Mandari girls singing with switches
104 x 104 mm | Print gelatin silver
Date of Print:
Unknown
Previous PRM Number:
JB.18.7
Previous Other Number:
94 4
Accession Number:
1998.97.559.2
Description:
A group of young women wearing strings of red and blue beads around the waist (information from colour negative) singing in a line around a youth who is bending bending over, apparently being struck by the switches held by the girls as part of a ritual song.
Photographer:
Jean Carlile Buxton
Date of Photo:
1958
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Bahr el Jebel ?Tali
Group:
Mandari
PRM Source:
Ronald Carlile Buxton via Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology
Acquired:
Donated 1988
Other Owners:
Jean Buxton Collection
Class:
?Dance , ?Ritual , Bead , Ornament , Body Art
Keyword:
?Dance Accessory , Ornament Neck , Body Art Skin
Activity:
Singing
Documentation:
See Related Documents File. Buxton field notebooks in Tylor Library.
Other Information:
In Religion and Healing in Mandari (Oxford, Clarendon Press 1973) Jean Buxton notes (page 401) that 'Of the three colours in artistic design, red is traditionally used on its own and black and white in planned contrast.
On my return to Mandari in 1958, however, I found a dark navy-blue trade-bead used in combination with an orange bead in the waist-bands worn by girls.
The combination gave broad alternating bands of vertical colour-perhaps a variation on a black-red theme?' [Chris Morton 23/5/2005]
Recorder:
Christopher Morton 23/5/2004 [Southern Sudan Project]
