IDNO

N.102194.MF

Description

Distant view of Tallensi men standing between some large rock boulders. According to the annotation this is the; "Approach to the ?Tcyreeh bɔɣare, Tεnzugu [Tenzugu]." In the foreground, to the left, is a person, probably, Sonia Fortes? who is just visible within the frame wearing a pith helmet.

Place

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

Cultural Affliation

Tallensi

Named Person

?Sonia Fortes

Photographer

?Fortes, Meyer

Collector / Expedition

Fortes, Meyer

Date

?May - ?June 1934

Collection Name

Fortes Collection

Source

Drucker-Brown, Susan

Format

Glass Negative Halfplate

Primary Documentation

Other Information

N.102188.MF - N.102198.MF were kept in the box now numbered C552/.

Context: “When a man sacrifices to an ancestor spirit, any descendant of that ancestor has the right to be present and to share in the sacrament. The only exceptions are the cult of the clan or maximal lineage (bɔɣar). It would be incompatible with the functions of these cults as foci of social integration o the highest level of corporate structure to allow non-members of the lineage concerned to take part in them. But an ahəη may attend domestic sacrifices to any of his matrilateral ancestors and sacrifices to the founding ancestor’s shrine (bɔɣar) of the lineage of his true or classificatory mother’s brother. If a man proposes to make a sacrifice to one of his immediate antecedents (say, his father or grandfather), and if he is going to sacrifice anything larger than a fowl or guinea fowl (say, a goat or a sheep or a cow), he is in duty bound to inform his sisters.” (Fortes, 1949, p.321). [AF 15/4/2008]

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. [Alicia Fentiman, 29/4/2008]