canoe-ornament;
charm
- Museum number
- Oc,89+.171
- Description
-
Carved wood human face (sukuba madub) used as a canoe ornament and to protect tobacco crop. Made from a piece of weatherboard, probably ship's timber, carved with human face in profile at one end. A row of holes are drilled along the main part as if for lashing.
- Production date
- 19thC (before 1889)
- Dimensions
-
Height: 125 centimetres
-
Width: 24 centimetres
-
Depth: 2.90 centimetres
- Curator's comments
-
Register slip comment:
Also placed in the stern of a canoe. Sugob Madub or tobacco charm. Dauar.
-
Moore, 1984:
Stated to have been used for magical protection of tobacco crop but appears to have once been a canoe ornament.
Dauan, 1889.
Refs: Haddon, A.C., (ed.), 1901-35, 'Reports of the Cambridge Anthropological Expedition to Torres Straits', Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1912, Vol 4: Arts and Crafts: 216.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1889
- Acquisition notes
- Moore, 1984: Collected 1889.
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Oc,89+.171
- Additional IDs
-
CDMS number: Oc1889C16.171 (old CDMS no.)
-
Previous owner/ex-collection number: 20 (Haddon)