IDNO

LS.109111.TC1

Description

On Catalogue Card: "Australia. Arunta.
Old men explaining totemic matters to a young man at the close of a grub totem ceremony.
At the same time a decorated shield used during the ceremony is pressed against his stomach." [first manuscript in ink]
"North. T.C.A. fig. 47. p. 180. (A.A. II fig. 114)." [second manuscript in ink]

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.376.ACH1: "Close of witchetty grub ceremony. Old men instructing youth. Arunta. North T.C.A. fig. 47."

Group of Aranda (Arunta) men, of which the older men are explaining totemic designs to a young man. The body of the man on the left is completely covered in pipe clay? and white down?. His face and the faces of two other men are painted with pipe clay? on the forehead and around the eyes.
The landscape in the background consists of grasses and rocks. [WV 9/2/2009]

Place

Oceania Australasia; Australia; Central Australia

Cultural Affliation

Arunta

Named Person

Photographer

Baldwin Spencer, Walter; or Gillen, Francis James

Collector / Expedition

Northern Tribes of Central Australia fieldwork by Baldwin Spencer, Walter and Gillen, Francis James [March 1901 - March 1902]

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. 184, fig. 47 with the following caption:
"Old men explaining totemic matters to a young man at the close of a totemic ceremony. At the same time a decorated shield used during the ceremony is pressed against his stomach." [WV 9/2/2009]

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 closing of the ceremony of udniringita is described as follows in Spencer Baldwin and Gillen:
"As in the first ceremony the men sat down silently while the performer wriggled, imitating the fluttering of the insect when first it leaves its chrysalis case in the ground and attempts to fly. There was no singing or dancing about, and when all was over the men sat for some time in silence, and then, as they gathered more closely together, the larger shield was taken and pressed in turn against the stomach of each of them, whilst one of the oldest members of the totem group brought a recently initiated youth on to the ground and explained t him the meaning of the ceremony; while this was being done the shield was held against his stomach for some little time (Fig. 47). This touching of the body with some sacred object used during the performance of a ceremony is a very characteristic feature of all sacred ceremonies in the Arunta tribe. It is called atnitta ulpailima, which means, literally, softening the stomach. The natives say that their inward parts get tied up in knots, owing to the emotions which they experience when witnessing the ceremonies concerned with their dead ancestors, and that the only way to soften and untie them is to touch them with some sacred object out of which, in a vague kind of way, they imagine some virtue to pass. Very often also the performer will go up to the old men, when the ceremony is over, and embrace them one after the other. (Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1904. The northern tribes of central Australia. (London), p. 180-182). [WV 9/2/2009]

Cultural Group: The group photographed have been identified as belonging to the Warlpiri language group by Joe Neparrnga Gumbula, Arnhem Land. [JD 10/7/2012]