IDNO

N.102173.MF

Description

Two Tallensi women (one pregnant), a mother and her daughter, wearing girdles and carrying large bundles of firewood on their heads. According to Fortes’ annotation: “Women’s work. They do long distances - 4 & 5 miles & may stay away a whole day.” The background consists of an open landscape with hills in the background.

Place

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

Cultural Affliation

Tallensi

Named Person

Photographer

?Fortes, Meyer

Collector / Expedition

Fortes, Meyer

Date

June 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/.

Publication: Same image published in Fortes, M., ‘Food in the Domestic Economy of the Tallensi,’ Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 9, No. 2, Problems of African Native Diet. (Apr., 1936), Plate III, with the caption: “1. Bringing home firewood: Mother and daughter).

Context: There is a distinct division of labour in Tallensi society. As Fortes notes, “The most exacting task in a woman’s routine is the provision of firewood and water. She collects her firewood on her husband’s bush farm or on unowned bush land, which may be as much as 4 or 5 miles from her home. It takes her the best part of a day to collect enough for three days. The strain of coping with her firewood requirements becomes acute when a woman has a newborn infant to care for and cannot absent herself for many hours at a time. She may therefore invite a young sister or cousin to come and stay with her and assist her; and such a young girl is often eventually taken in marriage by her husband. Co-wives never lend or give each other firewood; but when a woman has recently been confined, her mother and sisters bring gifts of firewood when they come to congratulate her, and her husband looks about for heavy logs to bring home to her. He may assist her to carry water, too, for a few days. This the only time a man performs these domestic duties. At the end of the harvesting season each woman carefully collects guinea corn stalks from the fields and stores them on flat roof of sleeping room or inside the kitchen for firewood.” (Fortes, 1936, p.263). [Alicia Fentiman, 29/4/2008]

Bibliographical Reference:

Fortes, M. and S. Fortes. 1936. “Food in the Domestic Economy of the Tallensi”. Africa. Vol. 9. No. 2. pp. 237-276.

Fortes, Meyer, 1945. Dynamics of Clanship Among the Tallensi (London: Oxford University Press).

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. [Alicia Fentiman, 23/4/2008]