IDNO

LS.109262.TC1

Description

On Catalogue Card: "Mabuiag
Mother pressing head of child to change
its shape.
-- Infant’s head deformed by this
means.
(2 slides)" [manuscript in ink]

On Catalogue Card, from record, P.717.ACH1, ID 3/8/2012: "Artificial deformation of infant’s head by a Mabuiag woman. From an original drawing by Finsch."

A drawing of a woman holding a baby with artificial deformation of its head. The woman is seated on the ground, with her legs stretched in front of her, and holding the baby with her hands over its head. She wears a dress open at her breast and has a bag next to her. The drawing is based on original drawings by Dr. Otto Finsch, dated 1882. [Jude Philp 12/3/1999, updated JD 21/5/2011, from record, P.717.ACH1, ID 3/8/2012]

Place

Oceania Australasia; Australia; Torres Strait; Mabuiag

Cultural Affliation

Named Person

Photographer

Finsch, Otto [Artist]

Collector / Expedition

Haddon, Alfred Cort

Date

?8 November 1881

Collection Name

Teaching Slide CollectionHaddon Unmounted Collection

Source

Haddon, Alfred Cort (Dr)

Format

Lantern Slide Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Publication: This photograph appears in Reports IV: plate I. Fig 1, to illustrate deformation of the head. The practise is described in Reports IV: 7 Haddon writes "My friend, Dr O. Finsch, has kindly permitted me to reproduce drawings (pl I. Figs. 1,2) made by him in Mabuiag in November 1882..." (IV, 7). [Jude Philp, 2/1998 - 3/2000, from record, P.717.ACH1, ID 3/8/2012]

Bibliographical Reference: From Report I: page 13 "Dr O Finsch, who explored so much of the northern coast of New Guinea, paid a visit to Torres Straits in 1882, but did not find much there to interest him as a collector." [Jude Philp 6/2/1998, JD 2/4/2011, from record, P.717.ACH1, ID 3/8/2012]

Publication: Image published in 'Between wealth and poverty: Otto Finsch on Mabuyag, 1881' by Hilary Howes. In Memoirs of the Queensland Museum | Culture Volume 8, Part 1, 2015, p.242 and captioned: "FIG. 11. Photograph by A.C. Haddon, from an original drawing by Otto Finsch (1898) Artificial deformation of infant’s head by a Mabuiag woman. N.23001. ACH2. Reproduction courtesy of the Museum of Archaeology & Anthropology, University of Cambridge."
Related text on p.242 includes: "Finsch recorded his observations of this practice on Mabuyag in both written and visual form (Figures 11, 12):
One custom which ... is found on almost all islands of Torres Strait is the practice of pressing flat the heads of infants. From birth onwards, throughout the entire first year of its life, the head of the infant is pushed backwards and pressed in the flats of both hands and one frequently sees the child being passed around the circle of women in order to be treated in this way. The children, by the bye, remain perfectly quiet during this procedure, so evidently they do not experience any pain. In the heads of adults ... little of this deformation can be observed, in consequence of the thick growth of their hair, but it is all the more evident in skulls ... [which] often display significant displacements and distorted sutures (Finsch, 1882a)." [JD 06/01/2021]

Date: The date was previously recorded as "November 1882" based on Haddon's note, but it is noted in Otto Finsch's fieldwork journals that he departed Thursday Island for Mabuyag on 4 November 1881. (Finsch, 1881-82: 81-83).
"Finsch departed Mabuyag on 15 November 1881, reaching Thursday Island the following day. He spent 20 November – 22 December 1881 in Somerset, far north Queensland, returning to Thursday Island just before Christmas, and in January 1882 departed Torres Strait for south-east New Guinea (Finsch, 1881-82: 118-150)." [Source: Howes 2015, pp.224, 247, JD 06/01/2021]