2

The Nuer of the Southern Sudan

E. E. Evans-Pritchard

I write shortiy of the Nuer because I have atready recorded a considerable part of my observations on their political constitution andthe whole is about to be published as a book.1They have, nevertheless, been included in thisvolume for the reasons that their constitution isrepresentative of East Africa and that it provides us with an extreme political type.

I. Distribution

To cliscover the principles of their anarchicstate we must first review briefly the oecologyof the people: their means of livelihood, theirdistribution, and the relacion of these to theirsurroundings. The Nuer practise cattle-husbandry and agriculture. They also fish, hunt,and collect wild fruits and roots. But, unlikethe other sources of iheir food supply, cattlehave more than nutritive interest, being indeedofgreater value in their eyes than anything else.So, although they have a mbced economy, Nuerare predominantly pastoral in sentiment.

Nuerland is more suited for stock-breedingthan for agriculture: it is flat, clayey, savannahcountry, parched and bare during che droughtand flooded and covered with high grassesduring the rains. Heavy rain falls and therivers overflow their banks from June to December. There is littie rain and the rivers areIow (rom December to June. The year thuscomprises two seasons of about equal duration. This seasonal dichotomy, combined

with pastoral interests, profoundly affects political relations.

During the rains Nuer live in villagesperched on the backs of knolis and ridges ordotted over stretches of slightly elevatedground, and engage in the cuLtivation of milletand maize. The counrry which intervenes between village and village, being more er lessflooded for six months, is then unsuitable forhabitacion, agriculture, or grazing. Anytbingfrem live to twenty miles may separate neighbouring villages, while grener distances maydivide sections of a tribe and tribe (rom tribe.

At the end of rhe rains, the people burn thegrasses to provide new pasture and leave theirvillages to reside in small camps. When thedrought becomes severe, the inmates of theseinrermediate camps concentrate on permanentwater supplies. Although these moves are madeprimarily for the sake of the cattle, they alsoenable rhe Nuer to fish, which is generally impossible (rom village sites, and, to a lesserdegree, to hunt and collect wild fruits androots. When the rains set in again, they returnto their villages, where the cattie have protection and the higher ground permits agriculture.

The distribution of the Nuer is determinedby the physical conditions and mode of life wehave outlined. During the rains, villages areseparated, though by no means isolated, (romtheir neighbours by flooded stretches of grassland, and local communities are therefore verydistinct units. During the drought, people of

THE NUER OF THE 5OUTHERN SUDAN 65

different villages of the same district eventuallyconcentrate on permanent water-supplies andshare common camps. On the otber hand,some families of a village may go to one campand some to another, though the majority forma local community throughout the year.

Nuer seldom have a surplus of food and atthe beginning of the rains it is often insufficientfor their needs. Indeed, it may be said that theyare generally on the verge of want and thatevery few years they face more or less severefamine. In these conditions, it is understandaNe that there is much sharing of food in thesame village, especially among members of adjacent homesteads and hamlets. Though at anytime some members may have more cattle andgram than otbers, and these are their privatepossessions, people eat in one anotber’s homesteads at feasts and at daily meals, and food isin other ways shared, to such an extent that onemay speak of a common stock. Food is mostabundant from the end of September to themiddle of December in a normal year, and itis during these months that most ceremonies,dances, &c., take place.

The Nuer have a very simple rechnology.Their country lacks iron and stone and thenumber and variety of trees are small, andthey are generally unsuited for constructivepurposes other than building. This paucity ofraw materials, togerher with a meagre foodsupply, contracts social ties, drawing thepeople of village or camp closer, in a moralsense, for they are in consequence highly interdependent and rheir pastoral, hunting, fishing,and, to a lesser degree, their agricultural activities are of necessity joint undertakings. This isespecially evident in the dry season, when ihecattle of many families are tetbered in acommon kraal and driven as a single herd tothe grazing grounds.

Thus, while in a narrow sense the economicunit is the household, the larger local communities are, directly or indirectly, cooperativegroups combining to maintain existence, andcorporations owning natural resources andsharing in their exploitation. In the smallerlocal groups the co-operative functions aremore direct and evident than in rhe largerones, but the collective function of obtainingfor themselves the necessities of life from thesame resources is in some degree common to all

local communities from rhe household to thetribe.

