IDNO

LS.109216.TC1

Description

On Catalogue Card: "Australia.
Arunta.
Atninga or Avenging Party.
The leader goes to each man in turn and places one end of the girdle made from the hair cut from the head of the dead man in his mouth and the other against his penis. This is supposed to arouse feelings of intense anger and ensure the man doing his best to avenge the death." [manuscript in ink]

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.372.ACH1: "Atringa or avenging party. Ceremony of hair girdle. North T.C.A. fig.157."

Group of Aranda (Arunta) men who constitute the atninga (avenging party). The leader goes to each man in turn and places one end of the girdle made from the hair cut from the head of the dead man in his mouth and the other against his penis. This is supposed to arouse feelings of intense ager and ensure the man doing his best to avenge the death. The men are all wearing full beards and moustaches and are wearing white and darker coloured chilara (head bands) and little white tufts in their hair. Some of the men have white stripes of pipeclay? on their foreheads and abdomen. The men have put their shields, boomerangs, spears and ilkunta (flaked sticks) on the ground. There are rocks in the background. [WV 5/2/2009, from record P.372.ACH1, JD 24/8/2012]

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. 560, Fig. 157 with the following caption:
"Atninga party. The leader goes to each man in turn and places one end of the girdle made from the hair cut from the head of the dead man in his mouth and the other against his penis. This is supposed to arouse feelings of intense ager and ensure the man doing his best to avenge the death."

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 preparations for the men of the atninga avenging party are described as follows in Baldwin Spencer and Gillen:
"The men sat down on the ground. Those who were actually going to take part in the expedition one by one went round the seated group and had their thighs rubbed by the others in order to make them lithe and active (Fig. 156). Whilst this was in progress the leader of the expedition went to each man, and placing one end of the waist-girdle made out of the hair of the dead man on the penis and the other end in the mouth of the man, embraced him (Fig. 157). The idea of this is that some influence passes over from the hair of the dead man to the individual with whom it comes into contact, making his inward parts burn with eagerness to avenge the murder." [WV 5/2/2009]

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]