IDNO

LS.109091.TC1

Description

On Catalogue Card: "Australia.
Arunta.
Arunta men using the UNGAKURA
pointing apparatus, human hair-string
+ 5 small pointing bones at one end; &
a pair of eagle-hawk claws in porcupine-
grass resin at the other. s & g. Nth. T. p. 459." [manuscript in ink]

Two Aranda (Arunta) men holding a piece of string that is going between the legs of the man on the right and that is held by the man on the left. The string appears to be ending in a stick? to which feathers? are attached. This is the position assumed when using the ungakura pointing stick apparatus. Both men are wearing full beards and moustaches. The man on the right is wearing two sticks in his hair, of which one is wound with white string?.
The landscape consists of grasses, shrubs and rocks. [WV 29/1/2009]

Place

Oceania Australasia; Australia; Central Australia

Cultural Affliation

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

Named Person

Photographer

None

Collector / Expedition

Date

March 1901 - March 1902

Collection Name

Teaching Slide CollectionHaddon Unmounted Collection

Source

?Haddon, Alfred Cort (Dr)

Format

Lantern Slide Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Publication: Image published in Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1904. The northern tribes of central Australia. (London), p. 460, fig. 125 with the following caption:
"Using the Ungakura pointing apparatus. Arunta tribe." [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 400, fig. 120 with the following caption:
"Position assumed when using the ungakura pointing apparatus. Arunta tribe." [WV 17/2/2009]

Expedition: Baldwin Spencer and Gillen spent one year from March 1901 to March 1902 in a traverse from Oodnadatta to Powell Creek and then across, eastwards to Borraloola at the mouth of the Macarthur River, on the Gulf of Carpentaria. (Baldwin Spencer, W., 1928. Wanderings in Wild Australia (Macmillan, London), Vol. 1, p. xvi). [WV 10/2/2009]

Context: The activity of pointing is explained by Baldwin Spencer and Gillen as follows:
"In some instances two men take part in the "pointing," which is then done in the way represented in Figs. 120 and 121. It is common to attribute almost all deaths, or at least a majority of them, to the use of a "poison" bone or stick, and the performance of pointing" has to be conducted in strict secrecy, as, were any man caught in the act, he would be most severely punished and most likely put to death." (Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1927. The Arunta. A Study of a Stone Age People (Macmillan, London), Vol. 2, p. 402-403). [WV 17/2/2009]

Context: The magic ungakura is explained by Baldwin Spencer and Gillen as follows:
"A special and very potent implement of magic is known as Ungakura (Fig. 122). It consists of a long coil of human hair-string to one end of which five or six small pointing-bones are attached, and to the other end one bone and two eagle-hawk claws. This is used especially by medicine men who live far away to the west. The bones are full of Arungquilta that can be projected into the victim and, in addition to this, the medicine man can cause the claws to enter the victim within whom they are continually clawing at and nipping his internal organs, more especially the liver and intestines. Unless they are detected and extracted by an able medicine man the case is hopeless." (Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1927. The Arunta. A Study of a Stone Age People (Macmillan, London), Vol. 2, p. 402). [WV 17/2/2009]