- Museum number
- Oc1964,03.436.a-b
- Description
-
Pyrites for fire making.
- Curator's comments
- Register 1964
Composite fire making outfit: two pieces of pyrites (a&b) with a mass of tinder made from seeks, fur etc; wrapped in a piece of woven rag (c) with outer wrapping made from a communal cocoon (d).
From the INKAKMIN (a sub-group of the FAIWOLMIN) on the FLY R. tributaries in PAPUA, accross the border to the south of TELEFOMIN. Pyrites obtained from the s. face of the HINDENBURG Range. Obtained by Mr. B. CRAIG with money left by B.A.L.C for the purpose.
Notes on purchase of specimens:
1. In 1963-64 the £Australian was worth 16/- stirling.
2. The approximate values, in Australian currency, of trade goods used for purchases in the Tifalmin Valley, after allowing for air freight charges from Wewak to Telefomin and air freight or carriers to Tifalmin, were as follows:-
Axe (large) 25/-
Axe (small) 12/6
Bush knife 12/6
Mirror 2/-
Face paint (tin) 1/6
Tobacco (stick) 1/-
Fish hook 1/-
Beads (string) 1/-
Salt (heaped table spoon) 6d
Salt (small cup) 1/-
Matches (box) 3d
Sweets (each) 1d
Reference & Documents
ETH.DOC.990: Letters from the British Museum (Natural History) identifying specimens; and from other authorities.
Field notebooks etc. with Departmental records.
Kodachrome transparencies and black-and-white negatives in Departmental photographic collections.
Tape-recordings of musical instruments, "singsings", songs, texts, etc.
Published references directly relevant to this collection:
1. B.A.L. Cranstone, " The British Museum Ethnographical Expedition to New Guinea, 1963-4: A Preliminary Report", B.M.Q. XXIX, No.3-4 (1965)
2. B.A.L. Cranstone, "A house board from Telefomin, Territory of New Guinea", B.M.Q. XXX, Nos1-2 (1965)
3. B.A.L. Cranstone, New Guinea: The Sepik Head-waters, 1963-4 (exhibition booklet, 1966)
4. B.A.L. Cranstone, "The British Museum Ethnographical Expedition to New Guinea, 1963-64", Museums Journal, 65, No.4 (March 1966)
5. B.A.L. Cranstone, "Some boards from a New Guinea haus tambaran", Man, (N.S.), 2, No.2 (1967)
6. Barry Craig, "Making fire by percussion in the Telefomin area, New Guinea", Mankind, 6, no.9 (1967)
7. B.A.L. Cranstone, "War shields of the Telefomin sub-district, New Guinea", Man (N.S.), Vol.3, No.4 (1968)
8. Barry Craig, "Bark paintings and rock art of the Mountain OK", Mankind, 6, No II (1968). Illustrates other half of no.437.
9. B.A.L. Cranstone, "The Tifalmin: a "neolithic" people in New Guinea", World Archaeology 3, No.2 (1971).
10. B. Craig, Houseboards and warshields of the Mountain OK. 3 vols, Thesis (in library) 1969.
- Location
- Not on display
- Acquisition date
- 1964
- Acquisition notes
- Register 1964: Obtained by Mr. B. CRAIG with money left by B.A.L.C for the purpose.
- Department
- Africa, Oceania and the Americas
- Registration number
- Oc1964,03.436.a-b
