IDNO

N.132221.MST

Description

On Strathern's listing: Kurupmbo Ru and his two girl partners.

Place

Oceania Melanesia; Papua New Guinea; Western Highlands Province; Mbukl moka pena

Cultural Affliation

Kawelka Kurupmbo

Named Person

Kawelka Kurupmbo Ru

Photographer

Strathern, Marilyn (later Prof., Dame)

Collector / Expedition

Date

14 August 1964

Collection Name

Strathern Collection

Source

Strathern, Marilyn (Prof., Dame)

Format

Film Negative Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

N.132206.MST - N.132224.MST were identified by Marilyn Strathern as Set 15.

Related Archive: Marilyn Strathern lists for this series “Final display for wua peng moka, Kawelka to Tipuka.” [Strathern's word document file]
Publication: Image published in 'Self-Decoration in Mount Hagen', 1971, p.127 and captioned: “Plate 75 Girls may join the men they admire”. [KH 30/11/2016]

Related Archive: Draft caption for image in blue folder of book draft with the following text: “A line of male mør dancers have attracted young, unmarried girls to join them. The girls themselves come from the crowd of spectators, and belong to groups other than those formally participating. They are thus only ‘informally’ decorated, though lavishly so, with their beads and body oil. They both have cloths over their heads, but wear no face paint (the marks on the girl to the dancer's left are tatoo scars); both of them have begun to grow their hair in ringlets. It is a sign of favour for a girl to join a man in this way. They jig up and down during the dance in time with the men; later the men come to the houses where they are staying for a courting party. As a final compliment the girls may accompany the dancer back to his settlement.” [Paper Archives will be deposited at Girton College, Cambridge, date to be confirmed. KH 30/11/2016]

Bibliographic Reference: See generally Andrew Strathern, The Rope of Moka (CUP 1971), and specifically for this prestation pp.123-29.

A grant from the Wenner-Gren Foundation Historical Archives Program supported the documentation and preservation of the Strathern photographic collection. [JD 6/11/2017]