Ceremony on the old 'genna' (ritual) site of Tanhai for the capture of a head

Material Information

Title:
Ceremony on the old 'genna' (ritual) site of Tanhai for the capture of a head
Creator:
Fürer-Haimendorf, Christoph von, 1909-1995 ( Photographer )
Furer-Haimendorf, Christoph von, 1909-1995 ( contributor )
Haimendorf, Christoph Von Fürer- (1909-1995); anthropologist ( contributor )
Place of Publication:
[S.l.]
Publisher:
[s.n.]
Publication Date:
Language:
English
Materials:
Photographic film: 35mm B&W negative, Eastman Kodak : Panatomic ( medium )

Subjects

Subjects / Keywords:
Genna ritual
Ritual ( lcsh )
Headhunters ( lcsh )
अनुष्ठान
खुद कंपनियां
Konyak (Indic people) ( LCSH )
Naga (South Asian people) ( LCSH )
एशिया -- भारत -- नगालैंड -- मोन जिला
Genre:
Konyak Naga ( ethnicity )
कोन्याक नागा ( ethnicity )
Naga ( ethnicity )
नागा ( ethnicity )
Spatial Coverage:
Asia -- India -- Nagaland -- Mon District -- Tanhai
Coordinates:
26.729235 x 94.91445

Notes

General Note:
This item is protected by copyright. Please use in accord with Creative Commons license: Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC). High resolution digital master available from SOAS, University of London - the Digital Library Project Office.
General Note:
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General Note:
Cette image est protégée par le droit d'auteur. S'il vous plaît, utiliser en accord avec la licence Creative Commons: Attribution-Pas d'Utilisation Commerciale (CC BY-NC). Fichiers numériques de haute résolution sont disponibles sur la SOAS, Université de Londres - le Bureau du projet de bibliothèque numérique.
General Note:
Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf (1909-1995) was born and educated in Vienna, gaining a PhD in anthropology from the University of Vienna in 1931. A grant from the Rockefeller Foundation enabled him to study at the London School of Economics, under the anthropologist Bronislaw Malinowski. In 1936, he went to the Naga Hills in northeast India for his first fieldwork; over the next four decades, he worked extensively in south & central India, northeast India and Nepal. In 1950 he was appointed Professor of Anthropology at SOAS, where he established the Department of Anthropology. During his career, he published seventeen books, most of them ethnographies of tribal cultures. He was President of the Royal Anthropological Institute (1975-77) and a pioneer in the field of visual anthropology.
General Note:
After having sprinkled the stones at the old offering place 'genna' site, of Tanhai with rice beer madhu, and pig's blood, and having placed sticks and bent bamboo shavings over them, Shopung recites some words to call the relatives of the head brought by Haimendorf for the head-taking ceremony : thereafter Shopung split the bamboo in which the pig's blood had been transported length wise with his dao to take an omen: If one side of the bamboo falls with the opening downwards and the other with the opening upwards, the omen is good : Only in seldom cases the omen was good, but the men and boys of Tanhai did not mind as much, because a good omen meant that the man splitting the bamboo would successfully hunt a head himself in the same year : and headhunting was prohibited in those times anyway : after the omen-taking the men shouted their war cries and Shopungs party proceed back to the village : Other, younger men repeated the offering, but because they had never done so before, the old men had to help them out with the recitations to the amusement of the audience : the image is part of a series documenting the return of Fürer-Haimendorf from a punitive expedition conducted by the British against the Kalyo-Kengyo Khiamniungan, village of Pangsha : From this tour he brought back head-trophies some of which he had collected from the head trees in the villages he visited on the way : a large group of Nagas from different Konyak villages had accompanied him onto the expedition as porters kulis, : Coming back to their villages, both Fürer-Haimendorf and the returning villagers were greeted as head-hunters : the skulls or fragments of them were given to the villages and received by performing head-receiving dances : through this payment Fürer-Haimendorf was able to document ceremonies that - under normal circumstances - weren't possible anymore at that time as head hunting was prohibited in British administered areas.
General Note:
Ritual Gennas are held to prevent danger or establish and restore normal relations with powers which are potentially harmful or require placation. Individuals are subjected to temporary gennas as warriors both before and after a head-hunting raid.
General Note:
This scene was photographed on or approximate to 19361231
General Note:
Other designation of photograph: 056/04/Tanhai (Tanz) Roden
General Note:
Original Container: BW Negatives Box I
General Note:
Haimendorf's reference: 056_04_Tanhai (Tanz) Roden
General Note:
BW Negatives Box I
General Note:
Funded in the United Kingdom by JISC
General Note:
SOAS name authority for "Haimendorf, Christoph Von Fürer- (1909-1995); anthropologist" is GB/NNAF/P146323.
General Note:
VIAF (name authority) : Fürer-Haimendorf, Christoph von, 1909-1995 : record number 109123273
General Note:
For descriptive reference, see: PP MS 19, Diary 3:132ff

Record Information

Source Institution:
SOAS, University of London
Holding Location:
Archives and Special Collections
Rights Management:
© 1936, The Estate of Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf. The Estate is currently (2015) represented by Nicholas Haimendorf, son of Christoph von Fürer-Haimendorf. ----- Creative Commons (by-nc-nd). -- This image may be used in accord with Creative Commons license Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs.
Resource Identifier:
PP MS 19/6/NAGA/1631 ( SOAS manuscript number )
056_04_Tanhai (Tanz) Roden ( Haimendorf reference )