Consulting the Zande benge oracle
110 x 158 mm | Print gelatin silver
Date of Print:
1937 circa
Same Image As:
1998.341.246
Accession Number:
2005.111.4
Description:
An operator of the poison oracle (benge), a boy identified as wiri dawiri Tupoi i.e.
Tupoi's sister's son, sitting on the ground with his head resting on his hand.
He looks down towards a fowl that has been given benge poison.
Beside him is an open weave basket containing other fowls to be used with the oracle.
Photographer:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Date of Photo:
1926 - 1930
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Western Equatoria Yambio
Group:
Zande
NamedPerson:
wiri dawiri Tupoi
Publication History:
Contemporary Publication - Reproduced as Plate XXa (facing page 300) in E.
E.
Evans-Pritchard's
Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande
(OUP 1937), with the caption "The operator contemplates the chicken during the address to the oracle" [CM 7/9/2005]
PRM Source:
Oxford University Press
Acquired:
Donated 2003
Other Owners:
Oxford University Press
Class:
Religion , Basketry
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.
One ms pencil note "force up this portion as much as possible" (roughly circled).
[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]
