Consulting the Zande benge oracle
110 x 156 mm | Print gelatin silver
Date of Print:
1937 circa
Same Image As:
1998.341.680
Accession Number:
2005.111.18
Description:
An operator of the poison oracle (benge) seated on the ground (identified as Bandutua) administering poison to a fowl by holding its beak and pouring the liquid in.
Poison oracle consultations took place away from habitation, often at the edge of cultivations, so as to ensure secrecy and to avoid pollution and witchcraft.
The questioner of the oracle is sitting nearby addressing his questions to the poison.
Photographer:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Date of Photo:
1926 - 1930
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Western Equatoria Yambio
Group:
Zande
NamedPerson:
Bandutua
Publication History:
Contemporary Publication - Reproduced as Plate XIXb (facing page 292) in E.
E.
Evans-Pritchard's
Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande
(OUP 1937), with the caption "The operator holds the fowl's beak open with his left hand.
With his right hand he squeezes the poison into his beak" [CM 7/9/2005]
PRM Source:
Oxford University Press
Acquired:
Donated 2003
Other Owners:
Oxford University Press
Class:
Ritual
Keyword:
Oracle Divination
Activity:
Divining
Documentation:
Correspondence with OUP in Related Documents File
Primary Documentation:
Printer's ms pencil notes and crop marks on print reverse.
[CM 7/9/2005]
Other Information:
This print is one of twenty-eight prints handed over, along with five negs and prints retained from publication in The Azande (1971), by Anne Ashby from OUP in December 2003.
They all seem to have been made from Evans-Pritchard's negatives for publication in Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande sometime prior to 1937, and have numerous printer's comments and crop marks on the backs.
They have been accessioned separately since they were evidently printed by OUP before Evans-Pritchard's collection was donated in 1966, and since they make more sense catalogued together as a distinct collection.
[CM 7/9/2005]
Recorder:
Christopher Morton 7/9/2005 [Southern Sudan Project]
