The Churinga or Tjurunga docs Part 1: offered by Madrason

The Churinga Docs:Part 1:

There is no certain way to date the old churingas that are from the pre-contact
period (before 1780). They can be as old as the Aboriginal culture, 40-50,000
years. With the earliest rockpaintings and carvings, the cylcons and churingas
represent the oldest form of communication and art, still present, and theyrepresent the oldest religion still observed. The aborigine owner's belief is
that his kuruna or spirit is intimately associated with his churinga. Even today
the whole of Australia is dotted over with Knanikillas, or local totem centres.
Each of these has a sacred storehouse for the tribe's and individuals'
churingas, guarded by the inkata. Women, and men that had not passed
through the ceremonies of circumcision and subincision, were not allowed to
approach the storehouse, Pertalchera.
The aborigine people of the Central desert read the patterns on the churinga
as representations of nature, a kind of map or site. The icons are not literally
figurative. Rather they can be interpreted as a whole range of natural
phenomena that are stereotyped in their typical form, so they become an
artistic system. Each churinga had its own personal 'name', which had to be
sung whenever it was being inspected or handled. The name was one of the
verses from the sacred song cycle related to the actual totem centre.

Tjurunga or churinga;

Not only were these objects collected as objects of desire but
they are regularly traded. These records
have been maintained since 2003.
A churinga or tjurunga was a term applied to objects of
religious significance by Central Australian Aboriginal
Arrernte (Aranda, Arundta) groups. According to T.G.H
Strehlow, (Aranda Traditions Melbourne University Press,
1947. P.85-6) these often had a wide and indeterminate
native significance. They included:
•
•

1. Sacred ceremonies
2. Stone Objects•

1. Wooden sacred objects
2. Bullroarers
3. Sacred ground paintings
4. Ceremonial poles
5. Ceremonial head gear
6. Sacred chants
7. Sacred earth mounds

Generally speaking , tjurunga denote sacred stone or wooden
objects possessed by private or group owners together with
the legends, chants, and ceremonies associated with them.
They are amongst the very few forms of property which may
be owned legitimately by individual persons in Central
Australia.
The ownership of sacred tjurunga amongst the Arrernte
groups was determined largely by `the conception site' of
every individual member of a patrilineal totemic clan.
In many myths the ancestors themselves are said to have
used them and stored them away as their most treasured
possessions. Such myths emphasise the life-holding magical
properties of these tjurunga. The ancestor regarded his
tjurunga as portions of his own being; and is always anxious
that strangers might come and rob him of the very essence
of his life. Accordingly, the legends abound with stories of
theft and robbery, and the very fierce vengeance exacted.
The acquisition of sufficient knowledge leading to possession
of personal tjurunga was long, difficult and sometimes
extremely painful. Practices differed amongst the various
groups. Strehlow describes how the men from the Northern,
Southern and Western Arrernte groups were put on probation
for several years after their last initiations. The old men
would carefully note a young man's conduct. He had to be
respectful towards his elders; he had to be attentive to their
advice in all things. He would know the value of silence in
ceremonial matters: no account of his past experiences could
be spoken with the hearing of women and children. His own
marriage had to conform to the laws of the group. Then one
day the old men, sitting in a circle, would call him in to sit
down in their midst. They began to chant. One man told
Strehlow:
The old men seized my hand. They all struck up the chant-verse:With fierce eyes, with glowing eyes, they seize the thumb;
With fierce eyes, with glowing eyes, they rip off the nail.
An old man produced a sharp kangaroo bone (ntjala). He stabbed my
thumb with it, pushed the bone deeply underneath the nail. He drew the
point out; the rest kept up the chant. He thrust it under the nail in a
different place. He gradually loosened the thumbnail. It was slippery
with blood. I almost shrieked with pain; the torment was unbearable. I
have not forgotten it: the pain was not slight; it was exceedingly great.
When the nail had been loosened, he took a sharp opossum tooth,
forced it into the living flesh through the base of the thumb-nail, and
tore the nail off from behind. Blood spurted over his hand. The man
chanted:
They rip off the nail, they tear off the nail;
Blood flows like a river, rushes along like a river.
Then they seized my left hand and removed the thumb-nail in like
manner.
Nowadays we make a great concession to the young men in our group.
We no longer tear off their finger-nails. The price is too high; we give
the tjurunga to them at a much lower cost. Besides, the young men of
the present generation are no longer hardy enough to endure such pain.
The tjurunga were visible embodiments of some part of the
fertility of the great ancestor of the totem in question. The
body of the ancestor merely undergoes a transmutation into
something that will weather all the assaults of time, change
and decay. Stone tjurunga were thought to have been made
by the ancestors themselves. The wooden tjurunga made by
the old men are symbolical of the actual tjurunga which
`cannot be found'. These `man-made' tjurunga were
accepted without reservation as sacred objects.
At the time of receiving his tjurunga-body a young man may
be twenty five years of age. He will often be thirty-five or
forty years of age before the most sacred chants and
ceremonies that are linked with it have passed into his
possession. As he grows older and continues to demonstrate
his worthiness, he receives an ever-increasing share in the
tjurunga owned by his own totemic clan. Eventually he may
become a member of the assembly of old ceremonial chiefs
who are honoured trustees for the ancient traditions of the
whole clan.
In 1933, Strehlow noted that after the advent of white men
to Central Australia, the young men employed by the foreignintruders were watched very closely by the old men of their
group. In many cases, unless the young men were
outstandingly generous in their gifts towards their elders, no
ceremonies or chants of power and importance were handed
on to this unworthy younger generation. With the death of
the old men such chants and ceremonies passed into
oblivion.

