M0005683: Representations of animals carved onto various items

Previous title, replaced November 2021: Representation of totem animals on wood.

Photograph of four drawings representing different animals carved onto items: Waru (turtle) carved on a warup drum; Ngagalaig (fish-eagle) carved on a tobacco pipe; Kursi (hammerhead sharks) and a ray carved on a buru-buru drum; Kodal (crocodile) carved on a warup drum. The drawings are published as plate VII in Haddon, Alfred C: Reports of the Cambridge anthropological expedition to Torres Straits. Volume V. Sociology, Magic and Religion of the Western Islanders, Cambridge: University Press, 1904. A copy of the photograph was acquired by the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum and accessioned in 1938 (accession number PHO 10953).

23 September 1938

1 photograph glass plate negative; 12 x 16.5 cm

Catalogue data comes from a combination of entries in the original glass plate registers, metadata created when the glass plates were digitised in the early 2000s and enhancements made by the cataloguer in 2021.

Please consult the digitised version as this item is fragile. Email library@wellcomecollection.org to request access to the physical item.