Zande hut with 'theft medicine'
104 x 78 mm | Print gelatin silver
There are records relating to alternative images that we do not have scans for in the database:
1998.341.183.1 - Negative film nitrate , (104 x 78 mm)
1998.341.183.1 - Negative film nitrate , (104 x 78 mm)
Date of Print:
Unknown
Previous PRM Number:
EP.A.183
Previous Other Number:
5 (155) [frame 4]
Accession Number:
1998.341.183.2
Description:
A hut within a homestead with a small medicine shelter to one side of the entrance, its medicine to avenge theft hanging beneath the roof above a piece of broken pottery.
Such charms are known as ngua gumba since they are intended to send a lightning strike to any thief.
Photographer:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Date of Photo:
1927 - 1930
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Western Equatoria Yambio
Group:
Zande
Publication History:
Contemporary Publication - A very similar image [but from negative 1998.341.93.1] is reproduced in E.
E.
Evans-Pritchard's
Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande
(OUP 1937, facing page 432), with the caption "Shelter for theft-medicine.
The medicine can be seen hanging beneath the roof of the shelter."
PRM Source:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Acquired:
Donated 1966
Other Owners:
E. E. Evans-Pritchard Collection
Class:
Shelter , Ritual
Keyword:
Building House
Documentation:
Original catalogue lists in Manuscript Collections. Additional material in related documents files. [CM 27/9/2005]
Primary Documentation:
PRM Accession Records - [1966.27.21] G PROFESSOR E.
E.
EVANS-PRITCHARD; INST.
OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY, 51 BANBURY RD.
OXFORD - S.
SUDAN, AZANDE TRIBE.
Box of negatives in envelopes.
Nos.
1 - 400
Added Accession Book Entry - [In pencil in column] Catalogue room.
[1966.27.23] G PROFESSOR E. E. EVANS-PRITCHARD; INST. OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY, 51 BANBURY RD. OXFORD - S. SUDAN, AZANDE TRIBE. Box of prints in envelopes, nos. 1 - 400 (prints of negatives in 1966.27.21)
Manual Catalogues [typewritten, entitled "Zande Photographs (E-P)"] - 183. Medicine hut under verandah. 5 (155)
Added Accession Book Entry - [In pencil in column] Catalogue room.
[1966.27.23] G PROFESSOR E. E. EVANS-PRITCHARD; INST. OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY, 51 BANBURY RD. OXFORD - S. SUDAN, AZANDE TRIBE. Box of prints in envelopes, nos. 1 - 400 (prints of negatives in 1966.27.21)
Manual Catalogues [typewritten, entitled "Zande Photographs (E-P)"] - 183. Medicine hut under verandah. 5 (155)
Other Information:
Ethnographic context - In Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande (OUP 1937, page 433) E.
E.
Evans-Pritchard notes that 'Medicine huts, like the one shown on Plate XXVII, are often to be seen in homesteads and at the sides of paths where they traverse cultivations.' On page 461-2 he also notes that since medicines are destroyed by cold and damp, 'important medicines made in the open are generally protected from rain by a small grass shelter, or by an inverted pot, or are hidden in the hole of a tree.' He also notes (page 426) that 'The principal old-established medicines which are used by most commoners of high standing at court, and even by princes themselves, are....
ngua gumba, magic of lightning, principally used to avenge theft.' See also [1998.341.93,.123 & .176] [Chris Morton 14/10/2003]
Recorder:
Christopher Morton 20/10/2003 [Southern Sudan Project]
