IDNO

LS.109107.TC1

Description

On Catalogue Card: "Australia.
Initiation Enqwura.
Arunta [male symbol] in Emu ceremony.
s &g N.T. pp 179.
Headdress tipped + bunchs of emu feathers to represent head and neck of emu, parallel lines of white down on body. (p.359)." [first manuscript in ink]
"Nat. T.C.A. fig. 73. Fig. p.343." [second manuscript in ink]

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.341.ACH1: "Emu totem. Arunta."

Aranda (Arunta) man participating in the ceremony of the emu totem as part of a the Engwura ceremony (long series of initiation ceremonies concerned with totems). He is wearing a headdress representing the neck and head of an emu. His body is blackened with charcoal and decorated with white down which is lain out in vertical lines extending from the shoulders to the thighs. Semicircles of white down surround the eyes. [WV 26/3/2009]

Place

Oceania Australasia; Australia; Central Australia

Cultural Affliation

Arunta

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: Image published in Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1912. Across Australia (Macmillan, London), Vol. 2, p. 268, fig. 117 with the following caption:
"Ceremony of the emu totem. The head-dress represents the neck and head of an emu." [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]

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: "Engwura: A series of ceremonies attendant upon the last of the rites concerned with initiation." (Baldwin Spencer, W., and F.J. Gillen, 1899. The Native Tribes of Central Australia, (MacMillan and Co. Ltd., London), p. 648) [WV 29/1/2009]