At some point in their history most cultures probably made string figures (otherwise known as cat... more At some point in their history most cultures probably made string figures (otherwise known as cat's cradles): patterns or designs constructed on the hands with a single continuous loop of string. First noted by European travellers in Australia and New Zealand, in the later nineteenth century anthropologists began to collect string figure repertoire from various indigenous peoples around the world. In the Australian Museum in Sydney there are 192 string figures mounted on card collected in Yirrkala in north-east Arnhem Land by Frederick D. McCarthy in 1948: the largest museum collection of its kind (i.e. of mounted string figures collected from one place at one time), and one of the last such collections made. It is accompanied by photographic documentation of Ngarrawu Mununggur—McCarthy's principal collaborator—making the figures, and a record of the instructions for making them. As objects—both strange and beautiful—the mounted figures declare their status as hybrid artefacts of cross-cultural encounter and exchange. The result of a collaboration between McCarthy and his Yolngu informants, they would not exist without the contribution of both parties—the 'science' of Western anthropology on the one hand and Indigenous culture on the other. 'Why' was this collection made? and 'What' is it a collection of? are the central questions addressed by this study. What could be its significance now and into the future, for the Yirrkala community and a wider Australian public? To answer these questions I investigate the dual strands of the collection's lineage—the place of string figures in the history of anthropology and their place in Yolngu culture, past and present. The particulars of this story provide new insight into the foundations of anthropology as a discipline. They also provide new understandings of Yolngu cosmology and aesthetics. Combining an analysis of the historical record with findings from my contemporary fieldwork, I explore the relationship between making and meaning in the repertoire, and describe and [...]
Exploring the Legacy of the 1948 Arnhem Land Expedition, Jun 1, 2011
Who's the painted cave man Who lives in Arnhem Land You'll find it's Fred McCarthy Tying strings ... more Who's the painted cave man Who lives in Arnhem Land You'll find it's Fred McCarthy Tying strings around his hand. 1-Anonymous When the 1948 American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land was all but over and the party was taking stock in Darwin, Howell Walker, the National Geographic Society writer-photographer, asked each participant to respond to two questions: 'What did they consider the most significant contribution to their field that the Expedition had made possible?'; and 'What would their respective home institutions consider the most valuable work done by the Expedition?' Frederick McCarthy, one of three ethnographic researchers on the Expedition (alongside Frank Setzler from the Smithsonian Institution and Charles Mountford, the Expedition leader), not surprisingly stated that the 'collection of specimens' of material culture and natural history would be most valued by his institution, the Australian Museum. For the most significant contribution to the field of anthropology, he nominated the archaeological survey he carried out in collaboration with Setzler (see Clarke and Frederick, this volume). He gave equal standing to the collection of string figures he made at Yirrkala: 'a record number…from one group of natives.' McCarthy described it as 'the most complete study of string-figures yet made in one area in Australia' and noted that it 'increases the total to three times as many [as] previously known in the whole of the continent'. 2 McCarthy's collection of string figures-constituting by his estimate one-fifth of all 'known' string figures in the world at the time-remains the largest of 1 Author unknown, stanza of a ditty/song/poem, typewritten and pasted into McCarthy's diary on 24
At some point in their history most cultures probably made string figures (otherwise known as cat... more At some point in their history most cultures probably made string figures (otherwise known as cat's cradles): patterns or designs constructed on the hands with a single continuous loop of string. First noted by European travellers in Australia and New Zealand, in the later nineteenth century anthropologists began to collect string figure repertoire from various indigenous peoples around the world. In the Australian Museum in Sydney there are 192 string figures mounted on card collected in Yirrkala in north-east Arnhem Land by Frederick D. McCarthy in 1948: the largest museum collection of its kind (i.e. of mounted string figures collected from one place at one time), and one of the last such collections made. It is accompanied by photographic documentation of Ngarrawu Mununggur—McCarthy's principal collaborator—making the figures, and a record of the instructions for making them. As objects—both strange and beautiful—the mounted figures declare their status as hybrid artefacts of cross-cultural encounter and exchange. The result of a collaboration between McCarthy and his Yolngu informants, they would not exist without the contribution of both parties—the 'science' of Western anthropology on the one hand and Indigenous culture on the other. 'Why' was this collection made? and 'What' is it a collection of? are the central questions addressed by this study. What could be its significance now and into the future, for the Yirrkala community and a wider Australian public? To answer these questions I investigate the dual strands of the collection's lineage—the place of string figures in the history of anthropology and their place in Yolngu culture, past and present. The particulars of this story provide new insight into the foundations of anthropology as a discipline. They also provide new understandings of Yolngu cosmology and aesthetics. Combining an analysis of the historical record with findings from my contemporary fieldwork, I explore the relationship between making and meaning in the repertoire, and describe and [...]
Exploring the Legacy of the 1948 Arnhem Land Expedition, Jun 1, 2011
Who's the painted cave man Who lives in Arnhem Land You'll find it's Fred McCarthy Tying strings ... more Who's the painted cave man Who lives in Arnhem Land You'll find it's Fred McCarthy Tying strings around his hand. 1-Anonymous When the 1948 American-Australian Scientific Expedition to Arnhem Land was all but over and the party was taking stock in Darwin, Howell Walker, the National Geographic Society writer-photographer, asked each participant to respond to two questions: 'What did they consider the most significant contribution to their field that the Expedition had made possible?'; and 'What would their respective home institutions consider the most valuable work done by the Expedition?' Frederick McCarthy, one of three ethnographic researchers on the Expedition (alongside Frank Setzler from the Smithsonian Institution and Charles Mountford, the Expedition leader), not surprisingly stated that the 'collection of specimens' of material culture and natural history would be most valued by his institution, the Australian Museum. For the most significant contribution to the field of anthropology, he nominated the archaeological survey he carried out in collaboration with Setzler (see Clarke and Frederick, this volume). He gave equal standing to the collection of string figures he made at Yirrkala: 'a record number…from one group of natives.' McCarthy described it as 'the most complete study of string-figures yet made in one area in Australia' and noted that it 'increases the total to three times as many [as] previously known in the whole of the continent'. 2 McCarthy's collection of string figures-constituting by his estimate one-fifth of all 'known' string figures in the world at the time-remains the largest of 1 Author unknown, stanza of a ditty/song/poem, typewritten and pasted into McCarthy's diary on 24
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