Period Photos of People with Ethnographic Arms

[Rumpel]

1,2,3,4,5. Nuer mock combat/dancing. This sort of war play was a common feature of such dance gatherings where initiated youths of differing villages faced each other in mock running battles as a show of group prowess. Dances were also significant occasions for courtship.
Photographer:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Date of Photo:
1936 October - November
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Wahda
Group:
Nuer Western Jikany Jikul

6,7. A group of youths in dance gear with spears, clubs, shields and small flags, apparently engaged in warplay with another group out of frame to the left. Judging by their body language, some crouching, others standing just behind them, they are readying themselves to respond to the aggressive advances of this opposing group, which may be from a nearby village. Dances were frequent events, which provided the main opportunity for youths and girls to socialise together.
Photographer:
Jean Carlile Buxton
Date of Photo:
1950 - 1952
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Bahr el Jebel ?Tali

8,9 Two men standing in a homestead demonstrating the use of clubs with spears in their left hands. One of the men is wearing thiau armrings which would have meant that the left hand was practically useless for brandishing a weapon. They are described as western Nuer men, possibly either Leek Karlual amongst whom Evans-Pritchard spent most time in 1936 or else Western Jikany.
Photographer:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Date of Photo:
1936 October - November
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Wahda
Group:
Nuer ?Leek ?Western Jikany

10. A relatively young Nuer prophet holding a spear aloft in his right hand, his face uplifted, showing the characteristic unkemptness of a prophet's beard and hair. In his left hand by his side he holds a spear with a very large blade and another with a smaller blade, and a curved baton called dang with metal and attachments. The dang was an instrument commonly used in wedding invocations, but was also associated with the prophet Ngundeng and thus became a symbol of spiritual power for subsequent prophets. He also wears ivory arm ornaments and leg ornaments of large strung beads. The prophet (guk) was a possessor of an air spirit (gwan kwoth) whom the Nuer greatly revered, but was a relatively unknown character before the mid 19th century, probably a result of the assimilation of Dinka people and their religious ideas. Such men were considered to have spiritual powers such as healing. Prophets were considered tirbal agitators by the government and were frequently persecuted.
Photographer:
Charles William Gwynn
Date of Photo:
?1900
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Upper Nile
Group:
Nuer ?Eastern Jikany

11. A group of four uninitiated youths carrying spears and clubs jumping in the air. They do not seem to be at a dance, and the possibility may exist that they were performing for Evans-Pritchard to photograph them.
Photographer:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Date of Photo:
1935 - 1936
Region:
[Southern Sudan]
Group:
Nuer

12. Two men perform a leaping movement (rau) holding spears and ambatch logs, and beyond them a group of men are also dancing, with Evans-Pritchard's tent visible to the right edge. The location is Yakwach cattle camp on the Sobat which Evans-Pritchard revisited in July 1935. Dances were more a feature of village life than cattle camps since people had more ready access to other social groups, and often accompanied ceremonies such as marriages. Such events were the main arena for courtship among Nuer youth, and often took the form of mock battles between village groups. The proximity of the tent suggests that this dance was held at the end of the day (see shadows) at the instigation of Evans-Pritchard.
Photographer:
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard
Date of Photo:
1935 July
Region:
[Southern Sudan] Upper Nile Sobat River Yakwach
Group:
Nuer Lou