Lango earrings
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1934.8.93 .1 .2
Country:
Sudan
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Eastern Equatoria Logoforok
Cultural Group:
Lango
Date Made:
By 1933
Materials:
Aluminium Metal , ?Tin Metal
Process:
Hammered
Dimensions:
1934.8.93.1: L = 9.5 mm, W = 9 mm, Ht = 6.7 mm, Th metal = 1 mm; 1934.8.93.2: L = 9.5 mm, W = 9 mm, Ht = 7 mm, Th metal = 1 mm [RTS 12/5/2004].
Weight:
Each weighs 0.6 g
Local Name:
torokom
Other Owners:
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife on 16th February 1933 during a shooting expedition
Field Collector:
Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton & Hannah Powell-Cotton (nee Brayton)
PRM Source:
Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton
Acquired:
Donated 1934
Collected Date:
16th February 1933
Description:
A pair of small penannular earrings, very similar in shape and size to one another.
Each has been formed from a short aluminium strip, 1 mm thick, with flat ends and an angular ridge running along the centre of the length.
This has been bent into a slightly oval loop with open ends.
The upper and lower surfaces were then hammered flat, producing a stud with a squat biconical body with angular carination running around its centre.
Both are complete and intact, currently a metallic grey colour (Pantone 420C).
There are some light scratches on the surface of 1934.8.93.1; this stud measures 9.5 by 9 mm across its body, has a height of 6.7 mm, and its ends are between 1.5 and 2 mm apart.
1934.8.93.2 measures 9.5 by 9 mm across its body, has a height of 7 mm, and its ends are 1.5 mm apart.
Each stud weighs 0.6 grams.
These similarities in shape, size and weight suggests that the earrings were manufactured together and intended to be worn as a pair.
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah at Logoforok on 16th February 1933, during a shooting expedition.
These earrings were worn by a man, and are known as torokom.
Driberg described the methods of wearing earrings amongst the Lango of Uganda as follows: ‘The ears are pierced on the edge of the cartilage in twelve to fifteen places, and metal rings, sometimes plain, sometimes mounted with a blue bead, are inserted. A small plug of wood or a large earring is worn in a hole pierced in the lobe of the ear, but it is not a practice to distend the lobe in any way.' (J.H. Driberg, 1923, The Lango, p. 62). The Lango that Powell-Cotton were eastern Nilotic speaking Lango from the Sudan.
Rachael Sparks 24/9/2005.
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah at Logoforok on 16th February 1933, during a shooting expedition.
These earrings were worn by a man, and are known as torokom.
Driberg described the methods of wearing earrings amongst the Lango of Uganda as follows: ‘The ears are pierced on the edge of the cartilage in twelve to fifteen places, and metal rings, sometimes plain, sometimes mounted with a blue bead, are inserted. A small plug of wood or a large earring is worn in a hole pierced in the lobe of the ear, but it is not a practice to distend the lobe in any way.' (J.H. Driberg, 1923, The Lango, p. 62). The Lango that Powell-Cotton were eastern Nilotic speaking Lango from the Sudan.
Rachael Sparks 24/9/2005.
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] 93 [end insert] -
Torokom
, pair of small aluminium earrings worn by a man, ib[idem] [LOKOFOROK] (346).
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 346: "Pair very small ear-rings (male) very small aluminium band, native name Torokom , 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].
Old Pitt Rivers Museum label - (346) torokom , pair of earrings (man's). LANGO, LOKOFOROK, E. SUDAN, 3 47' N, 25 5' E. d.d. Major Powell Cotton, 1934 [on base of circular box in which the two earrings are stored, still with object; RTS 12/5/2004].
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 346: "Pair very small ear-rings (male) very small aluminium band, native name Torokom , 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].
Old Pitt Rivers Museum label - (346) torokom , pair of earrings (man's). LANGO, LOKOFOROK, E. SUDAN, 3 47' N, 25 5' E. d.d. Major Powell Cotton, 1934 [on base of circular box in which the two earrings are stored, still with object; RTS 12/5/2004].
