Anuak doctor divining
60 x 60 mm | Print gelatin silver
Date of Print:
Unknown
Previous PRM Number:
EP.AK.109
Previous Other Number:
44 (148)
Accession Number:
1998.342.109.2
Description:
A female doctor in Pochala village casting leather cards on a skin during a divining session to discover the cause of a person's sickness.
The leather pieces are known as war or shoes, since the footprint is considered an important aspect of the human personality, and are cast and 'read' in configurations of pairs.
Divination is carried out at dawn or dusk since the cards reproduce the flight of birds in the air and thereby help understand the spiritual dimension of the sickness at hand.
Photographer:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Date of Photo:
1935 March - May
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Jonglei Pochala
Group:
Anuak
PRM Source:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Acquired:
Donated 1966
Other Owners:
E. E. Evans-Pritchard Collection
Class:
Religion , Ritual Object , Medicine
Keyword:
Oracle Divination
Activity:
Divining
Event:
Ceremony Sickness
Primary Documentation:
PRM Accession Records - Accession Book Entry [p.
98] 1966.27 [1 - 24] G[ift] PROFESSOR E.
E.
EVANS-PRITCHARD; INST.
OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY, 51 BANBURY RD.
OXFORD - 1966.27.19 - S.
SUDAN, DARFUNG.
VARIOUS TRIBES.
Box of negatives in envelopes, [1 - 242] & 1966.27.20 - Box of prints of these negatives [refers to object 1966.27.19] [1 - 242], in envelopes.
Notes on print/mount - "44 148 divining Pocala"
Notes on print/mount - "44 148 divining Pocala"
Other Information:
Anuak divination is discussed at some length, with a diagram of the various configurations of cast war pieces in Conradin Perner, The Anyuak - Living on Earth in the Sky Vol.1 The Sphere of Spirituality (Basel, 1994) pp.203-206.
[Chris Morton 7/1/2004]
Recorder:
Christopher Morton 7/1/2004 [Southern Sudan Project]
