1903.31.1

Collection type

Object

Description

Nose flute of greenish reed or bamboo. Upper end cut off at a node which is perforated centrally to form the blowing hole. 5 square cut finger holes towards the lower end.

Geographical reference

Malaysia

Asia > South-eastern Asia > Malaysia

Perak

Cultural groups

Semai

Semang

Kensiu

Person

Field collector Herbert Christopher Robinson

Field collector Thomas Nelson Annandale

PRM source H.S. Robinson

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1902

Date collected

1901 - 1902

Acquisition information

Donated: 1903

Materials and processes

Material Bamboo Plant, Process Perforated

Dimensions

Length: max 395 mm

Object numbers

Accession number: 1903.31.1

Research and responses

Possibly Herbert Christopher Robinson, who undertook an expedition to Perak and the [then] Siamese Malay states in 1901-1902 with Nelson Annandale, under the auspices of the Universities of Edinburgh and Liverpool. The results of this expedition were published in Fasciculi malayenses: anthropological and zoological results of an expedition to Perak and the Siamese Malay States, 1901-1902, published in London by Longmans, Green in four parts between 1903 and 1907. [CW 6/1/2000] However HS Robinson might also have been a relative donating objects actually collected by Herbert Christopher Robinson, it is unclear [AP 19/11/2001]

'Sakai' is an insulting term meaning 'slave'. It was formerly used alone as an ethnonym for the Semai, peninsular Semang (not the same as island Semang) and Kensiu, and it is not clear which group was meant in this case (used with other terms, 'Sakai' refers to yet other groups; e.g. as in 'Sakai Bukit'). Information from Ethnologue. [SD 22/5/2001]

Search terms: Music, Musical Instrument, Flute