Lango back apron

Lango back apron
Other views of this artifact:


Accession Number:
1934.8.90
Country:
Sudan
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Eastern Equatoria Logoforok
Cultural Group:
Lango
Date Made:
By 1933
Materials:
Sheep Skin Animal , Plant Fibre
Process:
Twisted , Tied
Dimensions:
L = 357 mm, W across top = 635 mm, diam cord = 1 mm [RTS 22/6/2004].
Weight:
Other Owners:
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah on 16th February 1933 during a shooting expedition.
Field Collector:
Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton & Hannah Powell-Cotton (nee Hannah Brayton Slater)
PRM Source:
Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton
Acquired:
Donated 1934
Collected Date:
16th February 1933
Description:
Piece of lamb skin with yellow hide on the inside face (Pantone 7407C), and largely white to buff coloured hair on the outer face (Pantone 7506C), with a few patches of black hair along the edges of the legs and down the spine/tail (Pantone black 6C). The hair has worn away in patches. The skin has been cut, using the original tapering shape of one front and one hind leg to form the two long arms of the apron. The ends of each arm have been pinched together, causing the hide to form folds, and have cords made of twisted plant fibre tied around them; these cords would then have been used to fasten the apron in place around the waist. The body of the apron has been cut to a roughly trapezoidal shape, with two short taps of skin left at the centre of either side representing the neck and tail of the original animal; two longer tapering flaps of skin continue from the base of the apron, which runs in a straight line between them. The object is complete and intact, although the ends of the cords are frayed and some surface hair has been lost. The apron measures 635 from arm to arm, not including the cords, and is 357 mm long, including the base flaps; the apron body is 212 mm long and 235 mm wide at its centre, while the cord has a diameter of 1 mm.

Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah at Logoforok on 16th February 1933 during a shooting expedition. This came from the Eastern Nilotic speaking Lango, not to be confused with the Lango of Uganda.

Rachael Sparks 23/08/2005.

Primary Documentation:
Accession Book Entry [p. 248] 1934 [insert] 8 [end insert] - MAJOR P. H. G. POWELL-COTTON , Quex Park, Birchington, E. Kent. Specimens collected by himself & Mrs Cotton, during hunting trips, 1933, viz: [...] [p. 256] - From the LANGO tribe, LOKOFOROK, LOMULENG & LOMO. [insert] 90 [end insert] - Man’s apron of white lamb-skin, worn at the back for dancing, LOKOFOROK (310).

Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the catalogue card [RTS 24/5/2004].

Related Documents File - Typewritten List of "Curios Presented to Dr. Balfour by Major & Mrs. Powell-Cotton. Lango Tribe". This object appears as item 310: "Apron, back (man's for dancing) white lamb skin, 16/2/33 Lokoforok, 3. 47 N 33.5 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].

?Pre-PRM label - D [or A?] 310 (brown reused card tag, tied to object; RTS 22/6/2004].

Old Pitt Rivers Museum label - Man's back-apron of white lamb-skin worn in dancing, LANGO, LOKOFOROK, E. SUDAN. 3° 47' N., 33° 5' E. d.d. Major Powell-Cotton, 1934 (310) [rectangular metal-edged tag, tied to object; RTS 22/6/2004].

Written on object -
309 301 [pencil; RTS 22/6/2004].



 
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