A Nuer dance
100 x 75 mm | Print gelatin silver
There are records relating to alternative images that we do not have scans for in the database:
1998.346.55.1 - Negative film nitrate , (100 x 75 mm)
1998.346.55.1 - Negative film nitrate , (100 x 75 mm)
Date of Print:
Unknown
Previous PRM Number:
EP.N.55
Previous Other Number:
31 4 [frame 5]
Accession Number:
1998.346.55.2
Description:
A group of men holding dancing sticks and spears dancing on a bare dancing ground.
Ahead is a line of men walking in war line, and as they turn the corner the man at the front runs forward.
Dances were more a feature of village life than cattle camps since people had more ready access to other social groups, and often accompanied ceremonies such as marriages.
Such events were the main arena for courtship among Nuer youth, and often took the form of mock battles between village groups.
The strong link between youthful display and courtship at dances means that few married persons take part in the mock fighting, that occasionally inflicts injury.
Photographer:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Date of Photo:
?1930
Region:
[Southern Sudan] ?Wahda Yoinyang
Group:
Nuer ?Leek
PRM Source:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Acquired:
Donated 1966
Other Owners:
E. E. Evans-Pritchard Collection
Class:
Dance , Social Life
Keyword:
Dance Accessory
Activity:
Dancing
Event:
Dance
Documentation:
Original catalogue lists in Manuscript Collections. Additional material in related documents files. [CM 27/9/2005]
Primary Documentation:
Accession Book Entry: [p.
98] 1966.27 [1 - 24] G[ift] PROFESSOR E.
E.
EVANS-PRITCHARD; INST.
OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY, 51 BANBURY RD.
OXFORD 1966.27.17 S.
SUDAN.
NUER TRIBE.
Box of negatives each in separate envelope, labelled.
(some missing).
Nos.
1 - 213.
(prints in box 1966.27.18)...1966.27.18 S.
SUDAN.
NUER TRIBE.
Box of prints each in separate envelope.
Nos.
1 - 213.
(negatives in 1966.27.17.)
Manual Catalogues [typewritten, entitled "Nuer Photographs (E-P)"] - 55. Dance. (L.) [large size]
Note on print reverse ms pencil - "31/4 55 "
Manual Catalogues [typewritten, entitled "Nuer Photographs (E-P)"] - 55. Dance. (L.) [large size]
Note on print reverse ms pencil - "31/4 55 "
Other Information:
In Kinship and Marriage Among the Nuer (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1990 [1951]), page 1, E.
E.
Evans-Pritchard notes that 'Villager fight side by side in defence and attack and they support one another in feuds.
When their youths attend dances in the district they enter them in a war line (dep) singing their special war chant, and they remain together during the dancing lest some incident should lead to fighting, for it sometimes happens that when the dancing parties of different villages duel their play passes into fighting.' [Chris Morton 2/4/2004]
Recorder:
Christopher Morton [2/4/2004] [Southern Sudan Project]