These local communities are the monogamous family attached to a single hut, the household occupying a single homestead, the hamlet,the village, the camp, the district, tribal sectionsof varying size, the tribe, the people, and theinternational community the limits of which area Nuer’s sociat horizon. We regard the family,the household, and the hamlet as domestic,rarher than political, groups, and do not discussthem further in detail.

Thedistribution of ihese local communities isvery largely determined by physical conditions,especially by the presence of ground whichremains above flood-level in titt rains, and ofpermanent water which survives the drought. Inany village, che size of population and the arrangement of homesteads is determined by thenature of the site. When perched on an isolatedknoll, homesteads are crowded together; whenstrung out along a ridge, they are more widelyseparated; and when spread over a hroadstretch of higher ground, several hundredyards may intervene between one hamlet andrhe next. In any large village. the homesteadsare grouped in clusters, or hamlets, the inmatesof which are generally close kinsmen and theirspouses. It is not possible to give more than arough indication of the size of a village population, hut it may be said to vary from 50 toseveral hundred souls.

As explained, villages are separated by several miles of savannah. An aggregate ofvillageslying within a radius which aIlows easy intercommunication we ca11 a ‘district’. This is not apolitical group, for it can only be defined inrelation to each village, since the same villagesmay be included in more than one district; andwe do not regard a local community as a political group unless the people who comprise itspeak of themselves as a community by contrast with other communities of the same kindand are so regarded by outsiders. Nevertheless,a district tends to coincide with a tertiary trihalsection and its network of social des are whatgives the section much of its cohesion. Peopleof the same district often share common campsin the drought and they attend one another’sweddings and other ceremonies. lhcy litermarry and hence establish hetwccn themselvcsmany affinal and cognatic rclntittnslups which,

66 E. E. EVANS-PRITCHARD

as wiil be seen later, crystallizc round an agnatic nucleus.

Villages, the political units of Nuerland, aregrouped into tribal sections. There are somevery small tribes to the west of the Nile whichcomprise only a few adjacent villages. In thelarger tribes to tbe west of the Nile and in allthe tribes to the east of i; we find that the tribalarea is divided into a aumber of territorialsections separated by stretches of unoccupiedcountry, which intervene also between thenearest habitations of contiguous tribes.

As all Nuer leave their villages to camp nearwater, they have a second distribution in thedry season. When they camp along a river,tbese camps sometimes succeed one anotherevery few miles, but when they camp aroundinland pools, cwenty to thirty miles often separate one camp from the next. The territorialprinciple of Nuer political structure is deeplymodified by seasonal migration. l’eople whoForm separate village communities in the rainsmay unite in a common camp in the drought.Likewise, people of the same village may joindifferent camps. Also, il is often necessary, inthe larger tribes, for members of a village totraverse wide tracts of country, occupied byother village communities, to reach water, andtheir camp may Re close to yet other villages.To avoid the complete loss of their herds byrinderpest or some otber misfortune, Nueroften distribute the beasts in several camps.

In western Nuerland, where the tribes aregenerally smaller than to tbe east of the Nile,there is usually plenty of water arid pasturage,and it is possible, therefore, for village communities of the rains to maintain a relative isolation in the drought. But where, as in rhe Loutribe, for example, scarcity of water and pasturage compels more extensive movement andgreater concentration, people who are verywidely distributed may have more social contact with one another than is the case in western Nuerland. The isolation and autonomy oflocal communities are broken up by economicnecessity and the size of the political group isthereby enlarged. This fact has to be consideredin relation to the further fact that to the east ofthe Nile wider stretches of elevated groundallow larger local concentrations in tbe rainsthan is usual to the west of that river. Moreover, seasonal concentration offers an explan

ation, though by no means a full one, of thelocation of tribal boundaries, since they aredetermined not only by the distribution of villages, but also by the direction in which tRepeople turn in their tnove to dry season pastures. Thus the tribes of tRe Zeraf Valley fallback on the Zeraf River and therefore do notshare camps with the Lou tribe, and that partof the Lou tribe which moves east and northeast make their camps on the Nyanding Riverand on the upper reaches of the Pibor and donot share their waters and pasture with theJikany tribes, who move to tRe upper reachesof tRe Sobat and the lower reaches of the Pihor.Furthermore, that some of the larger Nuertribes are abLe to preserve a degree of tribalunity without governmental organs may inpart be attributed to seasonal migration,since, as explained above, the different localsections are forced by tRe severity of tRe latitude into mutual contact and develop somemeasure of forbearance and recognition ofcommon interests.

