Nuer grass shrine
58 x 55 mm | Print gelatin silver
Date of Print:
Unknown
Previous PRM Number:
EP.N.IX.52
Previous Other Number:
40 4
Accession Number:
1998.355.423.2
Description:
A clump of grasses near a section of cultivation, bound half way as part of a rite known as tuc.
Nuer knot grasses either since they have injured their 'bad' or inauspicious foot on the path and wish to ask God to retain the badness in the grass, or to ask God for success on an enterprise involving a journey, such as trading.
Based upon the film number the image seems to have been taken in 1935 in Eastern Jikany country.
Photographer:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Date of Photo:
1935
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Upper Nile Nyanding River (mouth) Mancom
Group:
Nuer Eastern Jikany Gaajok
PRM Source:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Acquired:
Donated 1966
Other Owners:
E. E. Evans-Pritchard Collection
Class:
Religion , Ritual
Keyword:
Shrine
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 IX, ms ink] - 52. Shrine - grass
Note on print reverse ms pencil - "40 4" & print front border ms ink - "NUER IX/52"
Manual Catalogues [index taken from album book IX, ms ink] - 52. Shrine - grass
Note on print reverse ms pencil - "40 4" & print front border ms ink - "NUER IX/52"
Other Information:
In E.
E.
Evans-Pritchard's Nuer Religion (Oxford University Press 1974 [1957]), page 23, he notes that 'the petition a man on a journey makes to God as he knots grasses together at the side of a path, [is] a practice Nuer call tuc.
A man may do this because he has knocked his 'bad foot' against a stump in the path, for this presages misfortune, which can be avoided by asking God to let the badness remain in the grass so that the traveller may continue his journey with fortune...
Nuer tie grass in the same manner to ensure success in any enterprise for which a journey is undertaken..' [Chris Morton 15/6/2004]
Recorder:
Christopher Morton [16/7/2004] [Southern Sudan Project]
