1931.66.27

Collection type

Object

Description

Clapper bell with perforated nut body, stick clapper and hide suspension cord [RTS 5/9/2005].

Long description

Clapper bell made from the hollowed out shell of a dom nut, cut flat across the mouth. The surface is a mid brown colour (Pantone 7533C), and shows signs of wear around the lip and upper part of the body. Two rows of circular holes have been bored into the walls, one running horizontally around the circumference and including 2 partial holes that were never completed, and the other running at right angles to this, up the sides and over the top of the bell. The uppermost pair of the latter have been threaded with a yellow suspension cord (Pantone 7508C), made from a twisted strip of hide with the ends tied in a loose knot. A second strip of hide, not twisted, has been atached to the base of this loop, inside the bell body, and that in turn has been fitted with a brass ring, which runs through the upper body of the clapper. The clapper has been carved from a short piece of soft yellow wood (Pantone 7508C), and has a cylindrical body and flat cut end that hangs down below the mouth. The bell is complete and intact, and has a weight of 42.8 grams. It has a total length of 130 mm; the bell body is 75 mm long, with a maximum width of 75.5 mm and thickness of 51 mm; the mouth measures 56 by 20 mm across. The clapper has a diameter of 9.5 by 9 mm, while the cord has a width of 3 mm [RTS 5/9/2005].

Geographical reference

South Sudan

Africa > Eastern Africa > South Sudan

Cultural groups

Nuer

Person

Field collector Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard

PRM source Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard

Date / Period

Date made: Before 1931

Date collected

1930 - 1931

Acquisition information

Donated: 1931

Materials and processes

Material Plant Nut, Material Animal Hide Skin, Material Brass Metal, Process Hollowed, Process Perforated, Process Carved, Process Twisted, Process Tied

Dimensions

Length: max 110 mm, Width: max 90 mm, Depth: max 50 mm, Weight 42.8 g

Object numbers

Accession number: 1931.66.27

Research and responses

This object was probably collected during his first or second season of fieldwork amongst the Nuer, e.g.: in 1930 or 'the dry season' of 1931. In the former, he spent around three and a half months in Leek territory at Yahnyang and Pakur on the Bahr el Ghazal, in Lou territory at Muot Dit, and at Adok, amongst the Dok Nuer. In the latter, he spent five and a half months at Nasir, on the Nyanding River, and at Yakwat on the Sobat River (see E.E. Evans-Pritchard, 1940, The Nuer, and the map of Evans-Pritchard's fieldwork in D.H. Johnson, "Evans-Pritchard, the Nuer, and the Sudan Political Service", African Affairs 81 no. 323, p. 233).

Groups of these bells were made into collars, worn by bull calves and oxen; see 1948.2.165, and an additional example published in E.E. Evans-Pritchard, 1940, The Nuer, p. 187, fig. 13; some of those nuts had groups of 4 holes through their sides, reminiscent of the multiple perforations seen in this example. Evans-Pritchard tells us that these kinds of necklaces were placed around the necks of oxen and "Even the bull calves are adorned by their boy-owners with wooden beads and bells" (Evans-Pritchard 1940, p. 37). Amongst the Zande, strings of similar bells, made from the doleib palm (Borassus flabellifer) are worn by witch-doctors around their waists during dances (see E. E. Evans-Pritchard, 1937, Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande, p. 157 and pl. XIV). Similar bells shaped from the seed shells of the borassus palm are found amongst the Amba and Konjo of Uganda; these have a double clapper (M. Trowell & K.P. Wachsmann, 1953, Tribal Crafts of Uganda, pl. 77A-B) [RTS 5/9/2005].

Search terms: Music, Animal Gear, Musical Instrument, Cattle Accessory, Bell