Yoruba Doll Omolangidi a deeper investigation, concept by Madrason;

Yoruba Doll Omolangidi a deeper investigation, concept by Madrason;

https://www.facebook.com/leon.coray/posts/10202039574830535

The implication here is that, in spite of its biological
aspect, procreation has an artistic dimension as well. The human body (ara), the handiwork of Obatala, is much more than blood and flesh. It is a kinetic sculpture, activated by ase, the vital force, concealing and revealing the soul in the physical world, enabling an individual to have iwa (physical existence). Iwa denotes both the fact of being and the distinctive quality or character of a person. 9 Its preeminence in Yoruba
aesthetics is clear from the following poem often recited by Yoruba elders to educate the younger generation:

If a child is beautiful but has no character,
He is no more than a wooden doll
Good character is the beauty of a person
A woman can be as beautiful as the Egbara,
if she has no character
She is no more than a wooden doll
A man may be very, very handsome,
like a fish in the water
If he has no character
He is no more than a wooden doll.

Yoruba text:
Omo t’o dara tiko n’iwa
Omolangidi ni i
Iwa rere l’eso eniyan
B’obirin dara bi Egbara, bi ko n’iwa
Omolangidi ni i
B’okunrin suwon, suwon, bi eja inu omi
Bi ko n’iwa rere
Omolangidi ni i.






Omolangidi doll with shell lack

zemanek; additionally: a simplified
doll with rectangular body and stylized facial
features, wearing a string of red glass beads around
the neck, min. dam., slight traces of abrasion, on wooden base; H: 20 cm; these traditional
dolls were called "omolangidi" - "wooden child". They are carved rather simple and frequently they are made by an apprentice.
Young girls used to stick them into their clothes
as if they are babies, they are caressed, fed and decorated.


Source: Cameron, Elisabeth L. (1996) "Isn't S/He a Doll?", Los Angeles, UCLA Foler Museum of Cultural History.
page 70
Yoruba dolls called omolangidi (child of wood) are play things for young girls, who carry them on their backs held in place by a baby wrapper. The heads range in form from highly abstract to very naturalistic.

The dolls are limbless with flat, generally rectangular torsos that allow them to rest comfortably against the child's back. According to Roslyn
Walker (1994:80), these dolls also cross functional boundaries: "In addition to being toys, omolangidi may also be used as substitutes for memorial figures representing deceased twins (ere ibeji). " The torsos of many figures are undecorated, while more elaborate examples may feature relief carving on one side.

A number of the latter depict rows of the writing tablets used to teach children Arabic and the Koran. The more abstract omolangidi are clearly derived from these writing tablets, their schematic shape undoubtedly an accommodation to the Islamic proscription against the representation of the human form.

Marylin Houlberg describes a similar simplification of form from the typical ibeji as an adaptation to both Islam and Christianity.
The writing-tablet shape as either a free-standing doll or as relief carving on a doll also emphasizes the value placed on the education of children in Yoruba society.







Francesco Pellizzi - 2006 - ‎Voorbeeld - ‎Meer edities
Omolangidi are often roughly hewn from a single slab of wood,
flat and rectangular, with a head indicated
by a simple ...

omi Bíkò n'íwà rere
Omo-langidi ni I10 If a child is good-looking
but has no character He might as well be a wooden doll.

 ... This translation, inspired by Lawal's (1996:28)
, is my own and departs from his.







By Chief FAMA

A verse of an Odu Ifa says in part:
Difa fun Ọbatala
Ti yoo fi ọmọ rẹ obinrin kan ṣoṣo
Fun ọkọ mẹta
Wọn ni “Bawo ni o ṣe maa ṣe?”
O ni, “Odumare ti o da aye
Ko ni jẹ ki wọn ri idi aye lai-lai….”

Divined for Ọbatala
Who would marry his daughter to three husbands
When asked, “How would you do that?”
He said, “Odumare’s secret in the creation of the world
Would forever remain secret.”

