state of liminality. Until its transition to the beyond is completed, the spiritual essence of the deceased could menace the living and prevent the reconstruction of the social order. According to one Frafra elder, “It is not good to wait too long before holding a wuure (funeral) because the spirit of the dead person will grow angry” (interview at Zuarungu, January 1973). In addition, it is the funeral that validates the newly inherited roles and property.
The length of a funeral varies according to the deceased’s age and status. For a male elder and or senior woman the ceremony last seven days and requires considerable resources. The funeral ceremony, performed only during the dry season is a major public event. According to Fortes, “it is not uncommon for nearly the whole harvest of a household to be consumed in making the beer and providing the cooked food required” (1949: 180). Three nights before the funeral of a man and four nights before the funeral of a woman, the eldest son will inform the members of the compound that the ceremony will commence. The announcement night is called paligo. Word is then sent to all the neighbours and relatives, especially the person’s married daughters. This event represents the first formal recognition of the death. The compound of a deceased woman’s father is now officially notified.” (Smith, 1987) [ED 29/11/2007]

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).

Smith,F. 1987. Symbols of Conflict and Integration in Frafra Funerals,’ African Arts, Vol. 21, No. 1., pp.46 - 51+87.)

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Elisabeth Deane 14/3/2008] [Alicia Fentiman 29/4/2008]