IDNO

N.102199.MF

Description

Four young Tallensi male dancers, wearing small printed cloth shorts. The two men to the left are wearing cloth caps and the two men to the right are wearing turbans. Three of the men have square leather amulets hanging on cords around their necks and the two on the left are holding a decorated sticks? in their hands. Behind them is a group of males.

Place

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

Cultural Affliation

Tallensi

Named Person

Photographer

?Fortes, Meyer

Collector / Expedition

Fortes, Meyer

Date

?July - ?September 1934

Collection Name

Fortes Collection

Source

Drucker-Brown, Susan

Format

Glass Negative Halfplate

Primary Documentation

Other Information

N.102199.MF - N.102205.MF were kept in the box now numbered C553/.

Context: “Frafra men now wear commercially produced slacks or shorts and various kinds of cotton smocks. By the 1970’s Fortes noted that “many [men] have two or three garments -a cloth and a tunic, for instance, while well-to-do men have considerable wardrobes” (1945: 11, n.1). These smocks or tunics are tailored from strips of cloth woven by non-Frafra men on a horizontal loom. The Frafra themselves do not weave. ... In the late 1930’s Fortes remarked: “All cotton goods are imported. The Mossi cloth used in former days is still a favourite, especially for loin cloths and caps, and tunics for special wear. The bulk of it is still imported for French territory, but there are some Mossi weavers at Boleya (Bolgatanga) and Zuarangu who add to the supply (1945:11, n. 1)”. (Smith, 1982).

Bibliographical References:
Smith, F.T. 1982. ‘Frafra Dress,’ African Arts, Vol. 15, No. 3, p. 36-42+92.)

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).

Fortes, Meyer, 1987. Religion, Morality and the Person: Essays on Tallensi Religion (London: Oxford University Press).

Exhibition: A digital copy of this image is displayed in The Meyer Fortes Room, Department of Social Anthropology, University of Cambridge, September 2016 onwards with the following text panel:
"This room is dedicated to the memory of the late Sir Meyer Fortes, who was William Wyse Professor of Social Anthropology in the University of
Cambridge from 1950 to 1973.
The large images are drawn from the collections of the University of Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, which include over
3000 photographs from Fortes’ Tallensi fieldwork in Northern Ghana (1934 – 1937) and follow-up visits. In addition to highlighting the aesthetic quality of many of the photographs, we have selected images that relate to Fortes's interests in politics and ritual, and which evoke the process of fieldwork and the context of colonial rule.
1. A Tallensi procession, including chief Toŋnaamis on horseback with an umbrella sunshade, going to meet the District Commissioner, April 1935. N.102640.MF
2. Four young Tallensi men posing for the camera during a dance. N.102199.MF
3. Fortes observing the “Prayer preceding Sacrifice to Clan Founder.” He described the event as "An episode in the great sacrifice to Mosour and the other founding ancestors, at Tongo, in 1936. Men of the sub-clan assembled at Mosour’s grave (stones in foreground) and tree shrine
(baobab tree). The photograph was taken as the prayer preceding the sacrifice was being offered.” N.102249.MF
4. Meyer Fortes worked with his wife Sonia during his main fieldwork with the Tallensi between January 1934 and April 1937. It is probable that
information regarding women’s business was compiled by Sonia. In this photograph of five young woman in the women’s compound Sonia’s shadow identifies her as the photographer. N.102347.MF" [JD 08/11/2018]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Elisabeth Deane 20/3/2008] [Alicia Fentiman, 30/4/2008]