AMus_E013385

Title: A message stick made by a Kalkadoon person

Description: Message or letter stick [ref reg]; Message stick (ref LC) Cylindrical, both ends rounded. Surface decorated with concentric lozenges, short horizontal lines incised both inside lozenge and at either end [ref LC] Cylindrical, rounded ends, diamond shapes markings represent the vulva (ref. old gallery label) [ref LC]; Condition: Complete. Mould [ref LC]. Sketch of message stick (fig. 334) on plate XVIII of “Ethnological studies” by W. E. Roth

Message: « Unknown» To: unknown From: a once-known Kalkadoon man or woman from Grenada "Fig. 333. Made by a Kalkadoon (Leichhardt-Selwyn District). " A hollow band as it were is cut round the centre. A = the beard (yun-pul), B = the vulva (Jin-ti). The remaining marks are all ornamental, " flash." [PK: This object->]Fig. 334. Made by a (Grenada) Kalkadoon. Similar phallic marks as preceding" (Roth 1897, p 138) AMus pdf from 24.01.2023: "Function: Has phalllic marks, beard and vulva (Eth. St. p.138) [ref LC]; Function: Sender wants his spears, boomerangs and shields forwarded, as initiation ceremony to be held at Cloncurry River, and addressee is to come and join (Ethno. Sect. 236, p.138) [ref LC];" PK: Note that this last part is wrong and refers to a different object.

Creator of Object: Sender: Kalkadoon from Grenada AMus pdf from 24.01.2023: "Maker: Made by a Kalkadoon from Grenada (ref reg and Ethno. Stud. p.138) [ref LC];

Date Created: 1896

Notes on date created: terminus ante quem

Item type: message stick in a collection

Subtype: traditional

State/Territory: QLD

Linguistic area 1: Chirila: Kalkatungu Austlang: G13 - Kalkatungu / Kalkadoon Glottolog: kalk1246

Notes on linguistic areas: The origin of the message stick is Grenada, Mount Isa, Queensland. AMus pdf from 24.01.2023: "REGION: Mount Isa; Grenada [ref reg]; Grenada, Queensland [ref LC]; Bull 8 gives loc. as Clump Point,Cardwell, which is Area Y. As is in NWC.Q book. we think more likely Grenada. "Grenada, Dugald Ck, nr. Cloncurry" (old Gallery label) (pencil annotation. K.Khan) [ref LC]"

Cultural region: Channel Country

Semantic domains: sd_body_beard, sd_body_penis, sd_body_vulva

Dimension 1: 136mm Dimension 2: 17mm Dimension 3: 15mm

Source types: museum collection

Date collected: Acquisition date: not mentioned Accession date: 23 March 1905

Institution/Holder file: The Australian Museum object identifier: E013385

Collector: Purchased by: Roth, Dr Walter Edmund

Coordinates: 20°55'55.909200"S,139°21'53.085600"E  (-20.932197, 139.364746)

Media copyright: The Australian Museum

Notes on coordinates: Chirila centroid coordinates for Kalkatungu

URL institution: http://collections.australianmuseum.net.au/amweb/pages/am/Display.php?irn=5594&QueryPage=%2Famweb%2Fpages%2Fam%2FAdvQuery.php&highlight_term=

URL source 1: https://archive.org/stream/cu31924029890328#page/n257

URL source 2: https://archive.org/stream/cu31924029890328#page/n161

Notes: REGISTER

Date: March 23, 1905

Consecutive number: 13385

Name or Description: Message or Letter stick

Locality: Kalkadoon Tribe, Grenada '96

How Acquired: Purch.

Name of Donor or Seller: Dr. W. E. Roth, FigS Bull.8. Pl2 F6, Neg. 2343

Estimated or Market Value: S.18

Destination:Figs. Eth. Studies Pl. XVIII F.334 Text sections 235-6

Remarks:

OTHER NOTES

12.07.2024 PK: Merged with WER1897PXVIIIF334 Compare RHH1918P21F6 described by Hamlyn-Harris. Similar interpretations.

Roth Bulletin 8 (1905):

Fig. 6.—Cylindrical or ruler-shaped, the apices bluntly round; dark wood. The whole surface is decorated with separate acute rhombs, their longitudinal diameter parallel to the length of the stick. Each rhomb is defined by a double line, and the centre occupied by a small nick. The rhombs, of which there are four or five in a series, as the case may be, are separated from one another in their respective lines by double transverse notches. At one end there are five rhombs following one another circumferentially, but as the longitudinal continuity of these figures is here and there broken, the other circumferential zones have either three or four rhombs. Length, 5 ½ in. ; diameter 9/16 in. Clump Point, Cardwell. (See “Ethnological Studies,” 1897, pls. 18, f. 334)

Media Files:

Data Entry: Olena Tykhostup, Julia Bespamyatnykh, Piers Kelly, Nitzan Rotman