IDNO

LS.109207.TC1

Description

On Catalogue Card: "Australia.
Warramunga.
Final Burial Ceremonies. Breaking the arm-bone, which is then buried in the small hole seen behind the right leg of the man holding the bone."

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.409.ACH1: "Death and burial, Warramunga. North T.C.A. fig.151."

Group of Waramanga (Warramunga) men carrying out the final burial ceremonies which consist of breaking the arm bone which is then buried in the small hole seen behind the right leg of the man holding the bone. The man who is holding the tool to break the bone is wearing armbands on his upper arm. Most of the men are wearing white chilara (head bands). They all have full beards and moustaches and are wearing waist belts. There are two dogs? running around.
The landscape in the background consists of shrubbery. [WV 19/2/2009, from record P.409.ACH1, JD 24/8/2012]

Place

Oceania Australasia; Australia; Central Australia

Cultural Affliation

Warramunga

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. 542 fig. 151, with the following caption:
"Final burial ceremonies. Warramunga tribe. Breaking the arm-bone, which is then buried in the small hole seen behind the right leg of the man holding the bone." [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: Some of the customs relating to burial and mourning are described by Baldwin Spencer and Gillen as follows:
"Each woman held her arms high up and her hands clasped behind her head, just as the decorated men did. The file of women rapidly passed through, and as soon as ever the last one rose to her feet the burumburu which she carried was snatched from her by brother of the dead women and carried across to where the Panunga man stood ready with uplifted axe (Fig. 151). The young man held out the bone in its covering of paper bark, and with a single blow the old smashed it, thrust it rapidly out of sight in to the little pit dug beside the emblem of the dead woman’s totem, and closed the opening with a large flat stone, indicating thereby that the time of mourning was over,and that she had been gathered unto her totem." [WV 19/2/2009]