Umgenge

Umgenge

[ Source of title : FHYA using spreadsheet prepared by Nessa Leibhammer for SAHRIS ]

Object

JAG 1992-11-15

Creative Commons License: CC BY-NC-ND https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Description [Source - Debra Pryor for FHYA, 2022, using spreadsheet created by Nessa Leibhammer for the South African Heritage Resources Information System (SAHRIS), from JAG materials in 2015: Object description: Ovoid vessel carved with panels of vertical and horizontal grooves. The body is surrounded by a superstructure of two concentric rings with 4 vertical pillars supporting the upper one on the lower one which is inturn supported by 4 cylindrical legs. Between the superstructure and the vessel is a gap and the two are joined by horizontal cyllindrical struts. The rings, struts and pillars are all encircled with parallel grooved ridges . Object form type: Vessel; Object material type: wood, pokerwork, brass; Technique: Carving, pokerwork; Colours: Brown, black, copper; Dimension comment: 40 x 35 x 35; Object age: 19th century; Production place: KwaZulu-Natal; Cultural association: Northern Nguni; Place of use: KwaZulu-Natal; Provenance: .]

Attributions and conjectures [Source - Nessa Leibhammer for FHYA, 2017: Comments on classification: In his 'A Preliminary Survey of the Bantu Tribes of South Africa', Union of South Africa, Department of Native Affairs, Ethnological Publications, Vol. 5, Pretoria, Government Printer, (1935): 7, 70-83, national government ethnologist, Nicholas Van Warmelo did not use the term "North Nguni". He grouped people living both north and south of the Thukela, under one umbrella term, "Natal Nguni", based on linguistic affinity. His classification was adapted by the ethnology curator, Margaret Shaw, in her 1958 "System of Cataloguing Ethnographic Material in Museums" which determined that items from the region were to be classified as "Natal Nguni: Zulu and others (not differentiated)." According to art historian, Anitra Nettleton, the classificatory system used by art galleries and museum shifted from Shaw's model to the one where "Natal Nguni" fell away and was replaced by "North/Northern Nguni" for KwaZulu-Natal and Swaziland because scholars found it difficult to distinguish items from adjacent areas, or emigrant people from those from the KZN region. Scholars working with the JAG materials used broad ethno-linguistic categories (Zulu, Xhosa, Tsonga, Shona, Sotho, Tswana) to identify the makers/users of the objects, all of which came to JAG without much by way of provenance, and identification was based on factors such as object type, materials, formal composition, style and surface patterning (emails A. Nettleton to N. Leibhammer, 25 and 28 November 2014).]

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Umgenge
Umgenge (view 2)
Umgenge (view 3)