Nuer fertility ceremony

58 x 55 mm | Print gelatin silver

There are records relating to alternative images that we do not have scans for in the database:
1998.355.446.1 - Negative film nitrate , (58 x 55 mm )

Date of Print:

Unknown

Previous PRM Number:

EP.N.IX.98

Previous Other Number:

7 [3]

Accession Number:

1998.355.446.2

Description:

Looking across a homestead toward a light coloured ox, later to be used as a sacrifice in a fertility rite. In the centre of the courtyard is a large buor firescreen. As part of the fertility ceremony gorot, the ox was thrown with its legs bound and grass was inserted into its anus, nostrils and mouth. The gorot ceremony was done to ensure that a child would be born to a couple who had been married at an early age, probably before the woman had begun menstruation. The Nuer believe that the payment of cattle for marriage in such circumstances may cause barreness unless a gorot ceremony is carried out.

Photographer:

Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard

Date of Photo:

1936 October - November

Region:

[Southern Sudan] Wahda ?Nyueny village

Group:

Nuer ?Leek Karlual

Publication History:

Research publication - Reproduced (p.44) with the caption 'A Nuer boy tending cattle.' in Burr, Rachel and Heather Montgomery 'Family, Kinship and Beyond' in Maybin, Janet and Martin Woodhead (eds) Childhoods in Context (Childhood 2) , Chichester: John Wiley and Sons in association with the Open University, pp. 39-70. [Chris Morton 2/9/2004]

Notes:

There appears to be three Rolleiflex films identified as film 7, which I have identified according to differences in notation on the print reverse as well as image content. [CM 29/10/2007]

PRM Source:

Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard

Acquired:

Donated 1966

Other Owners:

E. E. Evans-Pritchard Collection

Class:

Fire , Settlement , Ritual

Keyword:

Animal Cattle , Fire Accessory

Activity:

Ritual Activity

Event:

Ceremony Fertility , Sacrifice

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 IX, ms ink] - 98. buor (fire-screen)

Note on print reverse ms pencil - "Ox ceremony 7" & print front border ms ink - "NUER IX/98"

Other Information:

Ethnographic context - another image from this sacrifice is reproduced as Plate III (facing page 68) in E. E. Evans-Pritchard's Nuer Religion (Oxford University Press 1974 [1957], with the caption "Sacrifice of ox by suffocation" In Nuer Religion (Oxford University Press 1974 [1957], page 217-8, E. E. Evans-Pritchard describes the ceremony he witnessed in some detail. In particular he notes that 'When a girl is espoused early in life, probably before the commencement of the menses, the premature payment of bridewealth may cause her to be barren unless a special ceremony is performed. In western Nuerland, where I saw it, it is called gorot.. An ox was thrown and its forelegs and back legs tied in pairs. It was then slowly suffocated, grass being first pushed up its anus with a stick, and then into its mouth and nostrils (Plate III).' [Chris Morton 27/7/2004]

Recorder:

Christopher Morton [27/7/2004] [Southern Sudan Project]