Nuer mock combat at dance

56 x 54 mm | Print gelatin silver

Condition:

Stained right side [19/11/86 EE] Blue crop lines at bottom [Chris Morton 21/5/2004]

Date of Print:

Unknown

Previous PRM Number:

EP.N.I.62

Previous Other Number:

02 6

Accession Number:

1998.355.31.2

Description:

A large group at a dance with two youths in the foreground 'duelling' with spears locked together in mock combat and the right hand raised with a club. This sort of war play was a common feature of such dance gatherings where initiated youths of differing villages faced each other in mock running battles as a show of group prowess. Dances were also significant occasions for courtship. Other images of this dance are described as Jikul, a lineage or clan name not associated with one particular tribal territory, but which was a significant lineage around Nyueny and surrounding villages in Leek country where Evans-Pritchard conducted the bulk of his fieldwork in western Nuerland, but also a significant residential grouping among the Western Jikany.

Photographer:

Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard

Date of Photo:

1936 October - November

Region:

[Southern Sudan] Wahda

Group:

Nuer Western Jikany Jikul

Publication History:

Contemporary Publication - Reproduced as Plate V (facing page 85) in E. E. Evans-Pritchard's Kinship and Marriage Among the Nuer (Clarendon Press, Oxford 1990 [1951]) with the caption 'Duelling at a dance' [Chris Morton 21/5/2004]

Notes:

Archive context - Other photographs, also depicting a dance, with the film number 02 6 are identified as Jikul clan, a significant lineage of the Western Jikany, as well as the Karlual (Leek). [Chris Morton 21/5/2004]

PRM Source:

Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard

Acquired:

Donated 1966

Other Owners:

E. E. Evans-Pritchard Collection

Class:

Dance , Weapon , Social Life

Keyword:

Dance Accessory , Spear , Club

Activity:

Dancing

Event:

Dance

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 I, ms ink] - 62. Dancing - W. Nuer

Note on print reverse ms pencil - "02 6 W. Jikany [numerous printer's marks]" & print front border ms ink - "NUER I/62"

Recorder:

Christopher Morton [21/5/2004] [Southern Sudan Project]