Mandari youths with display ox
53 x 53 mm | Print gelatin silver
Date of Print:
Unknown
Previous PRM Number:
JB.10.20
Accession Number:
1998.97.380
Description:
Two Mandari youths standing beside their display oxen (sönö), one of which has large trained curving horns, the other is younger with small horns, but excellent markings of black on white.
Most Mandari cattle are light coloured with little marking, and so these mottled markings would have been highly valued.
The Mandari, in common with other cattle-keeping Nilotic peoples, prized contrasting markings on their cattle highly, and often trained the horns of their special ox to grow across the muzzle (left horn) as well as away from the muzzle (right horn).
The youth standing has decorated his face and chest with white markings to provide aesthetically pleasing effects, perhaps mimicking the white face of the ox, as well as wrinkles on its chest.
Photographer:
Jean Carlile Buxton
Date of Photo:
1950 - 1952
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Bahr el Jebel
Group:
Mandari
PRM Source:
Ronald Carlile Buxton via Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology
Acquired:
Donated 1988
Other Owners:
Jean Buxton Collection
Class:
Animal Husbandry , Body Art
Keyword:
Animal Cattle , Body Art Paint
Documentation:
See Related Documents File. Buxton field notebooks in Tylor Library.
Recorder:
Christopher Morton 18/3/2005 [Southern Sudan Project]
