Wooden imitation of spear, decorated with ostrich feathers and recycled brass cartridges, used in dances [RTS 19/8/2005].

Collection type: Object
Description: Wooden imitation of spear, decorated with ostrich feathers and recycled brass cartridges, used in dances [RTS 19/8/2005].
Long description: Imitation spear, carved from a single piece of wood with the surface stained a deep reddish brown colour and polished (Pantone 477C). This consists of a long narrow blade with a raised rib running down the centre of both sides and rounded shoulders, on a solid cylindrical base that tapers out towards its lower end. This has been carved to imitate the socketed base of a metal blade, with a vertical groove cut down the centre on one side to copy the 'seam', and with the base offset from the handle below. The handle is roughly round in section, and tapers slightly to a a rounded butt. Immediately below the base of the 'socket', the spear has been fitted with a tuft of dark brownish black animal hair (Pantone Black 7C), roughly cylindrical in shape and slighty pinched in towards its centre. This may be a section of animal tail left with the hair in place. This seems to slide up and down the shaft slightly, but is held in place by 2 hide strips that are tied around the shaft above and below it. Below this are 2 sections of recycled brass cartridges, fitted over the shaft as decorative bands and currently a metallic yellow colour (Pantone 871C). There is a similar, but shorter band further down the shaft. The dance spear is esentially complete, but has some slight damage to the edges of the blade. It has a weight of 183.4 grams and is 1827 mm long; the spearhead section is 549 mm long, while its blade has a length of 460 mm, maximum width of 40.5 mm and maximum thickness of 7.5 mm; the shaft has an upper diameter of 11.5 by 11 mm; the hairy 'tuft is 55 mm long, with a diameter of 60 mm [RTS 19/8/2005].
Geographical reference: South Sudan
Africa > Eastern Africa > South Sudan
Cultural groups: Anywaa (Anuak)
Person: Field collector Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard; PRM source Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Date / Period: Date made: Before 1936
Date collected: March - May 1935
Acquisition information: Donated: 1936
Materials and processes: Material Wood Plant, Material Brass Metal, Material Animal Tail, Material Animal Hair, Material Animal Hide Skin, Process Carved, Process Stained, Process Polished, Process Recycled, Process Tied
Dimensions: Width: max 68 mm, Length: max 1837 mm, Depth: max 70 mm, Weight 183.4 g
Object numbers: Accession number: 1936.10.10
Research and responses: For an essay on the variety and cultural significance of spears in South Sudan, particularly among the Dinka and Nuer, see ‘“Spears” that are not Spears’, by Jok Madut Jok, in Pieces of a Nation: South Sudanese Heritage and Museum Collections, edited by Zoe Cormack and Cherry Leonardi (Leiden: Sidestone Press, 2021), pp. 110–114.
Evans-Pritchard conducted his fieldwork amongst the Anuak between early March and May 1935 (E.E. Evans-Pritchard, 1940, The Political System of the Anuak of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, p. 3) [RTS 22/3/2004].

Search terms: Dance, Weapon, Reproduction, Dance Accessory, Spear