Zande medicine shelter

104 x 78 mm | Negative film nitrate

There are records relating to alternative images that we do not have scans for in the database:
1998.341.318.2 - Print gelatin silver , (104 x 78 mm)
1998.341.318.3 - Print gelatin silver , (104 x 78 mm)

Date of Print:

Unknown

Previous PRM Number:

EP.A.318

Previous Other Number:

92 1 (46) [frame 9]

Accession Number:

1998.341.318.1

Description:

A small grass medicine shelter set within a garden. Since medicines to protect crops (such as bagbuduma) are vulnerable to damp and cold they were frequently placed in such shelters to protect them, or covered by an inverted pot or in the hollow of a tree.

Photographer:

Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard

Date of Photo:

1927 - 1930

Region:

[Southern Sudan] Western Equatoria Yambio

Group:

Zande

PRM Source:

Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard

Acquired:

Donated 1966

Other Owners:

E. E. Evans-Pritchard Collection

Class:

Shelter , Religion , Ritual

Activity:

Ritual Activity

Documentation:

Original catalogue lists in Manuscript Collections. Additional material in related documents files. [CM 27/9/2005]

Primary Documentation:

PRM Accession Records - [1966.27.21] G PROFESSOR E. E. EVANS-PRITCHARD; INST. OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY, 51 BANBURY RD. OXFORD - S. SUDAN, AZANDE TRIBE. Box of negatives in envelopes. Nos. 1 - 400
Added Accession Book Entry - [In pencil in column] Catalogue room.
[1966.27.23] G PROFESSOR E. E. EVANS-PRITCHARD; INST. OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY, 51 BANBURY RD. OXFORD - S. SUDAN, AZANDE TRIBE. Box of prints in envelopes, nos. 1 - 400 (prints of negatives in 1966.27.21)

Manual Catalogues [typewritten, entitled "Zande Photographs (E-P)"] - 318. Medicine hut in gardens. 92/1 (46)

Note on negative m/s ink - "46"

Other Information:

In Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande (OUP 1937, page 433) E. E. Evans-Pritchard notes that 'Medicine huts... are often to be seen in homesteads and at the sides of paths where they traverse cultivations.' On page 461-2 he also notes that since medicines are destroyed by cold and damp, 'important medicines made in the open are generally protected from rain by a small grass shelter, or by an inverted pot, or are hidden in the hole of a tree.' On page 461 he also states that 'a man places medicine in his cultivation, perhaps ngbasu (bagbuduma) medicine, and waits. Witches are frightened to go near his crops. The crops flourish on account of the medicine, for witchcraft departs from them.' In their Zande and English Dictionary (London, The Sheldon Press 1952 [1931], page 8) Canon & Mrs E.C. Gore note 'Bagbuduma, n., a species of tobacco; a poison put on a grave in order to kill the worker of mangu who has caused the death'

Recorder:

Christopher Morton 31/10/2003 [Southern Sudan Project]