Bongo lip plug
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1884.84.87
Country:
Sudan
Region:
[Southern Sudan]
Cultural Group:
Bongo
Date Made:
?Before 1858
Materials:
Wood Plant
Process:
Carved , Incised , Burnt , Decorated
Dimensions:
L = 17.8 mm, W = 17.5 mm, Ht = 15.5 mm [RTS 11/5/2004].
Weight:
2.8 g
Other Owners:
Probably collected by Petherick between 1856 and 1858, and shipped back to England in 1859. Subsequently acquired by Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers, perhaps via auction, as Petherick is known to have auctioned some of his collection through Mr Bulloc
Field Collector:
John Petherick
PRM Source:
Augustus Henry Lane Fox Pitt Rivers founding collection
Acquired:
Donated 1884
Collected Date:
1856 - 1858
Description:
Small lip stud carved from a single piece of wood, consisting of a convex top, short concave sided cylindrical body with a lightly incised line around the centre and a flat base, very slightly oval in plan view.
The upper surface is decorated with a band of incised crosshatching that runs across the centre, from edge to edge; this is composed of five long cuts with eight shorter cuts at right angles across them.
The pattern leaves two blank semicircular areas on either side of the band, that have been blackened for decorative effect.
The stud is complete and intact, with tool marks visible on the sides; it is currently a dark reddish brown colour (Pantone 476C).
The underside is smoother than the other surfaces.
It has a length of 17.8 mm, is 17.5 mm wide, 15.5 mm high and has a weight of 2.8 grams.
Collected by John Petherick in the Southern Sudan. John Petherick led three separate trading expeditions that passed through Bongo territory between 1856 and 1858; this material was shipped back to England in 1859. See Petherick 1861, Egypt, The Sudan and Central Africa for more details. Some of this collection was sold through Mr Bullock of High Holborn, London, on 27th June 1862 (see the Catalogue of the very interesting collection of arms and implements of war, husbandry, and the chase, and articles of costume and domestic use, procured during several expeditions up the White Nile, Bahr-il-Gazal, and among the various tribes of the country, to the cannibal Neam Nam territory on the Equator, by John Petherick, Esq., H.M. Consul, Khartoum, Soudan ); this included 47 lip ornaments, several of which were attributed to the Bongo It possibly became part of John George Wood's collection of ethnographic objects, made over several years in order to illustrate his book, The Natural History of Man (1868, see pp v-vi), before being obtained by Pitt Rivers. Pitt Rivers sent this object to Bethnal Green Museum for display, as part of the first batch of objects sent there, probably in 1874. This object was later displayed in the South Kensington Museum, and transferred from there to become part of the founding collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum in 1884.
Petherick described Bongo lip ornaments: ‘the women would be handsome were it not for a disfiguration of the under lip, in which circular pieces of wood are inserted, varying in size according to age from a sixpence to a florin' (J. Petherick, 1861, Egypt, The Sudan and Central Africa , p. 401). Wood adds this description of an example in his own collection, possibly this actual example, although it is shorter than Wood describes: 'It is cylindrical, with a conical top, and measures three-quarters of an inch in diameter, and exactly an inch in length. The base, which comes against the lower teeth and gum, is nearly flat, and well polished, while the conical top, which projects in front of the mouth, is carved very neatly with 'a 'cross-hatching' sort of a pattern, the effect of which is heightened by the charring of certain portions of it, the blackened and polished surfaces contrasting well with the deep red colour of the wood. In order to keep it in its place, a shallow groove runs round it. This is one of the smaller specimens, but it is the custom of the owner to wear larger and larger lip ornaments until some of them contrive to force into their lips pieces of wood three inches in circumference' (J.G. Wood, 1868, The Natural History of Man Vol. I, p. 499). See also G. Schweinfurth's description, In The Heart of Africa Volume I, 1873, pp 296-298.
By the time that Evans-Pritchard encountered the Bongo, in the 1920's, the use of large pegs in the lower lips seemed to have gone out of fashion, although they were reportedly still used by the Löli Jurs and the Dogodjo tribe (E.E. Evans-Pritchard, 1929, "The Bongo", Sudan Notes and Records XII part I, p. 10).
For undecorated examples of the same shape, see 1884.84.88-92.
Rachael Sparks 30/9/2005.
Collected by John Petherick in the Southern Sudan. John Petherick led three separate trading expeditions that passed through Bongo territory between 1856 and 1858; this material was shipped back to England in 1859. See Petherick 1861, Egypt, The Sudan and Central Africa for more details. Some of this collection was sold through Mr Bullock of High Holborn, London, on 27th June 1862 (see the Catalogue of the very interesting collection of arms and implements of war, husbandry, and the chase, and articles of costume and domestic use, procured during several expeditions up the White Nile, Bahr-il-Gazal, and among the various tribes of the country, to the cannibal Neam Nam territory on the Equator, by John Petherick, Esq., H.M. Consul, Khartoum, Soudan ); this included 47 lip ornaments, several of which were attributed to the Bongo It possibly became part of John George Wood's collection of ethnographic objects, made over several years in order to illustrate his book, The Natural History of Man (1868, see pp v-vi), before being obtained by Pitt Rivers. Pitt Rivers sent this object to Bethnal Green Museum for display, as part of the first batch of objects sent there, probably in 1874. This object was later displayed in the South Kensington Museum, and transferred from there to become part of the founding collection of the Pitt Rivers Museum in 1884.
