BLACK AFRICA - SCARIFICATIONS. Gilberte ZABOROWSKA, anthropo - Lot 226

Lot 226
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BLACK AFRICA - SCARIFICATIONS. Gilberte ZABOROWSKA, anthropo - Lot 226
BLACK AFRICA - SCARIFICATIONS. Gilberte ZABOROWSKA, anthropologist, wife of Museum professor Sigismond Zaborowski, secretary of the Anthropological Society of Paris. Autograph manuscript signed "G.Z.", dated 1917. 43 pp. in-4. Rusty trombone marks. Interesting and rare study on the scarifications practiced among the peoples of Black Africa, by Gilberte Zaborowska, entitled "Les Balafres ethniques chez les tirailleurs de l'Afrique Occidentale Française". It was published in the Revue Anthropologique (n°7-8, 1917). "Among the hundreds of Blacks that I have examined, I have only met one who presented a scar in relief, in the form of a cutaneous cord occupying the median line, from the root of the nose to that of the hair, over the entire height of the forehead. This individual (fig. 35), of the Bete race, had all the incisors filed to a point; his hair, shaved on the sides and back, was reduced to a narrow cap. These three signs combined: the frontal bulge, the filed teeth and the hair cap, are characteristic of an anthropophagous race [...]". She describes the types of scarification found among the different peoples (she lists 13). "The characteristic sign of the Bambara consists of three large vertical incisions that occupy the entire height of the cheek on each side. Elisée Reclus says that these incisions extend from the corner of the eye to the corner of the mouth; in reality, they are much longer and set further back. They are reminiscent of the disposition observed among the Baghirmis, a tribe living in the region located in the south-east of Chad [...]". The announced figures are absent, some leaves were cut for the printing. Attached are 2 typewritten sheets on the tattoos of the Blacks of Dahomey, on the back of sheets with the letterhead of the Laboratory of Medical Natural History.
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