Bongo woman's grave

103 x 75 mm | Print gelatin silver

Date of Print:

Unknown

Previous PRM Number:

EP.B.1

Previous Other Number:

66 5

Accession Number:

1998.343.1.2

Description:

A stone mound erected over a woman's grave (dodo) with two carved posts tallying the number of large or dangerous animals killed by her husband as a means of honouring her. The post on the right has a tin basin affixed to the top, possibly for receiving offerings.

Photographer:

Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard

Date of Photo:

1929 March

Region:

[Southern Sudan] Warab Tonj

Group:

Bongo

Publication History:

Contemporary Publication - Reproduced as Plate IIIa (facing page 38) in E. E. Evans-Pritchard's article "The Bongo", Sudan Notes and Records, Vol.XII Part I 1929 pp1-61), with the caption 'Bongo woman's grave. Basin on top of post'. [Chris Morton 13/1/2004]

PRM Source:

Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard

Acquired:

Donated 1966

Other Owners:

E. E. Evans-Pritchard Collection

Class:

Death , Carving

Keyword:

Grave , Grave Marker , Memorial

Primary Documentation:

PRM Accession Records - Accession Book Entry [p. 98] 1966.27 [1 - 24] G[ift] PROFESSOR E. E. EVANS-PRITCHARD; INST. OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY, 51 BANBURY RD. OXFORD - 1966.27.19 - S. SUDAN, DARFUNG. VARIOUS TRIBES. Box of negatives in envelopes, [1 - 242] & 1966.27.20 - Box of prints of these negatives [refers to object 1966.27.19] [1 - 242], in envelopes.

Notes on print/mount - "Bongo shrine 66/5"

Other Information:

Ethnographic context - These two grave posts are shown as drawn illustrations either side of another post in Fig.32 (page 472) of C.G. & B. Seligman's Pagan Tribes of the Nilotic Sudan (London, Routledge 1932), with the caption 'Notched tally posts on Bongo graves (from photographs by Evans-Pritchard); the expansion at the top of the right-hand figure is a tin basin.' [Chris Morton 13/1/2004] Ethnographic context - In "The Bongo" (Sudan Notes and Records Vol.XII Part I 1929 page 38) E. E. Evans-Pritchard notes that 'Even in the case of women, who do not hunt animals, one sees such posts erected on their graves. These are put up by her husband, who notches thereon the animals which he has killed.' [Chris Morton 13/1/2004]

Recorder:

Christopher Morton 13/1/2004 [Southern Sudan Project]