Petherick described Bongo lip ornaments: ‘the women would be handsome were it not for a disfiguration of the under lip, in which circular pieces of wood are inserted, varying in size according to age from a sixpence to a florin' (J. Petherick, 1861, Egypt, The Sudan and Central Africa , p. 401). Wood adds this description of an example in his own collection, possibly this actual example, although it is shorter than Wood describes: 'It is cylindrical, with a conical top, and measures three-quarters of an inch in diameter, and exactly an inch in length. The base, which comes against the lower teeth and gum, is nearly flat, and well polished, while the conical top, which projects in front of the mouth, is carved very neatly with 'a 'cross-hatching' sort of a pattern, the effect of which is heightened by the charring of certain portions of it, the blackened and polished surfaces contrasting well with the deep red colour of the wood. In order to keep it in its place, a shallow groove runs round it. This is one of the smaller specimens, but it is the custom of the owner to wear larger and larger lip ornaments until some of them contrive to force into their lips pieces of wood three inches in circumference' (J.G. Wood, 1868, The Natural History of Man Vol. I, p. 499). See also G. Schweinfurth's description, In The Heart of Africa Volume I, 1873, pp 296-298.
By the time that Evans-Pritchard encountered the Bongo, in the 1920's, the use of large pegs in the lower lips seemed to have gone out of fashion, although they were reportedly still used by the Löli Jurs and the Dogodjo tribe (E.E. Evans-Pritchard, 1929, "The Bongo", Sudan Notes and Records XII part I, p. 10).
For undecorated examples of the same shape, see 1884.84.88-92.
Rachael Sparks 30/9/2005.
Primary Documentation:
Accession Book V entry
[p.
9]
-
DEFORMATION.
PERSONAL ORNAMENT LIP-STUDS [insert] 1884.84 86-92 [end insert] [insert] g) [end insert] - [1 of] 7 lip-studs worn by women: of brown wood: some with hatched ornament on the knob.
DOR.
Petherick coll.
(1611 black).
Additional Accession Book V Entry [p. opposite 9] - g [drawing, this is the object in the centre of the group].
Collectors Miscellaneous XI Accession Book entry [p. 193] - PETHERICK, Consul [p. 195] [insert] 1884.84.85-92 [end insert]. 8 lip studs: some carved - DOR. (P.R. black 1611). [p. 197] [insert] BONGO is tribe's name for itself. They are called DOR by neighbours [end insert, by BB].
Additional Coll. Misc. XI entry [p. 194] - should be 1884.84.86-92 and 1884.140.585 (RTS 11/5/2004).
Black book entry [p. 66] - 1611. [insert] 1884.84.78-92 (not 85) [end insert] [insert] 1884.140.585 [end insert]. Lip-studs, wood. Dor tribe, C. Africa (8). Stone lip ornament. Andiboora [insert] ?Andorobo [end insert] [insert] compl[etely] new entry [end insert] C. Africa, obtd by Petherick. Obsidian lip ornament (3), Mexico; Wood lip ornament (2) Queen Charlotte's I[sland] (2) or Vancouvers Is[land] (2), Lip ornament or burnisher, Mexico. p. 109.
Delivery Catalogue II entry [p. 300] - Personal Ornaments of various Nations [p. 304] 8 lip studs wood (Dor tribe), 1611, Case 74, 345.
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the catalogue card [RTS 6/4/2004].
Written on object - DOR, E. Central AFRICA. P.R. coll. (1611) black [white ink on underside; RTS 11/5/2004].
Additional Accession Book V Entry [p. opposite 9] - g [drawing, this is the object in the centre of the group].
Collectors Miscellaneous XI Accession Book entry [p. 193] - PETHERICK, Consul [p. 195] [insert] 1884.84.85-92 [end insert]. 8 lip studs: some carved - DOR. (P.R. black 1611). [p. 197] [insert] BONGO is tribe's name for itself. They are called DOR by neighbours [end insert, by BB].
Additional Coll. Misc. XI entry [p. 194] - should be 1884.84.86-92 and 1884.140.585 (RTS 11/5/2004).
Black book entry [p. 66] - 1611. [insert] 1884.84.78-92 (not 85) [end insert] [insert] 1884.140.585 [end insert]. Lip-studs, wood. Dor tribe, C. Africa (8). Stone lip ornament. Andiboora [insert] ?Andorobo [end insert] [insert] compl[etely] new entry [end insert] C. Africa, obtd by Petherick. Obsidian lip ornament (3), Mexico; Wood lip ornament (2) Queen Charlotte's I[sland] (2) or Vancouvers Is[land] (2), Lip ornament or burnisher, Mexico. p. 109.
Delivery Catalogue II entry [p. 300] - Personal Ornaments of various Nations [p. 304] 8 lip studs wood (Dor tribe), 1611, Case 74, 345.
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the catalogue card [RTS 6/4/2004].
Written on object - DOR, E. Central AFRICA. P.R. coll. (1611) black [white ink on underside; RTS 11/5/2004].
Display History:
Displayed in Bethnal Green and South Kensington Museums (V&A) [AP].
