IDNO

N.102635.MF

Description

Landscape view of a Tale settlement and a naara (early millet) field before it is harvested in about the middle of the rainy season. In the background there appears to ten? small pointed, thatched adobe huts clustered together in the field. [AF 13/6/2008]

Place

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

Cultural Affliation

Tallensi

Named Person

Photographer

Fortes, Meyer

Collector / Expedition

Fortes, Meyer

Date

?February - ?April 1934

Collection Name

Fortes Collection

Source

Drucker-Brown, Susan

Format

Film Negative Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

N.102560.MF - N.102652.MF were kept in the negative album “IV” now numbered C558/.

Publication: Image published in Fortes, M., 1945. Dynamics of Clanship Among the Tallensi (London: Oxford University Press), p. 16, Plate I, “(b) View of a Tale settlement about the middle of the rainy season.” [ED 26/2/2008]

Context: Domestic Organization in Relation to Agriculture and Crops. The staple crop is millet (generically, ki) of which there are three kinds, early millet (naara: pennisetum typhoideum); guinea corn (ki specifically, each variety being known by a special term, e.g. kutok, kazii & c.: sorgum vulgare); and late millet (za: pennisetum spicatum). These with a small amount of rice (mui: orzya sativa) occupy 92 per cent. of the area cultivated in the Zuarangu district. The seasonal variations in the ripening of crops makes it essential, as will be clear later, for a self-supporting unit to have a supply of every cereal, or face starvation at certain times of the year. (Fortes, M., and Fortes, S.L., 1936, Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 9, No. 2, Problems of African Native Diet, pp. 242 - 243.). [ED 27/11/2007]

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).

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Elisabeth Deane 22/2/2008]