1929.89.9

Collection type

Object

Description

Plaited pandanus textile [ZM 7/6/2016]

Geographical reference

Vanuatu

Oceania > Melanesia > Vanuatu

Ambae

Person

Field collector Unknown Collector

PRM source James Thomas Hooper

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1929

Date collected

By 1929

Acquisition information

Purchased: 1929

Materials and processes

Material Plant Fibre, Material Pigment, Material Pandanus Plant, Process Plaited, Process Dyed

Dimensions

Width: max 350 mm, Length: max 1335 mm including tassels, Length 1080 mm excluding tassels

Object numbers

Accession number: 1929.89.9

Research and responses

In June 2016 Dr Lissant Bolton, a specialist in Vanuatu textiles, identified this as an Ambae singo textile in a reply to an email from Zena McGreevy asking advice about this object (copy of email correspondence in related documents file). For more information about this type of textile see Lissant Bolton, Unfolding the Moon: Enacting Women's Kastom in Vanuatu (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2003). For a photograph from the British Museum collections showing how this can be worn see page 215 of Lissant Bolton 'Incursions: Loss, Continuity and Adaptation 1840-1900' in Peter Brunt and Nicholas Thomas (editors), Art in Oceania A New History (London: Thames and Hudson, 2012). The image is captioned on the same page as follows: 'Chief wearing plaited pandanus textile (singo) to demonstrate his achieved status, and holding a spear, a bow and several arrows; Ambae, Vanuatu, late nineteenth century.' [ZM 30/8/2016]

For information about this type of object see Jean Tarisesei 'Singo Textiles from our island, Ambae' pages 278-280 of Melanesia Art and encounter edited by Lissant Bolton, Nicholas Thomas, Elizabeth Bonshek, Julie Adams and Ben Burt (London: British Museum Press, 2013). [ZM 22/8/2016]

Search terms: Clothing, Status, Basketry, Textile, Waist Cloth, Groin-cover, Mat, Status Object