Zande barkcloth beater
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1931.66.15
Country:
Sudan
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Western Equatoria
Cultural Group:
Zande
Date Made:
By 1930
Materials:
Elephant Tooth Ivory Animal
Process:
Carved , Incised , Polished
Dimensions:
Max L = 330, L base = 52.8, W base = 52, W body = 63.5, th body = 53.8 mm [RTS 10/11/2004].
Weight:
1150 g
Local Name:
[wata]
Other Owners:
Probably collected by Evans-Pritchard himself during his fieldwork amongst the Zande, which took place during 1927, part of 1928 and 1929 and for several months during 1930 [CM; RTS 6/7/2004].
Field Collector:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
PRM Source:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Acquired:
Donated December 1931
Collected Date:
1927 - 1930
Description:
Barkcloth beater carved from a single, solid piece of yellow elephant ivory (Pantone 7509C, 7403C and 7401C), cut flat at one end with a cylindrical body tapering to a point at the other.
The flat end surface has been covered with incised crosshatching that runs out to the extreme edges, where there has been some use-damage.
The surface of the tusk has been polished, but numerous tooling marks are still visible in the form of rows of short parallel lines that may represent filing marks.
Towards the broader base, these marks become more pronounced, while on one side the surface has been much more roughly finished, leaving a series of irregular, deep cuts across it.
This part of the beater is also stained a dark reddish brown to grayish brown colour (Pantone 476C).
The object is complete and intact, apart from some damage around the edges of the working end.
It has a weight of 1150 grams, a length of 330 mm, and measures 52.8 by 52 mm across the flat base, while at its widest point the beater is 63.5 wide and 53.8 mm thick.
It was designed to be hand-held, rather than hafted.
Probably collected by Evans-Pritchard himself during his fieldwork amongst the Zande, which took place during 1927, part of 1928 and 1929 and for several months during 1930.
In 1933, Powell-cotton gave the Zande name for an ivory barkcloth beater as wata (see 1934.8.125-126), a term also mentioned by Larken, who describes the manufacture of Zande barkcloth as follows: "During the rains, about July, two horizontal cuts are made round the stem four or five feet apart, a perpendicular one joining them. The bark is loosened and removed in a single piece. The outer skin is scraped away with a knife, and the dark brown fibrous remainder beaten on a log with a wata. This is usually the point of a small tusk about a foot long. The pointed end is used as a handle, the other, of which the face has been scored with a series of closely-crossing lines to a depth of about the tenth of an inch, as a stamp, the bark, lying on the log, being punched all over with it. The process is gradual, and not too much force may be employed. The fibres become spread out and the thickness of the substance reduced, though somewhat unevenly so. The resulting cloth when dry is of a light reddish brown colour, harsh in texture, and bearing throughout its not very long life the marks of the corrugations on the face of the wata " (P.M. Larken, 1926, "An Account of the Zande", Sudan Notes and Records IX no. 1, pp 34-35). Brock also described the process: 'the latter [barkcloth] is prepared with oil and beaten out with a piece of ivory cut off the end of an elephant's tusk, the end where it is cut off being grooved in a criss-cross fashion which makes a pattern on the cloth' (R.G.C. Brock, "Some Notes on the Zande Tribe as Found in the Meridi District", Sudan Notes and News 1, 1918, 254).
Rachael Sparks 29/7/2005.
Probably collected by Evans-Pritchard himself during his fieldwork amongst the Zande, which took place during 1927, part of 1928 and 1929 and for several months during 1930.
In 1933, Powell-cotton gave the Zande name for an ivory barkcloth beater as wata (see 1934.8.125-126), a term also mentioned by Larken, who describes the manufacture of Zande barkcloth as follows: "During the rains, about July, two horizontal cuts are made round the stem four or five feet apart, a perpendicular one joining them. The bark is loosened and removed in a single piece. The outer skin is scraped away with a knife, and the dark brown fibrous remainder beaten on a log with a wata. This is usually the point of a small tusk about a foot long. The pointed end is used as a handle, the other, of which the face has been scored with a series of closely-crossing lines to a depth of about the tenth of an inch, as a stamp, the bark, lying on the log, being punched all over with it. The process is gradual, and not too much force may be employed. The fibres become spread out and the thickness of the substance reduced, though somewhat unevenly so. The resulting cloth when dry is of a light reddish brown colour, harsh in texture, and bearing throughout its not very long life the marks of the corrugations on the face of the wata " (P.M. Larken, 1926, "An Account of the Zande", Sudan Notes and Records IX no. 1, pp 34-35). Brock also described the process: 'the latter [barkcloth] is prepared with oil and beaten out with a piece of ivory cut off the end of an elephant's tusk, the end where it is cut off being grooved in a criss-cross fashion which makes a pattern on the cloth' (R.G.C. Brock, "Some Notes on the Zande Tribe as Found in the Meridi District", Sudan Notes and News 1, 1918, 254).
Rachael Sparks 29/7/2005.
Primary Documentation:
Accession Book Entry
[IX, p.
16] 1931 [insert, in pencil] 66 [end insert]
E.
EVANS-PRITCHARD
, Esq.
Dec.
Specimens collected by himself in the EASTERN SUDAN, viz.
[pencil insert, p.
18] 15 [end insert] - Bark-cloth beater, made from the tip of an elephant’s tusk, the larger end crosshatched.
Held in the hand without haft.
NUER
[insert] AZANDE [end insert].
Written on object - Bark-cloth beater, used without haft. AZANDE tribe, [letter blacked out, illegible] SUDAN. d.d. E. Evans-Pritchard, 1931 [RTS 10/11/2004].
Written on object - Bark-cloth beater, used without haft. AZANDE tribe, [letter blacked out, illegible] SUDAN. d.d. E. Evans-Pritchard, 1931 [RTS 10/11/2004].
