Lango lip plug
Other views of this artifact:
Accession Number:
1934.8.92
Country:
Sudan
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Eastern Equatoria Logoforok
Cultural Group:
Lango
Date Made:
By 1933
Materials:
Glass , Plant Fibre
Process:
Recycled , Ground , Twisted , Plaited
Dimensions:
L = 65.5 mm, W across ring 9 mm, Th across ring = 7 mm, Max W body = 7.7 mm, Max Th body = 5.2 mm [RTS 17/5/2004].
Weight:
5.8 g
Local Name:
aladarra
Other Owners:
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife on 16th February 1933 during a shooting expedition
Field Collector:
Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton & Hannah Powell-Cotton (nee Brayton)
PRM Source:
Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton
Acquired:
Donated 1934
Collected Date:
16th February 1933
Description:
Lip plug made from a piece of recycled translucent light green glass (Pantone 7493C), ground down to shape, and consisting of a flat, sub-rectangular top with narrow flat sided body tapering to a point at the other end.
A narrow cord of twisted and plaited plant fibre has been wound and tied off around the upper body, just below the top; this was probably added to keep the plug from slipping out when being used.
There is also a transparent material visible in a thick band under the cord, possibly traces of an adhesive; at present, the cord does appear to be firmly fixed in one spot.
The object is complete, except for a few small chips at either end, with a length of 65.5 mm, and a body that measures 7.7 by 5.2 mm at its widest point; the cord itself is 2 mm wide.
It has a total weight of 5.8 grams.
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah at Logoforok on 16th February 1933, during a shooting expedition.
This ornament was designed to be worn in the lower lip, and is known as aladarra. Driberg describes the practice of wearing such ornaments amongst the Lango of Uganda: '... sometimes pierced ... as is also in a few cases the hollow between the chin and the lip, into which is put a straw or bit of shaped wood. Since the 1907 expedition a cartridge case is sometimes substituted. In the north tapering pieces of quartz or glass, about three-eighth’s of an inch in diameter at the thick end, after the Acholi fashion, are sometimes worn instead of a straw' (J.H. Driberg, 1923, The Lango, p. 62; for an illustration of the latter being worn, see plate opposite p. 154, lower left image). The term aladarra does not appear in his Lango dictionary at the back of the volume, but the Lango encountered by Powell-Cotton are from further north, in the Sudan, and speak an eastern Nilotic language rather than the western Nilotic version of Uganda and Kenya.
Compare this object with the glass Didinga lim plug, 1940.7.074, made from a reused bottle. The thickness of this example suggests that it may have had a similar origin.
Rachael Sparks 24/9/2005.
Collected by Percy Horace Gordon Powell-Cotton and his wife Hannah at Logoforok on 16th February 1933, during a shooting expedition.
This ornament was designed to be worn in the lower lip, and is known as aladarra. Driberg describes the practice of wearing such ornaments amongst the Lango of Uganda: '... sometimes pierced ... as is also in a few cases the hollow between the chin and the lip, into which is put a straw or bit of shaped wood. Since the 1907 expedition a cartridge case is sometimes substituted. In the north tapering pieces of quartz or glass, about three-eighth’s of an inch in diameter at the thick end, after the Acholi fashion, are sometimes worn instead of a straw' (J.H. Driberg, 1923, The Lango, p. 62; for an illustration of the latter being worn, see plate opposite p. 154, lower left image). The term aladarra does not appear in his Lango dictionary at the back of the volume, but the Lango encountered by Powell-Cotton are from further north, in the Sudan, and speak an eastern Nilotic language rather than the western Nilotic version of Uganda and Kenya.
Compare this object with the glass Didinga lim plug, 1940.7.074, made from a reused bottle. The thickness of this example suggests that it may have had a similar origin.
Rachael Sparks 24/9/2005.
Primary Documentation:
Accession Book Entry
[p.
248] 1934 [insert] 8 [end insert] -
MAJOR P.
H.
G.
POWELL-COTTON
, Quex Park, Birchington, E.
Kent.
Specimens collected by himself & Mrs Cotton, during hunting trips, 1933, viz: [...] [p.
256] - From the
LANGO
tribe, LOKOFOROK, LOMULENG & LOMO.
[insert] 92 [end insert] -
Aladarra
, glass pendant worn in lower lip.
ib[idem] [LOKOFOROK] (358).
Additional Accession Book Entry [p. 255] - 1934.8.92 no. given LW.
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the catalogue card [RTS 24/5/2004].
Related Documents File - Typewritten List of "Curios Presented to Dr. Balfour by Major & Mrs. Powell-Cotton. Lango Tribe". This object appears as item 358: "Pendant, green glass lower lip with worked fibre ring. 2 1/2" long, native name Aladarra , 16/2/33 Lokoforok, 3. 47 N 33.5 E”. Also contains details of a cine film 'some tribes of the Southern Sudan', taken by Powell-Cotton during this 1933 expedition, copies of which are now in the National Film and Television Archive and the Powell-Cotton Museum in Kent [RTS 14/3/2005].
Written on object - LANGO, E. SUDAN. Pres. MAJ. POWELL-COTTON. 1934.8.92 [This does not appear to have the Powell-Cotton number pencilled onto the object, as was usually the case; RTS 17/5/2004].
Additional Accession Book Entry [p. 255] - 1934.8.92 no. given LW.
Card Catalogue Entry - There is no further information on the catalogue card [RTS 24/5/2004].
Related Documents File - Typewritten List of "Curios Presented to Dr. Balfour by Major & Mrs. Powell-Cotton. Lango Tribe". This object appears as item 358: "Pendant, green glass lower lip with worked fibre ring. 2 1/2" long, native name Aladarra , 16/2/33 Lokoforok, 3. 47 N 33.5 E”. Also contains details of a cine film 'some tribes of the Southern Sudan', taken by Powell-Cotton during this 1933 expedition, copies of which are now in the National Film and Television Archive and the Powell-Cotton Museum in Kent [RTS 14/3/2005].
Written on object - LANGO, E. SUDAN. Pres. MAJ. POWELL-COTTON. 1934.8.92 [This does not appear to have the Powell-Cotton number pencilled onto the object, as was usually the case; RTS 17/5/2004].
Display History:
Former PRM Display Label - Ground bottle-glass lip pendant.
Lango, Lokoforok, Eastern Sudan.
d.d.
Major Powell-Cotton.
1934 [rectangular card, printed text; stored in RDF, RTS 16/9/2005].
