Mandari youth and women at dance
56 x 56 mm | Negative film Safety
Date of Print:
Unknown
Previous PRM Number:
JB.18.11
Accession Number:
1998.97.563
Description:
A three-quarter length portrait of a youth holding two hide shields with white pigment smeared on his chest, with several young women holding switches behind him.
In other images the women can be seen ritually beating the youths with the switches as they sing.
Several of the women are wearing numerous strings of beads around their waists forming vertical bands of blue and orange.
Buxton describes this colour combination as a feature she noticed on her return to Mandari in 1958, arguing that it operated in a similar way to the black/white contrast of earlier traditions.
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 , Body Art , Bead , Weapon
Keyword:
Dance Accessory , Body Art Skin , Shield
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]
