Dinka youth with goats
59 x 55 mm | Negative film nitrate
Date of Print:
Unknown
Accession Number:
2005.51.308.1
Description:
A Dinka youth raising his arms above his head as if shouting his ox name and mimicking the horns of his display-ox, with a herd of goats near a stretch of water.
As Oxford anthropologist Godfrey Lienhardt noted, the curving of the arms is one of the forms of 'handsomeness' (dheng), a bodily attitude which the Dinka consider graceful.
Photographer:
Godfrey Lienhardt
Date of Photo:
1947 - 1951
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Warab
Group:
Dinka
PRM Source:
Estate of Ronald Godfrey Lienhardt, via Ahmed al-Shahi (literary executor)
Acquired:
Donated 2005
Other Owners:
Godfrey Lienhardt Collection
Class:
Body Language , Animal Husbandry
Keyword:
Animal Goat
Activity:
Gesturing Hand
Other Information:
In Godfrey Lienhardt's Divinity and Experience: the Religion of the Dinka (OUP 1961) page 16 he notes that 'A characteristic sight in Western Dinkaland is that of a young man with his arms curved above his head, posturing either at a dance or for his own enjoyment when he is alone with his herd.
Herdsmen, indeed, spend so long alone with only cattle for company that it is understandable that they should regard themselves as identified with their herds.
The curving of the arms is one of the forms of 'handsomeness' (dheng), a bodily attitude which the Dinka consider graceful.' [CM 26/7/2005]
Recorder:
Christopher Morton 21/7/2005 [Southern Sudan Project]