Likewise, a tribal section is a distinct seg-ment, not only because its villages occupy aweIl-demarcated portion of its territory, butalso in that it Ras its unique dry-season pastures. The people of one section move off inone direction and tRe people kom an adjoiningsection move off in a different direction. Dryseason concentrations are never tribal, butalways sectional, and at no time and in noarea is the population dense.

The total Nuer population is round about300,000. I do not know tRe total square mileage of tRe country, but to the east of tRe Nile,where there are, on a rough estimate, some180,000 Nuer, they are said to occupy 26,000square miles, with tRe low density of aboutseven to tRe square mile. TRe density is probably no higher to tRe west of tRe NiIe. Nowhereis there a high degree of local concentration.

Although dry-scason movement producesmore social interrelations between membersof different tribal sections than tRe rainy seasondistribution might lead us to expect, thesecontacts are mainly individual or, when theyconcern groups, only smaller local communities, and not the larger tribal sections, arebrought into association. This is probably oneof the reasons for the lack of structural complexity and of great variation of types of social

THE NUER OF THE SOUTHERN SUDAN 67

Figure 2.1

relations among rhe Nuer. Outside smal1 kmship groups and village and camp communities, there are no co-operarive economiccombinations and rhere are no organized ritualassociations. Except for occasional miliraryventures, acrive corporate life is restricted rosmall tribal segments.

Il. Tribal System

Whar is a Nuer tribe? The most obvious characteristic is irs territorial unity and exclusiveness, and this was even more marked heforeLuropean conquest rhan ro-day. The population of a tribe varies (rom a few hundredsamong some small rribes to the west of theNile — il rhese are rightly regarded as tribes,for very Hale research was conducted in thatarea — to many thousands. Most tribes have apopularion of over 5,000 and the largest

number berween 30,000 and 45,000 souls.Each tribe is economically self-sufficient,having its own pastures, water-supplies, andfishing reservations, which irs members alonehave rhe right ro exploit. Ir has a name which isrhe symbol of irs disrincrion. The tribesmenhave a sense of parriotism; rhey are proud tobe members of rheir trihe and rhey consider itsuperior to orher rrihes. Each trihe has within ira dominant cian which furnishes a kinshipframework on which rhe poliricnl aggregate ishuilr up. Each also regulates independently itsage-set organization.

None of the ahove-menrioned attrihutesclearly make a formal disrincrion herween atribe and irs divisions. The simplest definirionstates thar a tribe is the largest communiry whichconsiders rhar disptircs hcrwecn its Illc,nIwr%should be serried by arbirration and ibar irought to combine againsr otber Cl ‘nimti ‘ut les

68 E. E. EVANS-PRITCHARD

the same kind and against toreigners. In thesetwo respects there is no larger political groupthan the tribe and all smaller political groupsare sections et it.

Within a tribe there is law: there is machineryfor settling disputes and a moral obligation toconclude them sooner er later. If a man kills atellow tribesman, it is possible to prevent, ercurtail, a teud by payment ot cattle. Betweentribe and tribe there is no means et bringingtogether the parties to a dispute and compensation is neither otfered nor demanded. Thus, ita man et one tribe kills a man et anotber tribe,retribution can only take the form et intertribalwarfare. It must not be supposed that teudswithin a tribe are easy to conclude. There isconsiderable control over retaliation within avillage, but the larger the local community themore difficult settlement becomes. When twolarge divisions et a tribe are cencerned in a teud,the chances et immediate arbitration and settlement are remote. The force of law varies withthe distance in tribal structure that separates thepersens concerned. Nevertheless, se long as asense et community endures and the legal normis formally acknowledged within a tribe, whatever may be the incensistencies and contradictions that appear in the actual relations betweentribesmen, they still consider themselves to be aunited greup. Then either the contradiction ofteuds is lek and they are settled, the unity et thetribe being maintained thereby, or they remainse long unsettled that people give up all hopeand intention ot ever concluding them andfinally cease to [ccl that they ought to be concluded, so that the tribe tends to split and twonew tribes ceme inte being.

