Zande circumcision initiates
104 x 78 mm | Print gelatin silver
There are records relating to alternative images that we do not have scans for in the database:
1998.341.16.1 - Negative film nitrate , (104 x 78 mm)
1998.341.16.1 - Negative film nitrate , (104 x 78 mm)
Date of Print:
Unknown
Previous PRM Number:
EP.A.16
Previous Other Number:
4 (139) [frame 11]
Accession Number:
1998.341.16.2
Description:
Group of circumcision initiates with faces and arms raised to the sky (some pointing upwards), wearing penis-guards (a twisted loop of fibre placed around the penis and secured around the waist).
Photographer:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Date of Photo:
1927 - 1930
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Western Equatoria Yambio
Group:
Zande
PRM Source:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Acquired:
Donated 1966
Other Owners:
E. E. Evans-Pritchard Collection
Class:
Ritual , [Music]
Keyword:
Ornament Body
Activity:
Singing , Gesturing Hand , Gesturing Head
Event:
Ceremony Circumcision
Documentation:
Original catalogue lists in Manuscript Collections. Additional material in related documents files. [CM 27/9/2005]
Primary Documentation:
PRM Accession Records - [1966.27.21] G PROFESSOR E.
E.
EVANS-PRITCHARD; INST.
OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY, 51 BANBURY RD.
OXFORD - S.
SUDAN, AZANDE TRIBE.
Box of negatives in envelopes.
Nos.
1 - 400
Added Accession Book Entry - [In pencil in column] Catalogue room.
[1966.27.23] G PROFESSOR E. E. EVANS-PRITCHARD; INST. OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY, 51 BANBURY RD. OXFORD - S. SUDAN, AZANDE TRIBE. Box of prints in envelopes, nos. 1 - 400 (prints of negatives in 1966.27.21)
Manual Catalogues [typewritten, entitled "Zande Photographs (E-P)"] - 16. Circumcision ceremonial. (Showing boys with penis-guards singing with arms raised above heads). 4 (139)
Added Accession Book Entry - [In pencil in column] Catalogue room.
[1966.27.23] G PROFESSOR E. E. EVANS-PRITCHARD; INST. OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY, 51 BANBURY RD. OXFORD - S. SUDAN, AZANDE TRIBE. Box of prints in envelopes, nos. 1 - 400 (prints of negatives in 1966.27.21)
Manual Catalogues [typewritten, entitled "Zande Photographs (E-P)"] - 16. Circumcision ceremonial. (Showing boys with penis-guards singing with arms raised above heads). 4 (139)
Other Information:
In The Azande (OUP, 1971) p.113 E.
E.
Evans-Pritchard notes that 'when Czekanowski carried out his researches in the years 1907-8 circumcision was in process of being introduced and had indeed become so much the fashion that adults were undergoing the operation...
It is remarkable that in so short a time the practice had come to be regarded as so much a Zande custom that aboro pito 'the uncircumcised', had become a scornful epithet used in reference to other peoples....
My informants said that it [circumcision] came to them from the Amadi...
Mgr Lagae says that the Azande of the south were initiated into the practice by the Mangbetu and the Abarambo, those of the north by the Amadi.' P.
Baxter & A.
Butt (London AIA, 1953 pages 73-4) discuss C.R.
Lagae's published accounts of circumcision among the Azande, noting that it takes place near a stream and away from settlement, the period of seclusion being about two months and the boys residing in specially made huts there.
The period is brought to a close with a feast and dancing, after which the boy takes a new name and social position.
See also [1998.341.20 & .168] [Chris Morton 16/10/2003]
Recorder:
Christopher Morton 7/10/2003 [Southern Sudan Project]
