Zande rubbing board oracle
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1940.12.608 .1 .2
Country:
Sudan
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Western Equatoria Yambio District
Cultural Group:
Zande
Date Made:
By 1930
Materials:
Wood Plant
Process:
Carved , Incised , Stained
Dimensions:
[.1] Ht = 38, W = 48, L = 115, W handle = 19.5 mm. [.2] Ht = 34.1, handle top = 15.4 by 14.4, body top = 46.4 by 46.7, th body = 9.6 mm [RTS 26/8/2004].
Weight:
[both parts] 37.2 g, [.1] 25.4 g, [.2] 11.7 g.
Local Name:
iwa
Other Owners:
Charles Gabriel Seligman
Field Collector:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
PRM Source:
Charles Gabriel Seligman or Brenda Zara Seligman
Acquired:
Donated 1940
Collected Date:
1927 - 1930
Description:
Rubbing board oracle consisting of two separate parts, each carved from a single piece of wood and both complete.
1940.12.608.1 is the lower part, and consists of a flat upper surface, scored with lightly incised crosshatching.
This is nearly circular in plan view, but becomes pointed at one side where a long handle is attached.
This handle flares out at the sides and then in again, creating an uneven diamond shape that has an elongated lower body tapering to a blunted end.
It has been shaved along the sides and top have to create a series of flat planes.
The sides and underside of the table are flat.
Two short and slightly tapering legs splay out from the latter, with circular sections and flat bases.
These work together with the handle, which extends to touch the ground, to provide a stable base for the object - although the table rests on the inside edges of the feet rather than on their flat bases.
The upper surface is a light yellow colour (Pantone 7509C); the rest of the object has been stained a dark reddish brown to brown (Pantone black 7C).
The table is 38 mm high, 48 mm wide and 115 mm long, including the handle, which has a maximum width of 19.5 mm.
It weighs 25.4 grams.
1940.12.608.2 is the upper part of the object, and consists of a cylindrical handle with flat top, decorated with 2 incised lines at right angles to one another. This handle tapers out slightly to its base, where it joins onto a disc-shaped body with flat upper surface, sides and underside. The underside represents the working surface, which would be placed onto the top of the table and rubbed to and fro; the degree of resistance would tell the diviner the outcome of the question being put to the test. The handle top and flat body underside have been left a light yellow colour (Pantone 7509C), while the rest of the body has been stained dark reddish brown to brown; this stain is also let into the incised decoration to make it stand out from the light surface into which it has been cut (Pantone black 7C). The object has a height of 34.1 mm; the handle top measures 15.4 by 14.4 mm, and the body is 46.4 mm long, 46.7 mm wide and 9.6 mm thick. This part has a weight of 11.7 grams. Tool marks are visible on both objects, particularly around the sides of the circular legs and handle.
Collected by Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard in the Yambio district during his fieldwork amongst the Zande, which took place during 1927, part of 1928 and 1929 and for several months during 1930; given to Charles Gabriel Seligman and donated to the Pitt Rivers Museum on his death in 1940.
This type of object is known as iwa in Zande, and was used in divining. The upper part, which is said to be ‘male’, is rubbed to and fro over the lower ‘female’ part, after a question has been asked of the oracle; the answer given depends on whether the upper part slides or sticks to the surface under the friction.
For the definitive account of the Zande rubbing-board oracle, see E.E. Evans-Pritchard, 1937, Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande (Oxford: Clarendon Press), pp. 362-74. Larken also discusses these, and adds that they are cut out of the wood of the dama tree (P.M. Larken, 1926, "An Account of the Zande", Sudan Notes and Records IX no. 1, p. 52).
Two other rubbing-board oracles collected by Evans-Pritchard are known. One was donated to the PRM by Evans-Pritchard in 1931 (1931.66.36), the other was given by him to the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (their 22.2269; see also 27.2288 'magic of oracle').
Rachael Sparks and Jeremy Coote 17/9/2005.
1940.12.608.2 is the upper part of the object, and consists of a cylindrical handle with flat top, decorated with 2 incised lines at right angles to one another. This handle tapers out slightly to its base, where it joins onto a disc-shaped body with flat upper surface, sides and underside. The underside represents the working surface, which would be placed onto the top of the table and rubbed to and fro; the degree of resistance would tell the diviner the outcome of the question being put to the test. The handle top and flat body underside have been left a light yellow colour (Pantone 7509C), while the rest of the body has been stained dark reddish brown to brown; this stain is also let into the incised decoration to make it stand out from the light surface into which it has been cut (Pantone black 7C). The object has a height of 34.1 mm; the handle top measures 15.4 by 14.4 mm, and the body is 46.4 mm long, 46.7 mm wide and 9.6 mm thick. This part has a weight of 11.7 grams. Tool marks are visible on both objects, particularly around the sides of the circular legs and handle.
Collected by Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard in the Yambio district during his fieldwork amongst the Zande, which took place during 1927, part of 1928 and 1929 and for several months during 1930; given to Charles Gabriel Seligman and donated to the Pitt Rivers Museum on his death in 1940.
This type of object is known as iwa in Zande, and was used in divining. The upper part, which is said to be ‘male’, is rubbed to and fro over the lower ‘female’ part, after a question has been asked of the oracle; the answer given depends on whether the upper part slides or sticks to the surface under the friction.
For the definitive account of the Zande rubbing-board oracle, see E.E. Evans-Pritchard, 1937, Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande (Oxford: Clarendon Press), pp. 362-74. Larken also discusses these, and adds that they are cut out of the wood of the dama tree (P.M. Larken, 1926, "An Account of the Zande", Sudan Notes and Records IX no. 1, p. 52).
Two other rubbing-board oracles collected by Evans-Pritchard are known. One was donated to the PRM by Evans-Pritchard in 1931 (1931.66.36), the other was given by him to the Cambridge University Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology (their 22.2269; see also 27.2288 'magic of oracle').
Rachael Sparks and Jeremy Coote 17/9/2005.
Primary Documentation:
Accession book entry
[p.
468] - '
The late Professor C.G.
SELIGMAN, M.D., F.R.S
.
Miscellaneous collections presented in part by himself, June 1940, and in part, after his death, by Mrs.
B.
Z.
Seligman, October, 1940.
[p.
502] 1940.12.608 - Rubbing-board oracle,
iwa
,
consisting of a miniature wooden table with a cover.
AZANDE, YAMBIO DISTRICT, BAHR EL GHAZAL PROV., A[nglo].E[gyptian].
SUDAN.
Colld.
by Dr E.E.
Evans-Pritchard.
For drawings of
iwa
and descritpions of
iwa
magic, see C.G.
and B.Z.
Seligman, Pagan Tribes of the Nilotic Sudan (1932), p.
531, and E.E.
Evans-Pritchard, Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande (1937), p.
362.
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the tribes catalogue card [JC 11/6/1996].
Old Pitt Rivers Museum label - Rubbing-board oracle, iwa , AZANDE, YAMBIO DIST., BAHR EL GHAZAL. Colld by Dr E.E. Evans Pritchard, d.d. Dr C.G. Seligman [tied to object; RTS 26/8/2004].
Written on object - [.2] Azande magic E.P. [RTS 26/8/2004].
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the tribes catalogue card [JC 11/6/1996].
Old Pitt Rivers Museum label - Rubbing-board oracle, iwa , AZANDE, YAMBIO DIST., BAHR EL GHAZAL. Colld by Dr E.E. Evans Pritchard, d.d. Dr C.G. Seligman [tied to object; RTS 26/8/2004].
Written on object - [.2] Azande magic E.P. [RTS 26/8/2004].