Ner must it be supposed that the politicallimits et the tribe are the limits ot social intercourse. People move freely all over Nuerlandand are unmolested it they have not incurredblood-guik. They marry and, to a small extent,trade across tribal boundaries, and pay visits tokinsmen living outside their own tribe. Manysocial relations, which are not specifically political, link members ot difterent tribes. One hasonly to mention that the same dans are toundin ditterent tribes and that everywhere the agesets are co-ordinated. Any Nuer may leave histribe and settie in a new tribe, et which bethereby becomes a member. In time et peace,even Dinka tereigners may visit Nuerland un

harmed. Moreover, we must recognize that thewhole Nuer people form a single community,territorially unbroken, with common cultureand teeling et exclusiveness. Their commonlanguage and values permit ready intercemmunication. Indeed, we might speak etthe Nuer as a nation, theugh enly in a culturalsense, for there is ne commen political organization er central administratien.

Besides being the largest greup in which legalobligation is acknowledged, a tribe is also thelargest greup which habitually cembines terettence and detence. The younger men et thetribe went, till recently, on jeint raiding expeditiens against the Dinka and waged war againstother Nuer tribes. Raids en the Dinka were veryfrequent; war between tribes less so. In theery, ittwo sections etditferent tribes were engaged inhostilities, each could rely en the support ot theother sections et the same tribe, but in practicethey did not always jein in. Contigueus tribessemetimes combined against fereigners, especially against the Dinka, though there was nemoral obligation to de se, the alliance was otshort duration, and the allies conducted theiroperations independently, even when in collaboratien.

At the present time, Nuer are to the west andsouth bordered by Dinka, whe appear to havevery much the same kind et political system astheir ewn, i.e. they comprise a congerieset tribes witheut centralized government.Frem the earliest times the Nuer have beenfighting the Dinka and have been generally onthe ottensive. We know that during the ~rsthall et the last century waves ot Nuer breketrom their hemeland to the west et the Nile ento the Dinka lands to the east et that river andthat they conquered and absorbed the inhabitants in mest ot what is now eastern Nuerland(the Nuer distinguish between Natt, cieng, the‘hemeland’, er western Nuer, and Nath doar,the ‘migrated’, er eastern Nuer). Fighting between the two peoples has continued till thepresent time but there does not appear, if mapsmade by early travellers are to be trusted, tohave been much change et territory during thelast fifty years. This eastwards migration is afact that has to be taken into account, withthose related earlier, if we wish to know whythe eastern tribes are larger, territorially andnumerically, than the western tribes, for it

Figure 2.2

THE NIJER OF THE SOUTHERN SUDAN 69

may be assumed that the struggie of conquestand settiement, and absorption of Dinka on anunprecedented scale, bad some effect on themigrating hordes.

To the north, the Nuer are in varying degreesof contact with Arabs, the peoples of the NuhaHilIs, the powerful Shilluk kingdom, and certain smal’ communiries in Darfung (Burun andKoma); while to the east and soutb-east theyare hordered by the Galla of Ethiopia, theAnuak, and the Beir. Wherever the Nuer havedirect relations with these peoples, they arehostile in character.

Arab slave-raiders frem the Northern Sudanintruded here and there inte the more accessible portions el’ Nuerland in the second half ofthe ninereenth century, but nowhere did theygain the upper hand er, indeed, make a markedimpression on the Nuer, who opposed them asstrongly as they resisted later the Egyptian

Government, which undertook no seriousoperations against them. The Nuer likewisetreated British rule with open disrespect till,as a result of lengthy military operations between 1928 and 1930, their opposition wasbroken and they were hrought under effectiveadministration. With the exception el’ this lastepisode in their history, the Nuer may be saidto have reached in their foreign relations a stateel’ equilibrium and of mutual hostility whicbwas expressed frem time to time in fighting.

