IDNO

LS.109190.TC1

Description

On Catalogue Card: “Australia.
Arunta.
Men cutting shoulders in token of mourning.”

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.406.ACH1: “Cutting shoulders in token of mourning. North T.C.A. fig.165.”

Group of seven Aranda (Arunta) men cutting shoulders in sign of mourning. Five of the men are standing, while two are kneeling and have their arms around each other. All the men have full beards and moustaches. They are carrying a boomerang and a shield.
The landscape in the background is rocky. [WV 19/2/2009, from record P.406.ACH1, JD 24/8/2012]

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

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, 1899. The Native Tribes of Central Australia, (MacMillan and Co. Ltd., London), p. with the following caption:
“Men cutting shoulders in token of mourning. Arunta tribe.” [WV 19/2/2009]

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 practice of cutting shoulders in sign of mourning is described by Baldwin and Spencer as follows:
“There is, however, always a danger when a number of strangers arrive in a camp that quarrels will arise, and once or twice during the subsequent proceedings it seemed very likely that there would be a serious fight. After a short pause three of the local natives, all of them Umbitjana men, went out on to the flat and began dancing about and shouting at some little distance in front of the visitors, who were still seated on the ground. they were taunting one of the visitors, who was also an Umbitjana man, because, as they said, he had not properly cut himself and mourned when his father-in-law, a local man, had died. At length they all threw boomerangs at him, which he avoided. Then in his turn he jumped excitedly to his feet, hurled his own boomerang in the direction of the three men, and ran towards them. When he reached the spot at which they remained standing, he and one of the challengers embraced, and then sat down on the ground with their arms around each other. the man who had been challenged expressed his determination of cutting his shoulder through to the bone, while the other man tried to prevent him from inflicting any very serious injury upon himself. This did not appear to be a very difficult matter, but a good deal of time was occupied in pretence. In the end he inflicted a slight wound on himself with his stone knife, and then they all became reconciled. The same performance was repeated in the case of two other men belonging to the visiting party (Fig. 165). (Baldwin Spencer, W. and F. J. Gillen, 1904. The northern tribes of central Australia. (London), p. 571-573). [WV 19/2/2009]