IDNO

LS.109351.TC1

Description

On Catalogue Card: "Mer, Murray Is.
Three men dressed for a dance.
Gadodo. Mamai. Pasi.
(2 slides)." [manuscript in ink]

On Catalogue Card for duplicate print P.1151.ACH1: "Men dressed for dance, Mer."

Half-length portrait of three Meriam men, from left to right, Gododo, Mamai, and Pasi, facing the camera, and dressed for a dance. Pasi is wearing a dhari (feathered headdress) on his head, a dibidibi (shell ornament) around his neck. Mamai is wearing a samu (cassowary headdress) wears a calico (sarong) and nesur (grass skirt) over which hangs a groin-shell. On his forehead is a diamond-pattern pearl-shell ornament, in his ear a pearl-shell frigate-bird ornament and around his neck a crescent-shaped pearl-shell. Gododo is dressed in a similar style to Pasi except the dhari which is of a classical Mer island shape. Each is also wearing woven arm and leg ornaments and has a nose ornament through their nose. [Jude Philp 1/3/1999, updated JD 8/5/2011]

Place

Oceania Australasia; Oceania Melanesia; Australia; Torres Strait; Mer [Murray Islands]

Cultural Affliation

Torres Strait Islander

Named Person

Gadodo; Mamai; Pasi

Photographer

Haddon, Alfred Cort

Collector / Expedition

Haddon, Alfred Cort

Date

November 1888 - 5 April 1889

Collection Name

Teaching Slide CollectionHaddon Unmounted Collection

Source

Haddon, Alfred Cort (Dr)

Format

Lantern Slide Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

Related Archive: Referenced in notebook titled ‘List of Torres-Straits Photographs. 1888 - 1889. A.C. Haddon’, "26. Three men dressed for dance - ip. ptn. of body only. Mer." [JD 9/5/2011]

Related Image: Identification from P.23365.ACH2 and P.23367.ACH2. [Jude Philp 1/3/1999]

Named Person: The three men (and Pasi in particular) were informants and friends of Haddon on both Expeditions. It is probable that Haddon staged this photograph. [Jude Philp 1/3/1999]

Publication: Printed in Reports IV: Plate VIII, fig. 1-3, and captioned, Fig. 1. Gadodo. 2. Mamai. 3. Pasi. Natives of Mer dressed for a dance (pp. 9, 36-59, 204, 293, 294)." [JD 23/5/2011]