Marker
Leaflet Map data: © OpenStreetMap contributors, SRTM | Map style: © OpenTopoMap (CC-BY-SA)
Coordinates WGS8419°05'S, 142°03'E
-19.08, 142.04

EMB_VI_NLS4370

Title: A Mayi-Kulan message stick held in the Ethnologisches Museum Berlin

Description: This message stick is held in the Ethnologisches Museum in Berlin but it is described simply as "Botenstab" and is not associated with a catalogue entry. The 'NLS' on the tag means nummernlos or 'unnumbered'. Nonetheless it is identical to a sketch published as Figure 5 in A. W. Howitt's 'Notes on Australian message sticks and messengers'. It is not clear how it made its way to the EMB.

Message: The one shown by fig 5, Plate XIV, is a friendly reminder or greeting, carried without any message excepting the sender's name by Mr. Palmer from a man of the Maikulon tribe, to a man of the Maiapi tribe. (Howitt 1889, p. 327) "Fig. 5. Message stick sent by a man of the Maikulon tribe, to a man of the Maiapi tribe in Northern Queensland, as a friendly reminder. Half scale." (p. 331)

Date Created: 1883

Notes on date created: terminus ante quem; 1883-08

Item type: message stick in a collection

Subtype: traditional

Linguistic area 1: Chirila: Mayi-Kulan Austlang: G25 - Mayi-Kulan Glottolog: mayk1239

Linguistic area 2: Chirila: Mayi-Yapi Austlang: G20 - Mayi-Yapi Glottolog: mayi1235

Notes on linguistic areas: The message stick is associated with the “Maikulon tribe": "a man of the Maikulon tribe, to a man of the Maiapi tribe." (Howitt 1889, p.327) "Message stick sent by a man of the Maikulon tribe, to a man of the Maiapi tribe in Northern Queensland" (p. 331) Maikulon is a synonym of Mayi-Kulan. Maiapi is a synonym of Mayi-Yapi. In the Ethnologisches Museum catalogue it is described simply as being from Queensland.

Cultural region: Queensland

Semantic domains: sd_reminder

Dimension 1: 142mm Dimension 2: 16mm Dimension 3: 13mm

Materials: wood plant

Techniques: carved, notched

Sources:

  • Howitt, A. W. 1889. “Notes on Australian Message Sticks and Messengers”. The Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 18. [Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Wiley]: 314–32
  • Source types: book article, museum collection

    Date collected: August 1883

    Institution/Holder file: Ethnologisches Museum Berlin object identifier: VI NLS 4370

    Collector: Franz Reuleaux

    Coordinates: 19°05'1.060800"S,142°02'30.771600"E  (-19.083628, 142.041881)

    Media copyright: Ethnologisches Museum Berlin

    Notes on coordinates: Chirila coordinates for Mayi-Kulan

    URL source 1: http://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-26171094

    Notes: PK: Still more data to enter from EMB computer file print-out

    Media Files:

    Data Entry: Piers Kelly