Bark Cloth association with death among Dayak of Borneo

Vanishing Tattoo website by Lars Krutak.

Bark-cloth is described as an item that the dead and their mourners wear.  On other occasions, it is an item for warriors also for ceremony.

"Although the apotropaic aspect of Dayak tattoo has been discussed, specifically as a remedy against supernatural possession resulting in disease, tattooing was also an initiation rite involving the entire community longhouse.  Tattoo operations were not carried out in the longhouse itself, rather they took place in a specially built hut among some groups.  During the entire ritual, the male members of the family dressed  in bark-cloth.  Bark-cloth was normally placed on the corpses of village leaders at their funerals or worn by widowers.  At other times, headhunters used bark-cloth during ceremonial occasions.  Therefore, it seems that the association between tatto and bark-cloth indicates that tattooed individuals pass through a communally recognized symbolic death in order to pass into a new stage of life.  Not surprisingly, each Dayak community is comprised of individuals both living
and dead, since those members who left this world forever now dwell in the community of the ancestors - the village of the dead.  It is here, [...] that each Dayak individual yearns to be in the afterlife. "

Shaman, Sickness, Land of the Dead; http://www.vanishingtattoo.com/borneo_tattoos_1.htm

Textile Collection of Asia_Museum of Fine Arts Boston

Collection Search page that shows a general collection of items from all over Asia.
There is a panel without an image that describes a small rectangular bark cloth with intricate designs, designated to "Spanish Colonial era".  A search for this item must be done within the collection as the link below does not lead to the panel.

Page link: http://www.mfa.org/search/collections?objecttype=88&page=2&rows=16

The entire contents of the collection have not been exhausted for Philippine textiles as of 10 May 2014.

tuk tuk anotated resources

Annotation by Lauren Benetua

Resources

"Bark Cloth Beater." University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology. University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. <http://www.penn.museum/collections/object/46494>. URL goes to museum website. Museum cites a book: [Book] Aragon, Lorraine V. 1990. "Barkcloth Production in Central Sulawesi". Vol. 32, No. 1. pp. 33-48. : Page/Fig./Plate: p. 38. More objects in publication can be found here: http://www.penn.museum/collections/bibliography.php?irn=173

"Bark-Cloth Beater New Stone Age Arku Cave, Peñablanca, Cagayan 1255-605 BC." National Museum Collections. National Museum of the Philippines, 10 Feb. 2014. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. <http://www.nationalmuseum.gov.ph/nationalmuseumbeta/Collections/Archaeo/Beater.html>.  Excerpt: “It is a stone tool used for the preparation of bark cloth. Early man in Palawan fashioned the beaters from cylindrical stones and used the stone beaters for pounding the bark to loosen the pulp from the fiber. The bark cloth is ready when all the pulp has been stripped off, leaving a network of fibers. The stone tool found in Arku Cave, Penablanca, Cagayan was dated 1255-605 B.C. Another bark-cloth beater was found in Sagung cave in Southern Palawan.”

Cameron, Judith. "Trans-oceanic Transfer of Barkcloth Technology from South China-Southeast Asia to Mesoamerica?" Islands of Inquiry: Colonisation, Seafaring and the Archaeology of Maritime Landscapes. Ed. Geoffrey R. Clark, Foss Leach, and Sue O'Connor. Vol. 29. Canberra, A.C.T.: ANU E, 2008. 203-10. Print. Article .pdf link: http://press.anu.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/ch133.pdf Whole encyclopedia volume 29: http://press.anu.edu.au/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/whole_book11.pdf

"Cultures of the Southeast Asia - Shows of the Philippines, Vietnam, Thailand, and Indonesia." Social Education. Ministry of Education Republic of China (Taiwan), 2012. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. <http://english.moe.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=8196&ctNode=506&mp=1>.

Scroll to bottom for image of Sulawesi barkcloth blouse. Caption says it is "woven" from barkcloth fiber--potential translation error?

Evangelista, Alfredo E. "Philippines." Asian Perspectives 6 (1962): n. pag. University of Manoa. Web. 22 Apr. 2014. <https://scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu/bitstream/handle/10125/16694/AP-v6n1-2-regional-reports.pdf?sequence=1>.

Scroll down to .pdf page 49 or journal page 46. Short write up about archaeological findings in the Philippines.

Kennedy, Raymond. "Bark-cloth in Indonesia." The Journal of the Polynesian Society 43.172 (1934): 229-43. The Polynesian Society. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. <http://www.jps.auckland.ac.nz/document/Volume_43_1934/Volume_43,_No._172/Bark-cloth_in_Indonesia,_by_Raymond_Kennedy,_p_229-243/p1>.

20th century publication; be wary of archaic anthropological practices/language

Kroeber, Alfred L. "Peoples of the Philippines." Google Books. American Museum of National History, n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.

Published 1919 by UC Anthropology Professor. Another early 20th century source to be wary of using outdated methods/language.

"The Spirit of Thunder Mountain: The Krone Philippine Collection." Textiles. N.p., n.d. Web. 20 Apr. 2014.

Part of a greater exhibition titled "The Spirit of the Thunder Mountain: The Krone Philippine Collection," which was branded as "Peoples Of the Philippines" during a 1995 Cal State East Bay exhibition at the C.E. Smith Museum of Anthropology. Find the overall index here: http://class.csueastbay.edu/anthropologymuseum/virtmus/Philippines/Overall/Index.htm

Bark Shirt_Philippine Collection at Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology

Description:
Bark shirt;  tapa, stitched across with black and red cotton cord; sleeveless. Length: 17.25 inches
Philippines

Object Number

10-1261


address: < http://pahma.berkeley.edu/delphi/results/?rawkwds=philippines  >

Bark Painting Collection_Phoebe Hearst Museum

Collection of Bark Paintings showing mythology and anthropomorphic images and patterns of Dreamtime on Bark from the Ahmen indigenous peoples of Australia.

Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology, Univ of California, Berkeley

collection address: < http://pahma.berkeley.edu/delphi/results/?rawkwds=%22bark+painting%22  >

Museum main page: < http://hearstmuseum.berkeley.edu/  >

The Tinguian_Social, Religious, and Economic Life of a Philippine Tribe

From website, Free ebook Project called Gutenberg.org
File address: <  http://www.gutenberg.org/files/12849/12849-h/12849-h.htm#d0e11944 >

Author of original work: Fay Cooper, Asst Curator of Malayan Ethnology 1922

Beware of archaic methods of anthropology.

Contains short entry on bark cloth technology and practice.  Other information may be useful for further correlations.

Includes text, illustrations and plates.


Contents:

• List of Illustrations 231
• Introduction 235
• I. Geographical Relations and History 238
• II. Physical Type and Relationships 247
• III. The Cycle of Life 261
  • Birth 261
  • Childhood 272
  • Engagement and Marriage 278
  • Death and Burial 283
  • The Layog 290
• IV. Religion and Magic 295
• V. The Ceremonies 315
  • 1. The Minor Ceremonies 315
  • 2. The Great Ceremonies 327
  • 3. Special Ceremonies 355
• VI. Social Organization. Government. The Village 359
• VII. Warfare, Hunting, and Fishing 371
• VIII. Economic Life 387
  • Rice Culture 387
  • Cultivated Plants and Trees 403
  • Wild Plants and Trees 408
  • Plants and Trees Used in the Treatment of Disease 409
  • Use of Betel-Nut, Tobacco, and Stimulants 410
  • Domestic Animals 411
• IX. Products of Industry 413
  • Iron-Working 413
  • Spinning and Weaving 416
  • Manufacture of Rope and String 420
  • Bark Cloth 422
  • Basket Making 423
  • Mats 426
  • Dyes 426
  • Net Making 427
  • Manufacture of Pottery 427
  • Pipe Making 428
  • Method of Drying Hides 429
• X. Decorative Art 431
• XI. Personal Adornment, Dances, and Musical Instruments 437
• XII. Music, By Albert Gale 443
• Conclusions 486
• Index 491

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Bark Cloth entry is short.  Quoted:

"Bark Cloth.—Bark cloth is still in common use for men's headbands and for clouts. It is secured from the same trees as the rope material, but wider strips are taken, and it is customary to beat the bark thoroughly before it is removed from the wood. It is then split to the desired thickness, after which it is beaten with wooden or bone mallets (gīkai), which are generally grooved transversely (Fig. 18). The cloth produced is soft and pliable, but is not of the fineness of tapa, and it is always in comparatively narrow pieces. In no instance Page 421was the operator seen to beat two strips together to gain greater breadth or to repair breaks."

---
Second Entry, Bark Head-bands, under section titled Basket Weaves, p425

"Bark head-bands are stained a purplish-red by applying a liquid Page 425secured through boiling kᴇlyan(Diospyros cunalon D.C.?) bark. For ceremonial purposes they are also colored yellow by applying the juice of the konig (Curcuma longa), but as this has a disagreeable odor, and the color is not permanent, it is not much used in every-day garments. Lemon juice is also applied to bark to give it a yellow hue."

List of Illustrations

Text-Figures

• 1. Child's Cradle and Jumper
• 2. Diagram of a Game
• 3. Cross Sections Showing Types of Graves
• 4. Ceremonial Paraphernalia
• 5. Household Objects
• 6. Spoons and Ladles
• 7. Types of Knives
• 8. Head-axes
• 9. Spears
• 10. Shields
• 11. Chicken Snare
• 12. Bird Snares
• 13. Fishing Devices
• 14. Grass Knife; Root Adze; Rice Cutter
• 15. Agricultural Implements
• 16. Devices Used in Spinning and Weaving
• 17. Rope-Making Appliances
• 18. Bark Beater
• 19. Basket Weaves
• 20. Net Needle and Mesh Stick
• 21. Tobacco-Pipes
• 22. Designs on Pipes and Pottery
• 23. Decorative Designs
• 24. Patterns Used in Weaving
• 25. Blanket Designs
• 26. Musical Instruments

---

Resources: Tugtug/Tuktuk_Filipino Bark Cloth Project

1. Trans-oceanic transfer of bark-cloth technology from South China-Southeast Asia to Mesoamerica? -Judith Cameron, Dept. of Archeology and Natural History, Austrailian National Univ.
2.  Bark-Cloth in Indonesia -The Journal of the Polynesian Society- 1934 article by Raymond Kennedy of Yale Univ.
3. People of the Philippines -eBook, Alfred L. Kroeber, 1919
4.  Bark-Cloth Beater, New Stone Age, Arku Cave, Penablanca, Cagayan 1255-605 BC, image- Nat'l Museum of the Philippines
5.  Stone Bark-Cloth Beaters of Late Neolithic Period Philipines, Table- Tentative chronology of Philippine History,  Alfredo E. Evangelista, p.49-50, Part 7, Asian Perspectives 1962
6.  Filipino Tapa Bark-Cloth Shawl, image- csueastbay, anthropology museum
7.  Collection of Bark-Cloth Beaters, Sulawesi, image- Univ. of Penn Museum of Archeology and Anthropology
8.  Bark-Cloth Blouse, Sulawesi, Indonesia, image-  Ministry of Education, Taiwan R.O.C.
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