Dinka shrine of Lerpio

82 x 82 mm | Lantern slide glass

MountDimension:

82 x 82 mm

Date of Print:

Unknown

Previous Other Number:

V.e.10 (431)

Accession Number:

1967.26.160

Description:

A view towards the homestead of the Bor Dinka rain-maker Biyordit at Gwala. The Seligmans visited villages in the Bor locality in the dry season of 1910, with Archdeacon Shaw acting as guide and interpreter. Besides Biyordit's sleeping hut (left) is another in which the spirit of Lerpio was said to reside within as a shrine. Outside its door is a rit post with the horns of sacrificed oxen hanging from it. Within the shrine-hut was kept a sacred spear also called Lerpio, and beyond the hut a special bush called akoc which should not be cut or damaged and which forms a part of the rain-making ceremony.

Photographer:

Charles Gabriel Seligman

Date of Photo:

1910

Region:

[Southern Sudan] Jonglei Gwala

Group:

Dinka Bor

NamedPerson:

Biyordit

Publication History:

Contemporary Publication - Reproduced as Plate XIX Fig.2 (facing page 200) in C.G. & B. Seligman's Pagan Tribes of the Nilotic Sudan (London, Routledge 1932), with the caption "Gwala, shrine of Lerpio, with akoc and rit " [Chris Morton 13/10/2004]

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.10. Dinka shrine, Lerpin Bor"

Note on lantern slide ms ink - "V.e.10. Dinka shrine, Lerpin Bor". CGS. 431"

Other Information:

Ethnographic context - In C.G. & B. Seligman's Pagan Tribes of the Nilotic Sudan (London, Routledge 1932), page 198, they note 'Fig.2 of Plate XIX is a photograph of the rain-shrine formerly served by Biyordit. Near to the dwelling hut belonging to him there is another constituting a shrine, in which Lerpio, i.e. his spirit (jok), is thought to reside more or less constantly. Within this hut is kept a very sacred spear, also called Lerpio, and before it stands 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. Behind the hut there is a bush of the kind called akoc, which must not be cut or damaged in any way but which strangers are allowed to approach without the least ceremony...' [Chris Morton 13/10/2004]

Recorder:

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