Bari back apron
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1934.8.47
Country:
Sudan
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Bahr el Jebel Ngangala
Cultural Group:
Bari
Date Made:
By 1933
Materials:
?Cotton Yarn Plant , ?Plant Fibre , String , Ochre
Process:
Twisted , Knotted
Dimensions:
Tassel 1, L = 325 mm, W top = 16.8 mm, W base = 141 mm, Diam cord = 3.3 mm; tassel 2, L = 320 mm, W top = 22 mm, W base = 151 mm, diam cord = 4.8 mm [RTS 12/7/2004].
Weight:
445.9 g
Local Name:
Kapera
Other Owners:
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah on 21st April 1933 during a shooting expedition [RTS 12/7/2004].
Field Collector:
Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton & Hannah Powell-Cotton (nee Hannah Brayton Slater)
PRM Source:
Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton
Acquired:
Donated 1934
Collected Date:
21st April 1933
Description:
String work ornament designed to hang from the waist over the buttocks, consisting of two tassels tied together by a slender piece of twisted plant fibre cord, possibly cotton.
Both are heavily coated with red ochre (Pantone 483C).
One tassel is made up of 41 thick cords, gathered into two bunches at the top, with each bunch tightly bound with a twisted fibre cord and then lashed together, leaving their fibrous unplaited ends poking out at the top.
This section is heavily coated with a red ochre containing small mica flecks.
These cords hang loosely below the bound 'handle' area.
Each cord is itself composed of a number of twisted fibre strands - from eight to twelve is usual - that have been twisted tightly together.
This continues for around 120 mm, at which point the strands are knotted and coated with thick ochre to bind them, then allowed to divide into their component parts.
Each of these strands is much thinner, and has a slightly spherical lump of ochre or mud at its base that produces a slight rattling sound when the tassel group moves.
This tassel has a length of 325 mm, is 16.8 mm wide at its top and 141 mm wide across the base, with each cord being 3.3 mm in diameter at its thickest part.
An additional length of twisted plant fibre has been tied around the top of the 'handle' section and run down one side of it, to create two loops that were presumably used to attach this and its partner to a waist band.
This cord continues across to the second tassel and links the two of them together.
The second tassel is constructed in a similar fashion to the first, and is also made up of 41 cords; however the 'handle' is less well defined and the tassel bunches are fastened more simply by two horizontally tied sections of cord.
Above these ties, the cords are largely unplaited.
This tassel is 320 mm long, 22 mm wide at the top and 151 mm wide at its base, with each cord being 4.8 mm in diameter at its thickest part and 1.5 mm wide where they divide into their component strands.
The ornament is largely complete, although the cord joining the segments is frayed.
It has a total weight of 445.9 grams.
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah at Ngangala on 21st April 1933 during a shooting expedition.
This type of ornament was worn over the buttocks by women, and is known in Bari as kapera. However note that Powell-Cotton uses the same term to describe fringe apron 1934.8.46, which was worn with the fringe hanging down the front.
Rachael Sparks 24/9/2005.
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah at Ngangala on 21st April 1933 during a shooting expedition.
This type of ornament was worn over the buttocks by women, and is known in Bari as kapera. However note that Powell-Cotton uses the same term to describe fringe apron 1934.8.46, which was worn with the fringe hanging down the front.
Rachael Sparks 24/9/2005.
Primary Documentation:
Accession Book Entry
[p.
248] 1934 [insert] 8 [end insert] -
MAJOR P.
H.
G.
POWELL-COTTON
, Quex Park, Birchington, E.
Kent.
Specimens collected by himself & Mrs Cotton, during hunting trips, 1933, viz: [...] [p.
252] - From the
BARI
tribe, MONGALLA, PERIDI and NGANGALA.
[insert] 47 [end insert] - String-work heavy tassel, worn over the buttocks, [female symbol], ib[idem] [NGANGALA] (768).
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the catalogue card [RTS 12/2/2004].
Related Documents File - Typewritten List of "Curios Presented to Dr. Balfour by Major & Mrs. Powell-Cotton. Barri Tribe". This object appears as item 768: "Back apron, woman's, fibre cords twisted and tied in two lots, native name Kapera , 21/4/33 Ngangala, 4.42 N 31.55 E”. Also contains details of a cine film 'some tribes of the Southern Sudan', taken by Powell-Cotton during this 1933 expedition, copies of which are now in the National Film and Television Archive and the Powell-Cotton Museum in Kent [RTS 14/3/2005].
?Pre-PRM label - D 768 [brown card tag, tied to object; RTS 12/7/2004].
Old Pitt Rivers Museum label - (768) Fringe or apron, Kapera , worn by women so as to hang over the buttocks. BARI, NGANGALA, E. SUDAN. 4° 42' N., 31° 55' E. d.d. Major Powell-Cotton, 1934 [rectangular metal-edged tag, tied to object; RTS 12/7/2004].
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the catalogue card [RTS 12/2/2004].
Related Documents File - Typewritten List of "Curios Presented to Dr. Balfour by Major & Mrs. Powell-Cotton. Barri Tribe". This object appears as item 768: "Back apron, woman's, fibre cords twisted and tied in two lots, native name Kapera , 21/4/33 Ngangala, 4.42 N 31.55 E”. Also contains details of a cine film 'some tribes of the Southern Sudan', taken by Powell-Cotton during this 1933 expedition, copies of which are now in the National Film and Television Archive and the Powell-Cotton Museum in Kent [RTS 14/3/2005].
?Pre-PRM label - D 768 [brown card tag, tied to object; RTS 12/7/2004].
Old Pitt Rivers Museum label - (768) Fringe or apron, Kapera , worn by women so as to hang over the buttocks. BARI, NGANGALA, E. SUDAN. 4° 42' N., 31° 55' E. d.d. Major Powell-Cotton, 1934 [rectangular metal-edged tag, tied to object; RTS 12/7/2004].
