charm
- Museum number
- Oc1904,0621.4
- Description
-
War-charm of shell charm-pendants lashed by rattan to an old spear point.
- Production date
- 19thC (before 1893)
- Dimensions
-
Length: 105.50 centimetres
- Curator's comments
- Register slip reads: Grave ornament / Rubiana Lagoon
This charm is apparently from the same source as Oc1904,0621.5, which was published by Edge-Partington & Joyce (Man 1904 No.86 fig.1), among five objects "obtained from graves of Rubiana, Solomon Islands by Rear-Admiral (then Captain) Davis during the punitive expedition in 1901" (which explains why the register describes it as a 'grave ornament'). The 'grave' from which this and the similar charms in figs. 2 and 3 were taken was a cairn of stones covering a skull-house (Oc1894.-188), apparently in Kolokongo, Roviana lagoon also illustrated in the article (see Woodford Man 1905 No.20).
Kenneth Roga of Ranonga (2006) explains that in Ranonga (as probably elsewhere in the New Georgia group) such a charm was used by a priest to invoke a warrior ghost and divine the prospects for a headhunting raid. It was carried in the bow of the raiding canoe to give protection, but otherwise kept in a burial shrine.which is illustrated in Edge-Partington & Joyce (1904) Man no.86, as "obtained from graves of Rubiana, Solomon Islands by Rear-Admiral (then Captain) Davis during the punitive expedition in 1901".
Kenneth Roga of Ranonga (2006) explains that in Ranonga (as probably elsewhere in the New Georgia group) such a charm was used by a priest to invoke a warrior ghost and divine the prospects for a headhunting raid. It was carried in the bow of the raiding canoe to give protection, but otherwise kept in a burial shrine.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1904
- Acquisition notes
- Register slip reads: Purchased 21 June 1904 [Admr. Davis] per Gerrard
Davis published his collection of 700 items made as captain of the Royalist in 1890-1893 in a LIST OF ETHNOGRAPHICAL OBJECTS (BM library shelfmark: MUS/26b-9-6), which bears the handwritten note "BM had first pick - part purchased by Urnlauff. Hamburg" Edward Gerrard sold the collection on his behalf.
Collected on Admiral Davis' second voyage on the HMS Royalist to Papua New Guinea and Solomon Islands, specifically between 3rd June 1891 and 25th August 1891.
'See Man 1904,86; 1905,20'.
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Oc1904,0621.4