Zande crop with magic bundle
110 x 143 mm | Print gelatin silver
Date of Print:
1937 circa
Same Image As:
1998.341.19
Accession Number:
2005.111.13
Description:
A pile of eleusine coracana in a homestead.
This crop was once the most important base for porridge and beer, but has been displaced to some extent by manioc, a highly drought and pest resistent tuber, which is however somewhat less nutrious than flour produced from grain such as eleusine.
The pile has the magico-religious medicines dakadiya and ngamu (a feathery type of grass) placed on top to invoke increase.
Beyond is a large old style granary (soro) with grass finial, with a ladder up to a door some feet off the ground.
Photographer:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Date of Photo:
1926 - 1930
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Western Equatoria Yambio
Group:
Zande
Publication History:
Contemporary Publication - Reproduced as Plate XXXb (page 448) in
Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic Among the Azande
(OUP, 1937), with the caption "a heap of eleusine drying in the centre of homestead.
On top of the eleusine are medicines to increase it." [CM 7/9/2005]
PRM Source:
Oxford University Press
Acquired:
Donated 2003
Other Owners:
Oxford University Press
Class:
Food and Drink , Settlement , Religion , Shelter
Keyword:
Crop Millet , Foodstuff , Religious Offering , Building Storage , Storage Crop
Activity:
Harvesting
Documentation:
Correspondence with OUP in Related Documents File
Primary Documentation:
Printer's ms pencil notes and crop marks on print reverse.
[CM 7/9/2005]
Other Information:
This print is one of twenty-eight prints handed over, along with five negs and prints retained from publication in The Azande (1971), by Anne Ashby from OUP in December 2003.
They all seem to have been made from Evans-Pritchard's negatives for publication in Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande sometime prior to 1937, and have numerous printer's comments and crop marks on the backs.
They have been accessioned separately since they were evidently printed by OUP before Evans-Pritchard's collection was donated in 1966, and since they make more sense catalogued together as a distinct collection.
[CM 7/9/2005]
Recorder:
Christopher Morton 7/9/2005 [Southern Sudan Project]
