Dinka girls gaining scars
59 x 55 mm | Negative film nitrate
Date of Print:
Unknown
Accession Number:
2005.51.200
Description:
A man marking dark lines on the ash-smeared shaven heads of three girls to guide the scarification knife.
Lienhardt (whose Dinka ox-name was Thienydeng) describes having been taken to witness this event by a master of the fishing-spear, who after seeing the blood produced retired to a distance, claiming that the sight of blood weakened the Flesh divinity within him.
Photographer:
Godfrey Lienhardt
Date of Photo:
1947 - 1951
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Warab
Group:
Dinka
Notes:
In
Divinity and Experience: the Religion of the Dinka
(OUP 1961) p.145, Lienhardt notes that 'A master of the fishing-spear who took me to see the head-scarification of some girls - a very bloody operation - suddenly said that he was feeling faint, and must go and sit elsewhere: 'It is Flesh in my body, it hates to see blood.' [CM 18/7/2005]
PRM Source:
Estate of Ronald Godfrey Lienhardt, via Ahmed al-Shahi (literary executor)
Acquired:
Donated 2005
Other Owners:
Godfrey Lienhardt Collection
Class:
Body Art , Ritual
Keyword:
Body Art Head
Event:
Ceremony Initiation
Recorder:
Christopher Morton 21/7/2005 [Southern Sudan Project]
