?Morokodo homestead with grave

103 x 75 mm | Print gelatin silver

There are records relating to alternative images that we do not have scans for in the database:
1998.345.37.1 - Negative film nitrate , (103 x 75 mm)

Condition:

Silver sulphide staining [EE 1989]

Date of Print:

Unknown

Previous PRM Number:

EP.M.37

Previous Other Number:

IX 12

Accession Number:

1998.345.37.2

Description:

Looking across a homestead enclosure between two huts, one a step-thatched sleeping hut and the other a rough shelter, perhaps for animals, towards granaries and a fodder platform beyond. Towards the back of the cleared central compound is a mound grave with a forked carved post surmounting it and an upturned basin placed on the mound. If this is a Morokodo homestead burial (as seems likely) the carved post represents numbers of men or large animals killed by the deceased, as with other peoples of the Bongo-Mittu group.

Photographer:

Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard

Date of Photo:

1927

Region:

[Southern Sudan] Western Equatoria Amadi District

Group:

?Morokodo

PRM Source:

Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard

Acquired:

Donated 1966

Other Owners:

E. E. Evans-Pritchard Collection

Class:

Death , Settlement , Shelter

Keyword:

Grave , Grave Marker , Vessel

Documentation:

Original catalogue lists in Manuscript Collections. Additional material in related documents files. [CM 27/9/2005]

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.

Note on print reverse ms pencil - "IX-12 grave in background"

Notes on card mount ms pencil - "SSS overall 8.89"

Other Information:

A forked Morokodo grave post similar to the one in this image, from a photograph by E. E. Evans-Pritchard, is reproduced as Plate LVa (facing page 492) of C.G. & B. Seligman's Pagan Tribes of the Nilotic Sudan (London, Routledge 1932). On page 489 they also state that '[t]his type of grave, i.e. a post emerging from the summit of a low conical pile of stones, is associated with certain tribes of the Bongo-Mittu group, including the poeples in the neighbourhood of Amadi other than the true Moro, i.e. Nyamusa, Moro Kodo, Abukaya, and perhaps the Biti and Wira, as well as a number of people to the north and north-west. Though the form of these lusi may differ in detail, some having one segment, others more than one, all show the same general technique.' The provenence of Avokaya can tentatively be ruled out since their normal form of grave was down through a termite mound in the vicinity, but not within, the homestead. The Moro 'proper' i.e. Meza, Endri, Uggi and Kederu seem not to have erected posts on their grave mounds (ibid. page 487). This seems to point to this grave being from the Morokodo around Amadi, although it is possible that it belongs to another of the northern small groups such as Nyamusa.[Chris Morton 9/3/2004]

Recorder:

Christopher Morton 9/3/2004 [Southern Sudan Project]