Dinka rain-shrine

82 x 82 mm | Lantern slide glass

MountDimension:

82 x 82 mm

Date of Print:

Unknown

Previous Other Number:

V.e.9 (429)

Accession Number:

1967.26.159

Description:

A view across a courtyard towards a forked post called rit with numerous cattle horns attached, the remains of oxen sacrificed to a spirit possessing the rain-maker. The shelter in the foreground with spears attached may be the shelter for the spirit and thus part of the shrine. The Seligmans visited villages in the Bor locality in the dry season of 1910, with Archdeacon Shaw acting as guide and interpreter.

Photographer:

Charles Gabriel Seligman

Date of Photo:

1910

Region:

[Southern Sudan] Jonglei ?Gwala

Group:

Dinka Bor

PRM Source:

London School of Economics and Political Science

Acquired:

Donated 1967

Other Owners:

C. G. Seligman slide collection

Class:

Ritual Object , Religion , Shelter

Keyword:

Shrine , Spear

Documentation:

Manual Catalogue in Related Documents File

Primary Documentation:

Accession Book Entry - [1967.26] THE LONDON SCHOOL OF ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE, HOUGHTON STREET, ALDWYCH, LONDON, W.C.E. PER MR ANTHONY FORGE - SUDAN. Box containing 309 lantern slides (3 1/4” x 3 1/4”) made from photographs taken by the late Professor C. G. SELIGMAN in various parts of the SUDAN. All slides numbered and labelled. Catalogue in file (“Seligman Slide Collection”). Additional Accession Book Entry - [in pencil] 18 Parks Rd.

Manual catalogue entry (thermofax catalogue copy in folder '27-06 Seligman Slide Collection') - "V.e.9. Dinka "rit" and shrine"

Note on lantern slide ms ink - "V.e.9. Dinka "rit" and shrine". CGS. 429"

Other Information:

In C.G. & B. Seligman's Pagan Tribes of the Nilotic Sudan (London, Routledge 1932), page 198, they note '...a post called rit (the name of the wood - ebony - from which it is often made) to which are attached the horns of bullocks sacrificed to Lerpio.' [Chris Morton 13/10/2004]

Recorder:

Christopher Morton [13/10/2004] [Southern Sudan Project]