A Nuer dance
58 x 55 mm | Negative film nitrate
There are records relating to alternative images that we do not have scans for in the database:
1998.355.25.2 - Print gelatin silver , (56 x 54 mm )
1998.355.25.2 - Print gelatin silver , (56 x 54 mm )
Date of Print:
Unknown
Previous PRM Number:
EP.N.I.49
Previous Other Number:
02 9
Accession Number:
1998.355.25.1
Description:
Two men in the foreground on their right knees adopting a dance position with spears in their hands.
The youth to the left carries an ambatch log and a dancing stick with a tassle on the end, whilst the one to the right holds a number of metal spears.
Beyond them a number of other men are moving across the dance ground.
This sort of war play was a common feature of such dance gatherings where initiated youths of differing villages faced each other in mock running battles as a show of group prowess.
Dances were also significant occasions for courtship.
The people are described as both Western Jikany and Jikul, the latter being a lineage or clan name not associated with one particular tribal territory, but which was a significant lineage around Nyueny and surrounding villages in Leek country where Evans-Pritchard conducted the bulk of his fieldwork in western Nuerland, but evidently was also a significant residential grouping among the Western Jikany.
Photographer:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Date of Photo:
1936 October - November
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Wahda
Group:
Nuer Western Jikany Jikul
Publication History:
Contemporary Publication - Reproduced as the cover illustration and Plate IV (facing page 112) of E.
E.
Evans-Pritchard's
Nuer Religion
(Oxford University Press 1974 [1957]) with the caption 'Movement in wedding dance' [Chris Morton 20/5/2004]
Research publication - Reproduced as Figure 1 (page 930) in Brenda Farnell's article 'Ethno-graphics and the Moving Body' Man , Vol.29, No.4 (Dec. 1994)
Research publication - Reproduced as Fig.1.10 (page 18) in H. Morphy and M. Banks 'Introduction: rethinking visual anthropology' in Banks, M. & Morphy, H. (eds) Rethinking Visual Anthropology (Yale 1997), with the caption 'Figure 1.10 'Movement in Wedding Dance'; plate IV from Evans-Pritchard's Nuer Religion. As Brenda Farnell points out: '[t]his photograph raises an important anthropological question: where is the movement?'
Research publication - Reproduced as Figure 1 (page 930) in Brenda Farnell's article 'Ethno-graphics and the Moving Body' Man , Vol.29, No.4 (Dec. 1994)
Research publication - Reproduced as Fig.1.10 (page 18) in H. Morphy and M. Banks 'Introduction: rethinking visual anthropology' in Banks, M. & Morphy, H. (eds) Rethinking Visual Anthropology (Yale 1997), with the caption 'Figure 1.10 'Movement in Wedding Dance'; plate IV from Evans-Pritchard's Nuer Religion. As Brenda Farnell points out: '[t]his photograph raises an important anthropological question: where is the movement?'
PRM Source:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Acquired:
Donated 1966
Other Owners:
E. E. Evans-Pritchard Collection
Class:
Dance , Weapon , Social Life
Keyword:
Dance Accessory , Spear
Activity:
Dancing
Event:
Dance
Documentation:
Original catalogue lists in Manuscript Collections. Additional material in related documents files. [CM 27/9/2005]
Primary Documentation:
Accession Book Entry [p.
98] 1966.27 [1 - 24] G[ift] PROFESSOR E.
E.
EVANS-PRITCHARD; INST.
OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY, 51 BANBURY RD.
OXFORD 1966.27.1-16 S.
SUDAN.
NUER TRIBE.
Sixteen negative albums containing negatives
and
prints of photographs taken by donor during field-work.
All listed in albums.
Added Accession Book Entry - [p.
98 in right hand column, in pencil] Catalogue room.
Manual Catalogues [index taken from album book I, ms ink] - 49. Dancing - Jikul
Manual Catalogues [index taken from album book I, ms ink] - 49. Dancing - Jikul
Recorder:
Christopher Morton [20/5/2004] [Southern Sudan Project]
