?Morokodo grave

103 x 75 mm | Negative film nitrate

Date of Print:

Unknown

Previous PRM Number:

EP.Misc.56

Previous Other Number:

IX 3

Accession Number:

1998.353.57

Description:

A view across a homestead with a large thatched rectilinear building with verandah and other huts and granary in the background. In the foreground are men sitting close to a grave consisting of an earthen mound surmounted by a carved pole. If this is a Morokodo homestead burial (as seems likely) the carved post represents numbers of men or large animals killed by the deceased, as with other peoples of the Bongo-Mittu group.

Photographer:

Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard

Date of Photo:

1927

Region:

[Southern Sudan] Western Equatoria Amadi District

Group:

?Morokodo

PRM Source:

Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard

Acquired:

Donated 1966

Other Owners:

E. E. Evans-Pritchard Collection

Class:

Death , Settlement , Shelter

Keyword:

Grave , Grave Marker , Building House

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 negative ms ink - "IX 3"

Other Information:

Ethnographic context - A Morokodo grave post similar to the one in this image, from a photograph by E. E. Evans-Pritchard, is reproduced as Plate LIVb (facing page 488) of C.G. & B. Seligman's Pagan Tribes of the Nilotic Sudan (London, Routledge 1932). On page 489 they also state that '[t]his type of grave, i.e. a post emerging from the summit of a low conical pile of stones, is associated with certain tribes of the Bongo-Mittu group, including the poeples in the neighbourhood of Amadi other than the true Moro, i.e. Nyamusa, Moro Kodo, Abukaya, and perhaps the Biti and Wira, as well as a number of people to the north and north-west. Though the form of these lusi may differ in detail, some having one segment, others more than one, all show the same general technique.' The provenence of Avokaya can tentatively be ruled out since their normal form of grave was down through a termite mound in the vicinity, but not within, the homestead. The Moro 'proper' i.e. Meza, Endri, Uggi and Kederu seem not to have erected posts on their grave mounds (ibid. page 487). This seems to point to this grave being from the Morokodo around Amadi, although it is possible that it belongs to another of the northern small groups such as Nyamusa. [Chris Morton 9/3/2004]

Recorder:

Christopher Morton [14/9/2004] [Southern Sudan Project]