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Description: | ZOLE Fire Charm. 12.134 Murray I. Torre St 1889
Fire Charm, Bager, Mer island, Torres Strait Islands, Australia.
The labour involved in making fire by traditional means made the Torres Strait Islanders very wary of letting fires go out. When people went off to go fishing, gardening or hunting, however, there was always a possibility that fires might go untended. In general, women in the late stages of pregnancy were excused these kinds of heavy labour, sailing and walking long distances, and so they rarely went far from home, and were often given the job of tending the fires.
When no real woman was available, however, magical fire charms called bager were carved from lava or, as here, brain coral (Faviidae spp.) on several islands. Taking the form of a heavily pregnant woman crouched in attendance, bager were set up next to a burning fire to keep in going until its makers returned.
This particular bager was collected in 1888 by Prof A. C. Haddon on his first anthropological expedition to the Torres Strait. In his fieldwork diary, he described how this object’s personal name was Zole, and that it was the bager’s spirit (lamar) which emerged from the carving and tended the fire.
Coral. Late 19th Century. Presented by Prof A. C. Haddon to the Horniman Museum in 1912.
Fire charm made from red-brown porous volcanic stone carved into a female image. Some red pigment has been applied to the figure's arms.
caption: Frontal view of whole of Horniman Museum object no 12.134
caption: Right side of whole of Horniman Museum object no 12.134
caption: Left side of whole of Horniman Museum object no 12.134
caption: Rear view of whole of Horniman Museum object no 12.134
caption: Detail view of whole of Horniman Museum object no 12.134 | Publisher: | http://www.horniman.ac.uk/ | Rights holder: | Horniman Museum and Gardens | Subjects: | charms stone Health and Healing | Source: | Horniman Museum | Identifier: | oai:oai.horniman.ac.uk:object-71668 | Go to resource |
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