Thoughts about Ifiri Doitch by Peter Black

Photographs from the Thilenius Expedition, 1908-1910  

Plates 2 through 7   Part IX
Plates 8 through 11 Part X 

Taken from Eilers, Anneliese, Westkarolinen:  Tobi und Ngulu.  Ergebnisse der Sudsee-expedition 1908-1910 (II B9, Part I.).  G. Thilenius, ed.  Hamburg:  Friederichsen, De Gruyter & Co. m.b.H., 1936.

Tobi Island collection in the ethnographic collection, Tübingen University. Sammlung des Instituts für Ethnologie der Universität Tübingen.

Photographs from the Thilenius Expedition: these did not appear in the expedition report published by Anneliese Eilers. With kind permission of the ethnographic collection, Tübingen University. Sammlung des Instituts für Ethnologie der Universität Tübingen.

More illustrations from the Thilenius Expedition are found at Ifiri Mosuwe.

Fourteen house owners of 1908-1910 as recorded by members of the Thilenius expedition.

German Government & Other Documents

The Seizure of Tobi & Helen Reef by Germany in 1901

Photograph of Governor Georg Fritz. From A Brief History of Education in Micronesia, Micronesian Seminar Photo Album, Photograph from the Fritz Collection, MARC.

A paper by Rainer F. Buschmann describes the visit of the Thilenius Expedition to Tobi and analyzes what happened.  Tobi Captured:  Converging Ethnographic and Colonial Vision on a Caroline Island.   ISLA:  A Journal of Micronesian Studies, 4:2.  Dry Season, 1996, 317-340.   © University of Guam. 

A paper by Francis X. Hezel and Jay D. Dobbin contains a section on the Southwest Islands, including Tobi.  The Distribution of Spirit Possession and Trance in Micronesia.  Pacific Studies, 19(2), 105-148 (1996).

Two mentions of Tobi made by Dr. Buse, the German government doctor, on the occasion of his visit to Tobi.  In Christmann, Helmut, Peter Hempenstall, and Dirk Anthony Ballendorf,  Die Karolinen-Inseln in Deutscher Zeit.  Hamburg: Lit Verlag, 1991. Pp. 223, 247.

A few pages mentioning Tobi. In Schlesier, Erhard, Die Erscheinungsformen des Männerhauses und das Klubwesen in Mikronesien: Eine Ethno-Soziologische Untersuchung, S-Grafenhage. Den Haag: Muton Co., 1953. Pages 69-78.

A fragment from Eilers, Westkarolinen I (53) that mentions a trip from Sonsorol to a village on Helen Reef. Translated. 1936 Sonsorol. Ergebnisse der Sudsee Expedition 1908-1910. II. Ethnographie: B. Mikronesien Band 9. Westkarolinen 1. Halband: Songosor, Pur, Merir. Georg Thilenius, ed. Volume 9. Hamburg: Friederichsen, De Gruyter & Co. m.b.H. P. 53.

Two articles by H. Seidel both from 1905 and both in German: Über Religion und Sprache der Tobiinsulaner ("On the Religion and Speech of the Tobi Islanders"), Globus 87: 14-17 and Die Bewohner der Tobi-Insel (Deutsch-Westmikronesien) ("The Inhabitants of Tobi Island"), Globus 87: 113-117.

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