Nuer fertility ceremony

56 x 54 mm | Print gelatin silver

Date of Print:

Unknown

Previous PRM Number:

EP.N.II.48

Previous Other Number:

4 [1]

Accession Number:

1998.355.73.2

Description:

At the entrance to a grass hut a boy ritually offers the boiled hump of an ox killed by soffocation on the end of a fishing spear to the people inside, a young married couple. The female diviner leaning beside the boy asks 'what will you give me?', to which the occupants reply, 'a brown calf'. Beside the boy are other small children and an older age-mate of the husband. The ceremony, known as gorot, was done to ensure that a child would be born to the couple even though she had been married at an early age, probably before menstruation. The Nuer believe that the payment of cattle for marriage in such circumstances may cause barreness unless a gorot ceremony is carried out.

Photographer:

Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard

Date of Photo:

1936 October - November

Region:

[Southern Sudan] Wahda ?Nyueny village

Group:

Nuer ?Leek Karlual

Notes:

There are 18 Rolleiflex exposures labelled as film number '4' – comparison of the number 4s on the print reverse however shows that they fall into two sets of nine negatives, the gorot series and another series. [CM 19/10/2007]

PRM Source:

Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard

Acquired:

Donated 1966

Other Owners:

E. E. Evans-Pritchard Collection

Class:

Ritual , Shelter , Ritual Object , Clothing

Keyword:

Building House , Textile , Spear

Activity:

Ritual Activity

Event:

Ceremony Fertility

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 II, ms ink] - 48. ngorot ceremony

Note on print reverse ms pencil - "4 gorok" & print front border ms ink - "NUER II/48"

Other Information:

In Nuer Religion (Oxford University Press 1974 [1957], page 217-8, E. E. Evans-Pritchard describes the ceremony he witnessed in some detail. In particular he notes that 'When a girl is espoused early in life, probably before the commencement of the menses, the premature payment of bridewealth may cause her to be barren unless a special ceremony is performed. In western Nuerland, where I saw it, it is called gorot.. An ox was thrown and its forelegs and back legs tied in pairs. It was then slowly suffocated, grass being first pushed up its anus with a stick, and then into its mouth and nostrils (Plate III).' [Chris Morton 1/7/2004]

Recorder:

Christopher Morton [25/5/2004] [Southern Sudan Project]