Å tribe is divided inte territorial segmentswhich regard themselves as separate communities. We refer to the divisions el’ a trihe asprimary, secondary, and tertiary tribal sections.Primary sections are segments el’ a trihe, secondary sections are segments el’ a primarysection, and tertiary scctions arv segnicilt’ ol’secondary section. A tertiary scctloIl is dividcdinte villages and villages inte dnnwstic groups.

III’’’”’DINKA NUER Sl-1ILl.UK ANUAK

70 E. E. EVANS-PRITCHARD

xl

zl

X2

z2

Figure 2.3

A member of Z2 tertiary divisjon of tribe B seeshimself as a member of Z2 community in relation to Z’, but he regards himseif as a memberof Y2 and not of Z2 in relation to Y1. Likewise,be regards himseif as a member of Y, and not ofY2, in relation to X. He regards himself as amember of tribe 8, and not of its primarysection Y, in relarion to tribe A. Thus, on astructural plane, there is always contradictionin the definition of a political group, for a manis a member of it in virtue of his non-membership of orher groups of the same type which bestands outside of, and he is likewise not amember of the same community in virtue ofhis membership of a segment of it which standsin opposition to its otber segments. Hence aman counts as a member of a polirical groupin one situation and not as a member of it in adifferent situation, e.g. he is a member of atribe in relation to other tribes and be is not amember of it in so far as his segment of thetribe is opposed to other segments. In studyingthe Nuer political constitution, it is thereforeessential that we view it together with those oftheir enemies as a single political system, forthe outstanding struciural characteristic ofNuer political groups is their relativiry. A tribalscgment is a political group in relation to othersegments of the same kind, and rhey jointlyform a tribe only in relation to other Nuertribes and to adjacent foreign tribes whichform part of their political system, and withoutrhese relations very littie meaning can be attached to the concepts of ‘tribe’ and ‘tribalsegment’. That the distinction and individuality of a political group is in relation to groupsof the same kind is a generalization that em

braces all Nuer local communities, from thelargest to che smaflest.

The relation between tribes and between segments of a tribe which gives them political

yi unity and distinction is one of opposition. Between tribes, or federations of tribes, and foreign peoples this opposition is expressed, onthe Nuer side at any rate, by contempt andpersistent raiding, often carried out in a reck

y~ less and brutal manner. Between Nuer tribes,opposition is expressed by actual warfare or byacceptance that a dispute cannot, and oughtnot, to be settled in any otber way. In intertribal warfare, however, women and childrenare neirher speared nor enslaved. l3etween segments of the same tribe, opposition is expressed by the instirution of the feud. A fightbetween persons of the same village or camp isas far as possible restricted to duelling withclubs. The hostility and mode of expression inthese different relations vary in degree and inthe form they take.

Feuds frequently break out between sectionsof the same tribe and they are often of longduration. They are more difficult to settle thelarger the sections involved. Within a villagefeuds are easily settied and within a tertiarytribal section they are concluded sooner orlater, but when still larger groups are involvedthey may never be settled, especially if manypersons on either side have been killed in a bigfight.

A tribal section has most of the attributes ofa tribe: name, sense of patriotism, a dominantlineage, territorial distinction, economic resources, and so forth. Each is a tribe in mmiature, and they differ from tribes only in size, indegree of integration, and in din they unite forwar and acknowledge a common principle ofjustice.

The strength of the sentiment associatedwith local groups is roughly relative to theirsize. Feeling of unity in a tribe is weaker thanfeeling of unity within its secrions. The smallerthe local group, che more rhe contacts itsmembers have with one anotber and the morethese contacts are co-operative and necessaryfor the maintenance of the life of the group. Ina big group, like the tribe, contacts are infrequenr, short, and of limired type. Also thesmaller the group the cioser and che morevaried the relationships between its members,

A 8x

THE NUER OF TI-lE SOUTHERN SUDAN 71

residential relations being only one strand in anerwork of agnatic, cognatic, and affinal relationships. Relationships by blood and marriagebecome fewer and more distant the wider thegroup.

