European Clothing Research Articles

The Use of a Transitional Cloth‐Money Token among the Wolof1

D URING an eleven-month stay in several small villages of the Wolof, a Negro Mohammedan people now numbering some 600,000, who live in the Gambia and Senegal, I spoke with the oldest men I knew concerning the former use of cloth money. The statements of the old men are corroborated, for the most part, by present-day Wolof practices and by European observers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Most of these data were collected in the villages of Njau and Ballangar in the Saloum districts of the Gambia. The use of cloth as money, in a way that has close functional parallels with true money, was extensive in the Wolof economy prior to this century, both in ceremonial exchange and in basic economic exchange. That such an institution developed in an area where people lived close to the subsistence level with very little surplus production of food and no markets is something of an enigma. There are historical accounts of the early days of European contact with the Gambia, however, which give us some explanation of this seeming paradox. The Wolof no longer use cloth as money, but they still weave cloth. Wolof women card locally grown cotton and spin the thread. Wolof men, of a class made up of the descendants of slaves, weave the cloth on the typical narrow West African loom in strips about five inches wide and cut, for most purposes, into lengths about seventy inches long. Several of these strips are sewn together by the women to make a piece which is often referred to by the English and French in this region as a pagn or pagne (skirt or loincloth) and by the Wolof as a malan. This is then colored with indigo-formerly grown locally-and sometimes decorated with simple designs by the tie-dye technique. Before the introduction of European cloth, the Wolof depended on this cloth for nearly all their needs. Today the use of native cloth is limited. Women tie their babies on their backs with it and wear it as an underskirt with a dress

Research Items

ESKIMO ENGRAVINGS ON WALRUS IVORY.—Three examples of Eskimo art from Alaska of a type rarely seen in Europe are described by M. L. Giraux in the Journal de la Société des Américanistes de Paris, N. Sér. T. 18. The objects in question are made of walrus ivory, measuring 31 cm., 33 cm., and 36 cm. in length respectively, and are engraved and painted or stained in colour with human and animal figures. Among the human figures is that of a male in European clothing. All the figures are realistic, but the animals in particular exhibit an intimate acquaintance on the part of the artist with their characteristic attitudes and habits. Although all the Eskimo of Alaska show considerable dexterity in carving wood, bone, ivory, and reindeer horn, the inhabitants of the coast from the Yukon delta to the lower Kuskokwin river are particularly noted for their artistic skill. The technical methods employed in dealing with the ivory of a walrus tooth in the days before the introduction of iron and steel implements, are of considerable interest, especially in view of the marked resemblance of the objects under consideration to palaeolithic engravings. Four grooves were made in the tooth with a piece of quartz or other siliceous stone. When these had been made as deep as the form of the cutting edge of the stone implement allowed, the two pieces were flaked off either by simple pressure of the hand or by means of a wooden knife-blade-like implement, which was inserted in the groove. The central piece of ivory thus obtained was rubbed down to the required shape by a freshly broken stone. The perforation found in some of the objects was then made by a stone drill and sand, working in a slight depression previously made, and actuated by a cord or strap. The polishing was done either with a very fine-grained stone (soapstone) or by the hand used with very fine-grained sand. Lastly, another piece of ivory was employed to produce a high polish. The gravers were sharp pieces of stone, flint, quartz, schist, or soapstone, usually fixed in pieces of wood, each material requiring a special method in manufacturing the graving tool. The colours employed were black (plumbago and charcoal or gunpowder mixed with blood), red (oxide of iron or ochreous earth), yellow (ochreous earth), white (argillaceous clay), and green (oxide of copper). A dark reddish brown used for staining seal skin was obtained by macerating the inner bark of alder in urine for twenty-four hours.

Research Items

DEPOPULATION OF PRIMITIVE COMMUNITIES.—Mr. J. H. Hutton, whose monographs on two branches of the Naga Tribes in Assam have been received with much favour by ethnologists, reviews in Man in India (vol. 2, No. 4) the work of the late Dr. Rivers on depopulation in Melanesia, in the light of his experiences in Assam. He notes that, as in the case of the Kava of Melanesia, the influence of missionary societies in Assam, who discourage the use of the mild rice beer, is driving their converts to opium. The appearance of consumption in recent years in the Naga hills may be attributed to the wearing of European clothes, which is also responsible for the spread of dysentery, itch, and yaws. The absolute prohibition of head-hunting has led to serious interference with all sorts of dependent activities, and ultimately leads to a total lack of interest in life, and so to the limitation of families, or even to the total refusal to procreate children. These facts, which corroborate the conclusions of Mr. Henry Balfour in the presidential address recently delivered before the Folklore Society, deserve the serious attention of all those who are responsible for the welfare of primitive societies.

Some factors in Thermal Sanitation in the Tropics

In torrid regions, thermal environment is of very great importance as regards comfort and certainly influences the health and efficiency of white men. The human race may have arisen under the influence of climates similar to those now prevailing in the Tropics where indigenous peoples sojourn in an almost natural state with little protection against either heat or cold. The European brings with him his native conventions as regards houses and clothing, developed, in the case of Britons, in quite northern regions, where the human race requires protection against cold. These may be more or less unsuitable for tropical heat but, being conventions, they cannot be lightly thrown aside. European clothes afford protection against disease-carrying insects, poisonous stings and bites, and the question arises as to the best way to modify them to suit the hot climate. In any case, the northern European in the Tropics is in an abnormal climatic environment and, though he may survive a long time, there can be little doubt that he rarely enjoys his natural robustness of health with the result that even trivial ailments assume serious aspects. It appears that there is a much narrower margin of health stability, and proportionately greater care is required if the system is to be kept within the limits. Mr Elsworth Huntingdon1 has adduced evidence suggesting that white races, even if they are able to survive within the torrid zone, undergo deterioration.