Zande spirit-shrine in homestead
110 x 158 mm | Print gelatin silver
Date of Print:
1937 circa
Same Image As:
1998.341.141
Accession Number:
2005.111.2
Description:
A tuka or spirit shrine outside a hut with a child beyond, consisting of a split stick, the ends bound at the top and a straw hat on top, and ritual offerings below with magico-religious plants (ranga ambiri (against wild animals) and possibly also sarawa (food-medicine)) growing around the base.
Such shrines are sites for medicines or ngua that are invoked to ensure ancestral (spirit) favour for the inhabitants of the homestead.
Photographer:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Date of Photo:
1926 - 1930
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Western Equatoria Yambio
Group:
Zande
Publication History:
Contemporary Publication - Reproduced as Plate XXIIIb (facing page 358) in
Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande
(OUP 1937), with the caption "A ghost-shrine with medicines growing at its foot" [CM 7/9/2005]
PRM Source:
Oxford University Press
Acquired:
Donated 2003
Other Owners:
Oxford University Press
Class:
Religion , Ritual Object , Shelter
Keyword:
Religious Offering , Building House , Shrine
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]
