Larim waist ornament

Larim waist ornament
Other views of this artifact:


Accession Number:
1940.7.076
Country:
Sudan
Region:
[Southern Sudan]
Cultural Group:
Larim [Longarim] [Narim]
Date Made:
By 1940
Materials:
Animal Leather Skin
Process:
Scraped , Decorated
Dimensions:
Extended L = 1050, Max W = 91, min W = 15, th = 5 mm [RTS 30/3/2005].
Weight:
111.8 g
Other Owners:
Samuel P. Powell
Field Collector:
Samuel P. Powell
PRM Source:
Samuel P. Powell
Acquired:
Loaned July 1940
Collected Date:
By 1940
Description:
Waist ornament made from a piece of leather cut to have an elongated lentoid-shaped body with sides curving in to form a narrow rectangular tie at either end. The underside is a mid brown colour (Pantone 7504C). The upper surface has been decorated by marking out the edges of 2 broad bands along its length with cuts, then scraping down the skin inside these to expose the lighter yellow colour underneath (Pantone 465C). This has left the original, darker brown colour of the surface on the side ties, as a narrow frame around the edge of the body, and as a angular, meandering line running along the centre (Pantone black 4C). This brown has subsequently begun to wear away in patches across the whole surface. The belt is nearly complete, but it has been broken off at both ends. It has a current weight of 111.8 grams and is 1050 mm long, fully extended, with a maximum 91 width of mm at the centre, a minimum width of 15 mm at the end, and a thickness of 5 mm.

Collected by Samuel P. Powell and loaned to the Pitt Rivers Museum in 1940. Powell called the group he obtained this from as the Boya
, but according to Patti Langton, this is actually the name given to the Larim by neighbouring Toposa as well as the administration; The Didinga call this group the Longarim, but they call themselves the Larim (ethnologue suggests that Narim is the term they use). They are a non-Nilotic, pastoral group that now live in permanent mountain villages, and are part of the Didinga-Longarim-Murle language group (http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=LOH).

Rachael Sparks 8/9/2005.

Primary Documentation:
Accession Book Entry [Loans II, p. 308] - ESTATE OF S.P. POWELL, C/O N.H. HASLAM, Esq. Manager, Westminster Bank, Stony Stratford, Bucks. Collected by himself. Data from his labels and notes. [p. 312] From the BOYA (neighbours of the DIDINGA). 1940.7.076 - Stomach belt of leather, bands on edges and centre fret pattern made by leaving hair.

Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the catalogue card [RTS 12/2/2004].

Related Documents File - Appears on undated typed list: "Boya stomach belt". List is annotated by hand on back: "List of Curios" and "Far from complete" [RTS 16/12/2003].

Pitt Rivers Museum label - Stomach belt BOYA [illegible deleted text on following line], ? ANGLO-EGYPTIAN SUDAN (neighbours of the DIDINGA). S.P. Powell, 1940.7.076 [brown luggage tag, tied to object, RTS 30/3/2005].



 
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