Skip to content
Pitt Rivers Museum
AboutHire the MuseumNewsletterUniversity of Oxford

1948.2.144

Fringed skirt made from split plant fibre. [FB 26/02/2015]

1948.2.144

Digital asset copyright: Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford

Terms and Conditions

If you wish to order a high-resolution image and/or licence its use for print or web publication, exhibition, film, promotional product or any other use, whether in the academic or commercial sector of any print run, then please visit photographic services.

Collection type
Object
Description
Fringed skirt made from split plant fibre. [FB 26/02/2015]
Geographical reference
South Sudan
Africa > Eastern Africa > South Sudan
Cultural groups
Zande
Date / Period
Date made: Before 1930
Date collected
1927 - 1930
Acquisition information
Found unentered: 1948
Materials and processes
Material Plant Fibre, Process Split, Process Tied, Process Twisted
Dimensions
Length: max 460 mm, Width: max 180 mm rolled
Object numbers
Accession number: 1948.2.144
Research and responses

Brock describes the circumcision process and ceremony, as took place in the Meridi district in 1918. He describes the boys as wearing 'a kind of abbreviated ballet skirt made of dried banana leaves cut into thin strips', while being trained to perform the circumcision dance, and a 'rokko' or loin cloth of fig tree bark during the final ceremony when this dance is actually performed (R.G.C. Brock 1918, "Some Notes of the Zande Tribe as Found in the Meridi District", Sudan Notes and Records 1, 251-2). See also Larken's discussion of the circumcision rituals (P.M. Larken, 1926, "An Account of the Zande", Sudan Notes and Records IX no. 1, pp 28-30) [RTS 7/5/2004].

Search terms: Clothing, Skirt

Further items to explore