IDNO

N.19653.ROS

Description

Five Bahima? milk pots from the Ankole region displayed on the table on the porch of a thatched house.

Place

E Africa; Uganda; Ankole

Cultural Affliation

?Bahima

Named Person

Photographer

?Roscoe, John R.

Collector / Expedition

Roscoe, John R. [Mackie Ethnological Expedition, Uganda, 1919 - 1920]

Date

1919 - 1920

Collection Name

Roscoe Collection

Source

Format

Film Negative Black & White

Primary Documentation

Other Information

This negative was kept in an envelope marked C31/263/ by the cataloguer. The envelope was kept in box marked C31/ by the cataloguer.
Previously stored on Shelf 4, in group of 4 wooden boxes numbered 180.

Publication: Cropped image published in Roscoe, J., 1922. The Soul of Central Africa: An Account of the Mackie Ethnological Expedition. (London: Cassell and Co.), p. 74 with the caption: "Ankole: Milk-pots.” [ED 15/10/2007]

Context: "Milk is the chief diet of the Bahima. When milk is plentiful they drink it warm from the cow early in the morning, and what is over they drink at noon. They never allow the milk to stand after noon or to go sour; what they cannot drink they give to their servants. When cattle are few and milk is scarce, the men drink the morning milk, and the women the evening. The men are allowed to eat beef, the meat of certain antelopes, and buffalo; women are only allowed to eat beef, though when pressed by hunger they may eat plantains; vegetables are, however, tabu to both men and women under ordinary circumstances ; the person who eats vegetables ought not to drink milk.” (Roscoe, J., 1907, ‘The Bahima: a cow tribe of Enkole,’The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland , Vol. 37 (Jan., 1907), pp. 93 - 118 JSTOR). [ED 15/10/2007]

Context: "The pastoral people live on a milk diet, and in this respect also they have been more conservative than other branches of the Bahuma, who have generally admitted some vegetables into their meals in the course of the day. These Bahima drink only milk from morning until night, but should there be any beef available, they will eat that after sunset, abstaining from for a period of twelve hours thereafter from drinking milk. There are numbers of them who hardly ever meat and prefer milk, and yet they enjoy the best of help, to all appearance they are quite strong, and they can endure a good deal of fatigue during a day’s marching. They have constantly to make long journeys and are herding cattle all day.” (Roscoe, J., 1922. The Soul of Central Africa: An Account of the Mackie Ethnological Expedition. (London: Cassell and Co.), p. 57). [ED 15/10/2007]

This catalogue record has been updated with the support of the Getty Grant Program Two. [Elisabeth Deane 15/10/2007]