IDNO

LS.109048.TC1

Description

On Catalogue Card: “Arunta fire-making: saw method.”

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.332.ACH1: “Fire making, Arunta.”

Two sitting Aranda (Aranda) men, making fire. They are using a shield, place face up and held between them by their feet, upon which they are rubbing the edge of a spear-thrower. The shield appears to be deeply grooved.
Both men are wearing full beards and moustaches. The man on the left is wearing a turban on the head and an armband on his right arm. The hair of the man on the right has probably been anointed with oil to create dreads and his left shoulder shows cicatrisation.
They are sitting in a rocky landscape. [WV 27/1/2009]

Place

Oceania Australasia; Australia; Central Australia

Cultural Affliation

Aranda [also known as Arunta; Arrarnta; Arrarnte; Arunda]

Named Person

Photographer

Baldwin Spencer, Walter; or Gillen, Francis James

Collector / Expedition

Baldwin Spencer, Walter [Spencer and Gillen 'Arunta' Fieldwork, Summer 1896 - 1897]

Date

?November 1896 - ?February 1897

Collection Name

Teaching Slide CollectionHaddon Unmounted Collection

Source

?Haddon, Alfred Cort (Dr)

Format

Lantern Slide Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Publication: Similar image published in Baldwin Spencer, W., and F.J. Gillen, 1899. The Native Tribes of Central Australia, (MacMillan and Co. Ltd., London), p. 584, fig. 114 with the following caption:
“Fire making, by means of rubbing the edge of a spear-thrower on a shield.” [WV 17/2/2009]

Publication: Similar image published in Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1912. Across Australia (Macmillan, London), Vol. 1, p. 234, fig. 93 with the following caption:
“Making fire by rubbing the edge of a spear-thrower on a shield.” [WV 17/2/2009]

Publication: Image published in Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1927. The Arunta. A Study of a Stone Age People (Macmillan, London), Vol. 2 , to face page 521, fig. 176 with the following caption:
"Fire making, by means of rubbing the edge of a spear-thrower on a shield.” [WV 17/2/2009]

Photographer: Note in Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1927, p. xiii states all photos were taken by the authors. [WV 23/1/2009]

Context: The method of fire making amongst the Aranda (Arunta) is explained in Baldwin Spencer and Gillen as follows:
“The Arunta, Kaitish, and Unmatjera tribes normally use a spear-thrower as the hard wood and a shield as the soft wood. The former is made out of mulga and the latter out of the bean-tree (Erythrina vespertilio). In the Arunta, for example, two men will sit down opposite to one another, holding a shield steady on the ground between them by means of their feet; then taking one of their spear-throwers they each of them, holding on to one end, pass it vigorously backwards and forwards with a sawing motion over the shield, the surface of which is separated off very soon, often in less than a minute, begins to smoulder, and then by careful blowing a flame is soon produced in the dry tinder amongst which it is placed. They seem to have certain favourite old shields which they use for this purpose, and many of them are marked, like the one in the illustration, with charred grooves, the same groove being used time after time.” (Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1904. The northern tribes of central Australia. (London), p. 619). [WV 17/2/2009]

Expedition: Note in Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1927. The Arunta. A Study of a Stone Age People (Macmillan, London), Vol. I , on p. vii states that Baldwin Spencer and Gillen spent four consecutive months with the Aranda (Arunta) people in 1896. The results of this stay were first published in 1899, in the “Native Tribes of Central Australia.” [WV 10/2/2009]