GAUOG_Oz_661

Title: A message stick held in the Georg-August University of Göttingen (GAUOG), Ethnological Collection

Description: GAUOG online catalogue: "Botenstab (Sonstige Objektbezeichnung / Objekttitel: letter stick, Schwirrholz) - rot gefärbt, auf beiden Seiten mit eingeschnittenen Linien verziert." Google translate: "messenger staff (Other object name/object title: letter stick, whirlwood) - colored red, decorated with incised lines on both sides.

Date Created: 1928

Notes on date created: terminus ante quem

Item type: message stick in a collection

State/Territory: WA

Notes on linguistic areas: The message stick is associated with the "Ethnic group: Ngarluma (obsolete: Gnalluma)" (Ethnie: Ngarluma (veraltet: Gnalluma))

Dimension 1: 150mm Dimension 2: 50mm

Materials: wood

Date collected: Acquired: 1928

Institution/Holder file: Georg-August University of Göttingen (GAUOG), Ethnological Collection object identifier: Oz 661

Collector: Clement, Emile (collector, 1844-1928)

Coordinates: 21°23'4.200000"S,117°03'48.499200"E  (-21.3845, 117.063472)

Media copyright: Georg-August University of Göttingen (GAUOG), Ethnological Collection

Notes on coordinates: Ngarluma linguistic area per Bowern’s Google Earth coordinates map.

URL institution: https://sammlungen.uni-goettingen.de/objekt/nextHit/record_kuniweb_942502/1/-/

Notes: 23.02.225 PK: This is discussed in Neef, Josefine. 2022. Suspicions of the sacred: Australian objects in the ethnographic collection of the Georg August University Göttingen. Göttingen: Institute for Social and Cultural Anthropology and the Ethnographic Collection Georg August University Göttingen.

Relevant text: "Furthermore, the problem of ambiguous or even incorrect categorizations became also evident for other objects in the collection where the suspicion has arisen, that they might also be "sacred" and subject to particular taboos and therefore require additional investigation.

The two objects with the inventory numbers Oz 661 and Oz 662 represent a special aspect of the object group of bullroarers. Both are classified in the collection’s inventory catalog as "messenger sticks".One of these (Oz 662) is moreover categorized in the musicological study by Hickmann, Mascher and Weiß as a "bullroarer/whirling aerophone". Although the two objects are very similar in shape and design, the other object (Oz 661) was not identified by the musicologists as such. Both objects were sold to the collection by Clement in 1928, together with the bullroarer with the inventory number Oz 1494.

- The wooden object inventoried as Oz 661 is 15 cm long and 5 cm wide. It is colored red and has linear ornamentations on both sides. The collector reported that the object came from the language group "Gnalluma" (today's spelling: Ngarluma) from northern Western Australia. The collector dubbed the object a "passport" and wrote that it "serves as identification."

- The inventory number Oz 662 refers to a wooden object, 18.5 cm long and 3.5 cm wide, which is also colored red. It has longitudinal and transverse grooves on both sides and is bored through at one end. The collector here also identified the object as coming from the language group "Gnalluma" (today's spelling: Ngarluma) from the north of Western Australia and he also described it as a "passport".

Media Files:

Data Entry: Nitzan Rotman