Nuer spirit-shrine
58 x 55 mm | Print gelatin silver
Date of Print:
Unknown
Previous PRM Number:
EP.N.IV.96
Previous Other Number:
2
Accession Number:
1998.355.196.2
Description:
A shrine within a homestead set up to appease a spirit, almost certainly nai,which had possessed a youth called Galuak, brother of Evans-Pritchard's servant Nhial.
Nai was considered one the most inferior of the air spirits, associated with ostriches.
A prophet of nai had divined this spirit as responsible for the youth's sickness a year earlier but now the spirit, speaking through Galuak's father, demanded more sacrifical cattle from Nhial's wages.
Galuak's paternal uncle set up this shrine with a wild date branch planted next to a shrinEvans-Pritchardost, a bunch of grass and a new buor ritual firescreen near to the hut.
The horn of a goat sacrificed by the prophet is also just visible hanging from a branch.
Photographer:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Date of Photo:
1936 October - November
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Wahda Nyueny
Group:
Nuer Leek Karlual
NamedPerson:
Galuak, Nhial
PRM Source:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Acquired:
Donated 1966
Other Owners:
E. E. Evans-Pritchard Collection
Class:
Religion , Ritual
Keyword:
[Shrine]
Event:
[Sacrifice]
Documentation:
Original catalogue lists in Manuscript Collections. Additional material in related documents files. [CM 27/9/2005]
Primary Documentation:
Accession Book Entry [p.
98] 1966.27 [1 - 24] G[ift] PROFESSOR E.
E.
EVANS-PRITCHARD; INST.
OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY, 51 BANBURY RD.
OXFORD 1966.27.1-16 S.
SUDAN.
NUER TRIBE.
Sixteen negative albums containing negatives
and
prints of photographs taken by donor during field-work.
All listed in albums.
Added Accession Book Entry - [p.
98 in right hand column, in pencil] Catalogue room.
Manual Catalogues [index taken from album book IV, ms ink] - 96. Spirit-shrine
Note on print reverse ms pencil - "2 W. Nuer" & print front border ms ink - "NUER IV/96"
Manual Catalogues [index taken from album book IV, ms ink] - 96. Spirit-shrine
Note on print reverse ms pencil - "2 W. Nuer" & print front border ms ink - "NUER IV/96"
Other Information:
Evans-Pritchard discusses the events of Galuak's possession by nai in some detail in Nuer Religion (Oxford University Press 1974 [1957]), page 34-39.
In particular on page 38 he notes that 'Galuak's paternal uncle, Dol, went to chop down a branch of the 'wild date' (Balanites aegyptiaca), a tree to which nai is said to be very partial, to erect it as a shrine (riek) to the spirit near the hut.
When it had been erected a clump of tuat grass was dug up by the roots and planted by the side of the branch in a hole first filled with water, it being the dry season...
Finally a buor, a mud mound in the shape of an ordinary kitchen windscreen, was erected near the shrine.' [Chris Morton 16/6/2004]
Recorder:
Christopher Morton [17/6/2004] [Southern Sudan Project]
