Portrait of Mandari youths
56 x 56 mm | Negative film nitrate
Date of Print:
Unknown
Previous PRM Number:
JB.2.34
Accession Number:
1998.97.52
Description:
A three-quarter length group portrait of a youth and a girl wearing a checked waist-cloth, with other youths standing in a line beside them.
She is wearing a number of beads around her neck, probably given to her by male admirers such as the youth standing beside her.
She and the youths to her left have also prominent forehead scarification after the manner of the Dinka, although for the Mandari it does not denote any formal initiation (hence her use of it along with the youths), and was used instead for aesthetically pleasing effect.
Photographer:
Jean Carlile Buxton
Date of Photo:
1950 - 1952
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Bahr el Jebel Tali
Group:
Mandari Dari
PRM Source:
Ronald Carlile Buxton via Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology
Acquired:
Donated 1988
Other Owners:
Jean Buxton Collection
Class:
Ornament , Body Art , Toilet
Keyword:
Ornament Neck , Ornament Arm , Hair , Body Art Skin
Documentation:
See Related Documents File. Buxton field notebooks in Tylor Library.
Other Information:
In Some Notes on the Mandari of Equatoria Province, A.E.
Sudan, (typescript notebook of c.1951 in Tylor Library, Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology, University of Oxford), book I, page 30, Jean Buxton notes that 'Although they are naked, the wearing of beads is very popular.
These are of two different types and mean different things.
There are large strings of circular waist beads of different colours, which have a special significance and denote different age grades, and which can only be worn by an individual when he is in the appropriate age-grade.
The other kind of beads is usually worn around the neck, and is purely ornamental.
They can be worn by anyone, although there are usually set fashion trends which dictate which type of beads it is smart to wear to be up-to-date.
These latter consist of small strings of beads, often worn the whole way up the throat...' [Chris Morton 26/11/2004]
Recorder:
Christopher Morton 17/1/2005 [Southern Sudan Project]
