Bongo grave carvings

103 x 75 mm | Negative film nitrate

There are records relating to alternative images that we do not have scans for in the database:
1998.343.11.2 - Print gelatin silver , (103 x 75 mm)

Date of Print:

Unknown

Previous PRM Number:

EP.B.11

Previous Other Number:

29 [frame 1]

Accession Number:

1998.343.11.1

Description:

Two carved wooden funerary figures, one with large horns set on top of a low earth burial mound within a homestead. Not all Bongo graves were marked with a mound of stones, and such mounds were sometimes erected a number of years later at a mortuary ceremony. These carved figures were considered representations of the deceased, put up to honour the individual, but not serving any ritual purpose. Usually accompanied by tallies of animals killed in hunting, the horns on the figure signify the status of the hunter.

Photographer:

Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard

Date of Photo:

1929 March

Region:

[Southern Sudan] Warab Tonj

Group:

Bongo

Publication History:

Contemporary Publication - Reproduced as Plate IVa (facing page 40) in E. E. Evans-Pritchard's "The Bongo" (Sudan Notes and Records Vol.XII Part I 1929), with the caption 'Two funerary figures surmounting Bongo grave. One has horns growing from its head'.
The image also forms the basis for an illustration (Fig. 31) on page 471 of C.G. & B. Seligman's Pagan Tribes of the Nilotic Sudan (London, Routledge 1932), entitled 'Funerary figures of Bongo (Evans-Pritchard)'. [Chris Morton 14/1/2004]

PRM Source:

Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard

Acquired:

Donated 1966

Other Owners:

E. E. Evans-Pritchard Collection

Class:

Death , Carving

Keyword:

Grave , Grave Marker , Memorial , Figure

Primary Documentation:

PRM Accession Records - Accession Book Entry [p. 98] 1966.27 [1 - 24] G[ift] PROFESSOR E. E. EVANS-PRITCHARD; INST. OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY, 51 BANBURY RD. OXFORD - 1966.27.19 - S. SUDAN, DARFUNG. VARIOUS TRIBES. Box of negatives in envelopes, [1 - 242] & 1966.27.20 - Box of prints of these negatives [refers to object 1966.27.19] [1 - 242], in envelopes.

Recorder:

Christopher Morton 14/1/2004 [Southern Sudan Project]