Zande arm ornament

Zande arm ornament
Other views of this artifact:


Accession Number:
1934.8.141
Country:
Sudan
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Western Equatoria Yambio
Cultural Group:
Zande
Date Made:
By 1933
Materials:
Giraffe Hair Animal
Process:
Wound , Tied
Dimensions:
Max Diam = 75 x 74 mm Max W = 3.5 mm [RTS 24/3/2004].
Weight:
1.3 g
Other Owners:
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife on 27th April 1933 during a shooting expedition. Found unentered on 24th March 2004 with its object tag bearing provenance details attached, and matched to a formerly missing item in the list of
Field Collector:
Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton & Hannah Powell-Cotton (nee Brayton)
PRM Source:
Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton
Acquired:
Donated 1934
Collected Date:
27th April 1933
Description:
Annular bracelet made from eighteen or more strands of thick, wiry black giraffe hair (Pantone black 6C), wound into a roughly circular loop. These have been bound together in two places by folding the loose ends over themselves to form a thick terminal, then winding further hair tightly around and through this to form a cylinder, before tying off the ends in a neat cross design. The object is complete and intact. The external diameter of the bracelet is 75 by 74 mm, and the diameter of the end fastenings is 5 mm. Each strand in the bracelet is less than 1 mm wide, and the combined width of these strands is around 3.5 mm. The total weight is 1.3 grams.

Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah at Yambio on 27th April 1933, during a shooting expedition.

This type of bracelet was worn by women. Compare the style of this object with a giraffe hair necklace from the southern Larim (1979.20.191), which makes use of sliding grips to keep the separate strands in place, and possibly to change the diameter of the opening; see also 1934.8.72, from the Lotuko.

Rachael Sparks 25/9/2005.

Primary Documentation:
Accession Book Entry [p. 248] - MAJOR P. H. G. POWELL-COTTON , Quex Park, Birchington, E. Kent. Specimens collected by himself & Mrs Cotton, during hunting trips, 1933, viz: [...] [p. 261] 1934.8.141 - Annular bracelet made of animal hair, worn by women. ZANDE, Yambio, 27/4/1933 (885). Found unentered, accessioned 24/3/2004 [RTS].

Related Documents File - Typewritten List of "Curios Presented to Dr. Balfour by Major & Mrs. Powell-Cotton. Zande Tribe". This object appears as item 885: “Pig (?) hair bracelet (woman's), 27/4/33 Yambio, 4.34 N 28.23 E". Also contains details of a cine film 'some tribes of the Southern Sudan', taken by Powell-Cotton during this 1933 expedition, copies of which are now in the National Film and Television Archive and the Powell-Cotton Museum in Kent [RTS 14/3/2005].

Pitt Rivers Museum label - Woman's armlet, ZANDE, YAMBIO, E. SUDAN, 4.34 N 28.23 E d.d. Major Powell-Cotton, 1934. [rev:] (885) [LM 'DCF 2004-2006 What's Upstairs?' 12/10/2005]



 
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