Moro Meza grave

103 x 75 mm | Print gelatin silver

Date of Print:

Unknown

Previous PRM Number:

EP.M.10

Previous Other Number:

VII 9

Accession Number:

1998.345.11.2

Description:

An African man in colonial clothes standing next to the grave of a man or woman once near or within a homestead but now in the bush, consisting of large slabs of stone leaning against each other. One larger slab is placed as a pointer, towards the east for a man's burial and to the west for a woman, indicating the rising (male) or setting (female) sun. Such megalithic grave markers were peculiar to the Moro Meza, and was not generally found among other so-called Moro groups neighbouring.

Photographer:

Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard

Date of Photo:

1927

Region:

[Southern Sudan] Western Equatoria Amadi District

Group:

Moro Meza

PRM Source:

Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard

Acquired:

Donated 1966

Other Owners:

E. E. Evans-Pritchard Collection

Class:

Death

Keyword:

Grave , Grave Marker , Megalith

Documentation:

Original catalogue lists in Manuscript Collections. Additional material in related documents files. [CM 27/9/2005]

Primary Documentation:

PRM Accession Records - Accession Book Entry [p. 98] 1966.27 [1 - 24] G[ift] PROFESSOR E. E. EVANS-PRITCHARD; INST. OF SOCIAL ANTHROPOLOGY, 51 BANBURY RD. OXFORD - 1966.27.19 - S. SUDAN, DARFUNG. VARIOUS TRIBES. Box of negatives in envelopes, [1 - 242] & 1966.27.20 - Box of prints of these negatives [refers to object 1966.27.19] [1 - 242], in envelopes.

Note on print reverse ms pencil - "Grave VII 9"

Other Information:

In Megalithic Grave-Monuments in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and other parts of East Africa, Antiquity, IX, No.34 1935, page 156 E. E. Evans-Pritchard notes that '[t]he structure of the pyramid type of grave in Mise country ... consist[s] of slabs of flat white granite leaning together in pairs one above another with one slab much taller than the rest pointing either to the rising or the setting sun. If the grave contains a man the stone pointer leans to the east, whereas if it houses a woman it points to the west; because when a man rises from sleep he shades his eyes and looks to the rising sun which marks the beginning of a hunter's day; whereas when a woman wakes from sleep in the afternoon, she shades her eyes to the west, for when the sun goes down in the west she prepares the evening meal.' [Chris Morton 1/3/2004]

Recorder:

Christopher Morton 1/3/2004 [Southern Sudan Project]