PS/ Obatala breathed life into two omolangidi, and the omolangidi became additional brides who were then married off alongside his daughter.

Toy is as ancient to mankind as human evolution itself. For instance, there was omolangidi, a wooden toy of the Yorubas. As doll for children, omolangidi had all the features of human that will make sense to a child--nose, mouth, eyes, ears, etc. By yanking off the future of that ancient concept in the form of colonization and off-shoring of the younger minds of that civilization, omolangidi never made it past that earlier, ancient concept. However, the entire world has benefited from the earliest invention of omolangidi through modern mega-businesses of toys.
Rain, a natural phenomenon that used to beckon children outside for the pleasure of natural rainfall splashes, is probably viewed by our twenty first century children with disdain.

For lack of first-hand experience, the children have probably associated rainfalls with media hyped “storms.” Paradoxically, these same children are programmed to regard heavy hydrogen-doused, collected water as the best water inside which to play and experience their innocent, childhood ecstasy. In our present world, some natural endowments have acquired bargaining power that has "free market" appellations to them. Of course, water is one of them. Water is no more as free as it used to be: water has become multi million currency businesses all over the world. For instance, a bottle of water costs more than that of beer, juice or soda in some places. Competing with water for that basic human need, however, is air. For now, air is generally free for breathing except for few people with medical conditions. But, who knows, by the turn of the century, air might become a mega-million currency business, too, just as water has become, and just as omolangidi has metamorphosised.




Truly, modern marvels have provided comfort; however, with the comfort also comes distance from naturalness. These days, we are almost as unnatural to each other just as the un-naturalness of our invented machines—our modern marvels. There was a time a child's fear was simply that of the unknown--ghosts. During that time, the sight of any adult was reassurance of security to the scared child. In the fear-studded, semi-natural “safe” world we have created, adults are leery of each other; children are trained never to trust, for good reasons, though, as a result of the decadence of the minds of some adult. In turn, we have become victims of the insecurity we have created. Gone were the days when children can play safely in their yards, in neighbors' yards, in the streets, even run around neighborhoods in peace. Gone were the days also when attention was focused on conceiving a child naturally through the in-expensive, un-invasive, and un-hyped divine route of appeasement to natural energies such as Osun, as opposed to the mega-currency, highly invasive, over-hyped robot-like humans and machines. Just like our modern marvels, Odumare's natural gifts to us are being shaped daily. We continue to think more of machines and act like programmed machines (robots) towards one another.

What is marvelous in our twenty first century life is that we are witnessing the creation of different marvels. By the end of the twenty first century, perhaps to the beginning of the twenty second century, history would have attested to the success of our present ambition to create “clone” a fully functional human being in the laboratory. As it is, the “cloning” of body parts has begun and is being perfected. But, that of blood is top secret. Once the creation of blood is perfected, future commercial production of human species will probably rival the current production of our modern machines.
By then, the world would have come full circle with its modern marvels. Then, naturalness would become a second choice when making decisions. To conceive babies naturally would require big payouts just as women are being paid in few countries presently to have more babies. Regeneration and degeneration will become brisk businesses and mega businesses. May be, Odumare herself (Oops “himself”) will marvel at that modern version of his old creation. For now, however, let us marvel at our scientific feat, let us reminiscent at the naturalness we are leaving behind, and let us stoically wish that future mankind will find their own comfort in the modern marvels we will be bequeathing them.

With all said and done, and because we are still much of flesh-blood- and-intellect than machines, let us remember the times, too, when water, Odumare's endowments to us his creatures, was naturally offered to one another. At the time, the first thing from a hostess to a visitor would be a calabash (cup) of cool, freshly drawn water.


The water will be followed by an offer of obi abata from the host to the visitor, obi abata being a significant gesture of peace. By the time the visitor had rested enough, food, steaming hot and served inside the most desirable calabash bowl in the house, would be offered to the visitor with sincere joy. This used to be the case in Emure Ile, it used to be the practice among the Yorubas, and it is still the preferred welcome in most homes, villages and towns in all or most African countries. To a greater extent, this was, and still is, the practice in almost all native cultures around the world where naturalness and value for the essence of mankind is still the norm.
Parallel to Obatala’s response in the above quote, perhaps, the secret to “Odumare’s creation of the universe would continue to elude mankind, even with mankind’s modern marvels. Until such catch up, though, let us act more humanely and less robotic towards each other.
Abọru abọye.

Chief FAMA
Ileorunmila. com


       a doll with cowry shells , looking like ibeji dolls .M




omolangidi sometimes looked like writing slabs/boards.


A similar omolangidi i doll that i have found today. Madrason


Sometimes they were like flat mother and child statuettes.
All to learn the children things in life that were important.



Fowler collection omolangidi doll.



Small contribution to the understanding of the yoruba
omolangidi I dolls, by Madrason 11 okt 2014 Bois le Duc !


# Finis