Zande crop with magic bundle
104 x 78 mm | Print gelatin silver
There are records relating to alternative images that we do not have scans for in the database:
1998.341.19.1 - Negative film nitrate , (104 x 78 mm)
1998.341.19.1 - Negative film nitrate , (104 x 78 mm)
Date of Print:
Unknown
Previous PRM Number:
EP.A.19
Previous Other Number:
2 (187) [frame 7]
Accession Number:
1998.341.19.2
Description:
A pile of eleusine coracana in a homestead.
This crop was once the most important base for porridge and beer, but has been displaced to some extent by manioc, a highly drought and pest resistent tuber, which is however somewhat less nutrious than flour produced from grain such as eleusine.
The pile has the magico-religious medicines dakadiya and ngamu (a feathery type of grass) placed on top to invoke increase.
Beyond is a large old style granary (soro) with grass finial, with a ladder up to a door some feet off the ground.
Photographer:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Date of Photo:
1927 - 1930
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Western Equatoria Yambio
Group:
Zande
Publication History:
Contemporary Publication - Reproduced as Plate XXXb (page 448) in
Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande
(OUP, 1937), with the caption "a heap of eleusine drying in the centre of homestead.
On top of the eleusine are medicines to increase it."
PRM Source:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Acquired:
Donated 1966
Other Owners:
E. E. Evans-Pritchard Collection
Class:
Food and Drink , Settlement , Religion , Shelter
Keyword:
Crop Millet , Foodstuff , Religious Offering , Building Storage , Storage Crop
Activity:
Harvesting
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)"] - 19. Heap of Eleusine in Centre of Homestead. (Showing Eleusine magic on top of the heap). 2(187)
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)"] - 19. Heap of Eleusine in Centre of Homestead. (Showing Eleusine magic on top of the heap). 2(187)
Other Information:
Ethnographic context - In Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande (OUP, 1937) (page 456-7) E.
E.
Evans-Pritchard notes that "Medicines are very often placed with food to increase it after it has been harvested....
An informant said: 'That medicine on top of the heap of eleusine over there is dakadiya, and another medicine is ngamu.
They bind a bundle of it in this way and put it on top of eleusine, saying, "You are eleusine.
That medicine on top of you is dakadiya.
May eleusine not grow less.
May eleusine stick together in the granary like leaves of dakadiya; may may eleusine increase like ngamu." [footnote - The feathery grass shown on top of a heap of eleusine in Plate XXX] [Chris Morton 7/10/2003] In The Azande (OUP, 1971) (page 91) E.
E.
Evans-Pritchard notes that 'The Mbomu granaries were the gburuki and the soro...
the soro is an unusually large grain-store with a door instead of a moveable roof..[and] is built by wealthier persons, but neither, in my experience is often to be seen today.' The same compound and granary also feature in [1998.341.111, .134, .136, .235, .331] [Chris Morton 13/10/2003]
Recorder:
Christopher Morton 6/10/2003 [Southern Sudan Project]
