Zande spirit-shrine in compound
104 x 78 mm | Print gelatin silver
There are records relating to alternative images that we do not have scans for in the database:
1998.341.391.1 - Negative film nitrate , (104 x 78 mm)
1998.341.391.1 - Negative film nitrate , (104 x 78 mm)
Date of Print:
Unknown
Previous PRM Number:
EP.A.391a
Previous Other Number:
92 2 (30) [frame 11]
Accession Number:
1998.341.391.3
Description:
A tuka or spirit shrine in the centre of a compound, its ends bound toward the top, where offerings are made to ancestral spirits to ensure the welfare of the inhabitants.
Medicines can be seen growing near its base, plants such as ranga ambiri (against wild animals) and sarawa (food-medicine) are frequently sited there.
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:
Religion , Ritual , Plant Use
Keyword:
Shrine
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)"] - 391. Spirit shrine in Centre of homestead. 92/2 (30)
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)"] - 391. Spirit shrine in Centre of homestead. 92/2 (30)
Other Information:
In Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande (OUP 1937, page 441) E.
E.
Evans-Pritchard states that 'Medicines which are domesticated are planted around the ghost-shrine, and when a new shrine is erected medicines are often buried at its base and ghosts and medicines are alike addressed to ensure the welfare of the inmates of the homestead.' In The Azande (London AIA, 1953 page 94) P.
Baxter & A.
Butt state that 'When a Zande establishes a new homestead he erects in the centre of it a shrine (tuka) to the spirit (atoro or atolo) of his father...
[b]efore being set up, the stake is rubbed with ashes from the new homestead's first fire and soon after its erection a sacrifice made at it.
A selection of first fruits and the liver of the first animal killed by the homestead head are usually placed in the basket, but otherwise offerings are not made regularly, except perhaps in times of dearth or adversity, or when disease is attributed to the anger of the spirits.' This account is based upon C.R.
Legae's article "Les procedés d'augere et de divination chez les Azande" (Congo, 1921, I) and so may or may not relate to practices related to the tuka shrine among the Azande of the Sudan.
Recorder:
Christopher Morton 5/11/2003 [Southern Sudan Project]
