Zande circumcision ritual
104 x 78 mm | Print gelatin silver
Date of Print:
Unknown
Previous PRM Number:
EP.A.338a
Previous Other Number:
92 5 (51) [frame 8]
Accession Number:
1998.341.338.3
Description:
In the distance circumcision initiates are carried on men's shoulders with a roll of matting over their heads, coming towards a compound where other boys are gathered, possibly in readiness for a final feast to mark the end of seclusion.
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 , Basketry
Keyword:
Mat
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)"] - 338. Circumcision Ceremonial. Carrying boys on shoulders of men. 92/5 (51)
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)"] - 338. Circumcision Ceremonial. Carrying boys on shoulders of men. 92/5 (51)
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.
Recorder:
Christopher Morton 3/11/2003 [Southern Sudan Project]
