IDNO

LS.103413.MF

Description

Close-up view of an old Tallensi women bending over a ceramic? pot. In the background, Sonia Fortes can be seen coming through the doorway of a Tallensi hut. She appears to be wearing a light-coloured dress, watch, white socks and sandals. The outside of the hut is decorated with geometric line designs.

Place

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

Cultural Affliation

Tallensi

Named Person

Mrs Sonia Fortes (nee Donen)

Photographer

Fortes, Meyer

Collector / Expedition

Fortes, Meyer

Date

Collection Name

Fortes Collection

Source

Drucker-Brown, Susan

Format

Lanternslide - Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

LS.103408.MF - LS.103415.MF were kept in the box now numbered C572/.

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).

Context: "The Tallensi House: Tallensi house are noticeably more carefully constructed, better enclosed, more decorated and tidier than those of the Mamprusi people. They contain more elaborately built structures for resting, for storing grain, and for housing animals. Outside walls are painted; both colour and design identify lineages. Tallensi houses are built of earth, and the granary (buur) which belongs to a household head dominates the centre of the compound. Among the Tallensi namoos the gateway is the focus of a prohibition which separates a father and his grown-up first born son. The two should not meet one another passing through the gateway. The granary is a similar focus of prohibition. A first-born son is never allowed to look into his fathers granary while his father is alive. During his father’s funeral the first born son is ritually taken to see the inside of his father’s granary while his father is alive. During his father’s funeral the first-born son is ritually taken to see the inside of his father’s granary, an act which, by reversing the custom observed throughout their lives in common, also emphasises the identification of father and son. The gate and the granary are thus conceptually linked." (Drucker-Brown, 2001, ‘House and Hierarchy: Politics and Domestic Space in Northern Ghana,’ The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute, Vol. 7, No. 4., pp. 669 - 685.). [ED 30/11/2007]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Elisabeth Deane 22/5/2008]