Australian Museum Journal A circumcision ceremony and stone arrangement on Groote Eylandt
- Shortform:
- McCarthy, 1953, Rec. Aust. Mus. 23(3): 97–103
- Author(s):
- McCarthy, Frederick D.
- Year published:
- 1953
- Title:
- A circumcision ceremony and stone arrangement on Groote Eylandt
- Serial title:
- Records of the Australian Museum
- Volume:
- 23
- Issue:
- 3
- Start page:
- 97
- End page:
- 103
- DOI:
- 10.3853/j.0067-1975.23.1953.623
- Language:
- English
- Plates:
- plate viii
- Date published:
- 21 October 1953
- Cover date:
- 21 October 1953
- ISSN:
- 0067-1975
- CODEN:
- RAUMAJ
- Publisher:
- The Australian Museum
- Place published:
- Sydney, Australia
- Digitized:
- 22 April 2009
- Available online:
- 22 July 2009
- Reference number:
- 623
- EndNote package:
- EndNote file
- Title page:
- Title page (127kb PDF)
- Complete work:
- Complete work (1380kb PDF)
Abstract
On the evening of April 19th, 1948, a circumcision ceremony began at Umbakumba (Fig. 10), Little Lagoon, in the north-eastern corner of Groote Eylandt, and each night afterwards the whole camp held a dance on the beach beside the lagoon until May 19th, when the ceremony continued throughout the night. The operation was performed on the initiates at dawn the following morning. I witnessed this ceremony from beginning to end, and visited a group of cave paintings known as Jundurruna at Amalipa, and a stone-arrangement at Lake Hubert connected with it. The Groote Eylandt natives are distinguished as the Ingura tribe.