1931.66.19

Collection type

Object

Description

Animal scrotum bag with globular body, loop handle tied in a knot, and a soft hide suspension loop. [JC [OPS move] 20/07/2016]

Long description

Hide bag made from an animal's scrotum, possibly from a giraffe. This has been cut to have 3 narrow tapering strips that are knotted together at the top to form a loop handle that extends above the oval mouth of the vessel. The body expands below this to reach its maximum diameter mid-way down the sides; the base is irregularly convex, and pinches in slightly across the centre; this is also oval in plan view. There is one long oval slit and a larger triangular opening cut in the upper body on one side, just below the base of one of the handles. The hide is stiff and inflexible, a mid brown colour on the inside surface (Pantone 7532C), and covered with whitish buff hair over the exterior (close to Pantone 7401C). A narrow strip of soft flexible hide has been tied around the handles to form a suspension loop. The bag is complete and intact, but has lost patches of hair across the outer surface and has some damage along the edge of the loop. It has a weight of 117.5 grams and total length of 390 mm. The handles are 113 mm long, 9 mm wide and 4 mm thick near their tops, while the body is 143 mm long, with a mouth diameter of 70 mm and a maximum body diameter of 118 mm, and the added loop is 160 mm long, 10.5 mm wide and 0.8 mm thick [RTS 4/8/2005].

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 Animal Hide Skin, Material Cattle Skin Animal, Material Giraffe Skin Animal, Process Knotted

Dimensions

Depth: max 120 mm, Width: max 115 mm, Length: max 255 mm, Weight 117.5 g

Object numbers

Accession number: 1931.66.19

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).

Evans-Pritchard illustrates 2 Nuer bags, made from the scrota of a bull and a giraffe; he says that the scrota of bulls are made into bags that are used to hold tobacco, spoons and other small objects (E.E. Evans-Pritchard, 1940, The Nuer, p. 30 and fig. 3; the illustrated objects are in the Cambridge Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology). The Pitt Rivers Museum has 2 such bags from his collection; for the other bag, see 1931.66.20, which is somewhat smaller. For a similar bag, used by the Shilluk, see R. Boccassino, 1966, "Contributo allo studio dell'ergologia delle popolazioni nilotiche e nilo-camitiche, parte V", Annali Lateranensi XXX, fig. 58, and p. 302. The Bari also made use of animal scrota for small purses; these have flattened bodies rather than the fuller shape seen in this example (see 1934.8.42-43) [RTS 27/2/2004].

Search terms: Bag, Transport and Travel, Carrying Device, Vessel