The Nuer

Introduction

The Nuer people are one of more than one hundred ethnic groups in the northeastern African country of Sudan, which stretches southward from Egypt for 2000 kilometers and westward from the Red Sea for 1500 kilometers. The Nuer is the second largest tribe in southern Sudan, numbering over one million people, according to estimates from the 1980's. Other tribes in the south include the more populous Dinka, the Shilluk, Anuak, Acholi and Lotuho, along with numerous smaller tribes. The Dinka are closely associated with the Nuer, and are often integrated into Nuer society when they reside with, or marry into a Nuer village. Principally the Nuer inhabits the swamps and expansive open grasslands on either side of the upper Nile River, and its tributaries, in the south.

The south has an equatorial rainy climate, divided by a very dry season and a very wet one, and Nuer life is regulated entirely by the seasons. In the dry season only a few of the older folk remain in the village, the rest going with the cattle to water-holes or to the river bank, where summer camps are built. The Nuer are “pre-emiinentaly pastoral, though they grow more millet and maize than is commonly supposed” (Evans-Pritchard, 1940:16). The lives of the Nuer revolve around their herding practices, raising cattle, and the seasonal patterns of the terrain. Like many of his pastoral neighbors, the dearest possession of the Nuer is cattle, and their herds play a significant role in the economy, social structure, and religion of these communities. The Nuer cattle are used as payment for virtually everything and are also the main source of food; they are used in purchases of land, as payment of bride price, and for milk, blood and meat.

Cattle are passed down as part of inheritance, and can stay in the family for several generations. An ox or lactating cow is always a part of any religious ceremony - no ritual is complete without the symbolic or actual sacrifice of one of the herd. Cattle also play a part in the kinship system used by the Nuer. Kinship is defined by Chodkiewicz (1998, Oct. 9) as the ideology of domestic life. Kinship systems are formed by sets of rules concerning four areas. Descent concerns all the rules of inheritance in group membership, name, property or status. Affinity deals with all the rules defying which kind of marriage is forbidden, permitted or preferred. Residence rules dictate where new spouses will live and kinship terminology are the named for the categories of relatives which are recognized by a society. It is these four areas of Nuer society that will form the primary focus of this paper, however other areas influence kinship and will be dealt with as they arise. Descent Bibliography for Kinship in Sudan: Buth and Mar among the Nuer References listed are the primary ones used in the development of ideas or quoted. Chodkiewicz, J.L. 1998 Kinship Lecture: Social Organization in Cross Cultural Perspective. October 9, ...