IDNO

LS.109145.TC1

Description

On Catalogue Card: "Australia. N. Arunta.
Initiation - Arachitta poles.
Lartna. Circumcision Ceremony.
Operating ground with 2 rows of spears decorated with gum leaves." [first manuscript in ink]
"Nat. T.C.A. p. 239.
Horn Expedn. pl. xvi fig.21 p.170." [second manuscript in ink]

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.362.ACH1: "Arunta initiation. Arachitt [sic Arachitta] poles. North. T.C.A. p.239."

Photograph of five Arachitta poles, which are decorated with leafy twigs and used during the circumcision ceremony. The twigs used for swathing are always put through a blazing fire. The poles are set in a hilly and rocky landscape with a few small trees. [WV 4/2/2009, from record P.362.ACH1, JD 21/8/2012]

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

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 23/1/2009]

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: "Arachitta: Name given to poles decorated with leafy twigs and used during the circumcision ceremony" (Baldwin Spencer, W., and F.J. Gillen, 1899. The Native Tribes of Central Australia, (MacMillan and Co. Ltd., London), p. 646." [WV 4/2/2009]