Moro Meza grave in homestead

Moro Meza grave in homestead
103 x 75 mm | Print gelatin silver
Condition:
Sulphide staining [EE 1989]
Date of Print:
Unknown
Previous PRM Number:
EP.M.8
Previous Other Number:
VII 5


Accession Number:
1998.345.8
Description:
The grave of a man or woman in the centre of a homestead with a hut nearby, consisting of a small mound of earth with large slabs of stone leaning against each other over it. Two hoes have been placed at the foot, along with a ?metal bar. One larger slab is placed as a pointer, towards the east for a man's burial and to the west for a woman, indicating the rising (male) or setting (female) sun. Such megalithic grave markers were peculiar to the Moro Meza, and was not generally found among other so-called Moro groups neighbouring.
Photographer:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Date of Photo:
1927
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Western Equatoria Amadi District
Group:
Moro Meza
Publication History:
Contemporary Publication - Reproduced as Plate LIb (facing page 486) in C.G. & B. Seligman's Pagan Tribes of the Nilotic Sudan (London, Routledge 1932), with the caption 'Moro, megalithic graves' [Chris Morton 1/3/2004]
PRM Source:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Acquired:
Donated 1966
Other Owners:
E. E. Evans-Pritchard Collection
Class:
Death , Agriculture and Horticulture , Tool
Keyword:
Grave , Grave Marker , Megalith
Documentation:
Original catalogue lists in Manuscript Collections. Additional material in related documents files. [CM 27/9/2005]
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.

Note on print reverse ms pencil - "Grave VII 5"

Notes on card mount ms pencil - "SS overall 8.89"
Other Information:
Ethnographic context - In Megalithic Grave-Monuments in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and other parts of East Africa, Antiquity, IX, No.34 1935, page 156 E. E. Evans-Pritchard notes that '[t]he structure of the pyramid type of grave in Mise country ... consist[s] of slabs of flat white granite leaning together in pairs one above another with one slab much taller than the rest pointing either to the rising or the setting sun. If the grave contains a man the stone pointer leans to the east, whereas if it houses a woman it points to the west; because when a man rises from sleep he shades his eyes and looks to the rising sun which marks the beginning of a hunter's day; whereas when a woman wakes from sleep in the afternoon, she shades her eyes to the west, for when the sun goes down in the west she prepares the evening meal.' A photograph of the same grave from a slightly different angle appears as Fig 2 (facing page 151) of the same article with the caption "Moro Mise Pyramid Grave-Monument".[Chris Morton 26/2/2004]
Recorder:
Christopher Morton 1/3/2004 [Southern Sudan Project]
 
Funded by Arts and Humanities Research Council
Help | About | Bibliography