M0005529: Sacrificial poles outside a Kenyah village

Previous title, replaced November 2021: Sacrificial poles outside a Kenyan village

Mounted reproduction of a photograph of two poles erected outside a Kenyah village. According to the caption, the heads of enemies were hung on the taller post, called Belawing, and pieces of flesh of slain enemies were hung from the shorter pole. The photograph was original published in Hose, Charles: The pagan tribes of Borneo, volume II, London, 1912. A print of the photograph was acquired by the Wellcome Historical Medical Museum and accessioned in 1938 (accession number PHO 10795).

4 August 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.