It is evident that when we speak of a Nuertribe we are using a relative term, for it is notalways easy to say, on the criteria we have used,whether we are dealing with a tribe with twoprimary segments or with two tribes. The tribalsystem as defined by sociological analysis can,therefore, only be said ro approximate to anysimple diagrammatic presenration. A tribe is anexemplification of a segmentary tendencywhich is characteristic of the political structureas a whole. The reason why we speak of Nuerpolitical groups, and of the tribe in particular,as relative groups and state that they are noteasily described in terms of polirical morphology, is that political relations are dynamic.They are always changing in one direcrion eranother. The mest evident movement is towards fission. The tendency of tribes and tribalsections towards fission and internal opposition between tileir parts is balanced by atendency in the direction of fusion, of the combination ar amalgamation of groups. This tendency towards fusion is inherent in thesegmenrary character of Nuer political structure, for, although any group tends to split intoopposed parts, these parts tend to fuse in relation to otber groups. Flence fission and fusionare two aspects of the same segmentaryprinciple and the Nuer tribe and its divisionsare to be understood as a relation betweenthese two contradictory, yet complementary,tendencies. Physical environment, way of liveIihood, mode of distribution, poor communications, simple economy, &c., to some extentexplain the incidence of political cleavage, butthe tendency towards segmentation seems to beinherent in political structure itseif.

III. Lineage System

Tribal unity cannot be accounted for by any ofthe facts we have sa far mentioned, taken aloneor in the aggregate, but only by reference to thelineage system. The Nuer clan is not an undifferenriated group of persons who recognizetheir common kinship, as are many African

are genealogical structures, and we thereforerefer to them as lineages and to the cian as anexogamous system of lineages which trace theirdescent to a common ancestor. The deflningcharacteristic of a lineage is that the relationship of any member of it to other members canbe exacrly stated in genealogical terms. [-(isreiationship to members of orher Jineages ofthe same cian is, therefore, also known, sincelineages are genealogically related. Thus, infigure 24, A is a cian which is segmented intomaximal lineages B and C and these againbifurcate into major lineages fl, E, F, and G.In the same manner, minor lineages H, I, J, and1< are segments of major lineages E and F; andL, M, N, and 0 are minimal lineages which aresegments of minor lineages H and J. The wholecian is a genealogical structure, i.e. the lettersrepresent persons to whom the cian and itssegments trace tbeir descent, and from whomthey often take their names. There must be atleast twenty such dans in Nuerland, withouttaking into account many small lineages ofDinka origin.

The Nuer lineage is a group of agnates,and comprises all living persons descended,through males only, from the founder of thatparticular line. Logically, it also includes deadpersons descended fram the faunder, but thesedead persons are only significant in that theirgenealogical position explains the relationshipbetween the living. The wider agnatic kinshipis recognized the further back descent has to betraced, so that the depth of a lineage is alwaysin proportion to its width.

The Nuer cian, being thus highly segmented,has many of the characteristics which we havefound in tribal structure. Its lineages are distinct groups only in relation to each other.Thus, in the diagram, M is a group onlyby opposition to L, H is a group only by

A

dans, but is highly segmented. The segments Figure 2.4

72 E. E. EVANS-PIUTCHARD

opposition to I, D is a group only by oppositionto E, and so on. There is always fusion ofcollateral lineages of the same branch in relation to a collateral branch, eg. in the diagram,L and M are no longer separate minimal lineages, but are a single minor lineage, H, inopposition to I, and D and E are no longerseparate major lineages, but are a single maximal lineage, B, in opposition to C. Hence twolineages which are equal and opposite are composite in relation to a third, so that a man is amember of a lineage in relation to a certaingroup and not a member of it in relation to adifferent group. Lineages are thus essentiallyrelative groups, like tribal sections, and, likethem, also are dynamic groups. Thereforethey can only be described satisfactorily interms of values and situations.

Nuer lineages are not corporate localizedcominunities though their members oftenhave an association with a locality and speakof the locality as though it were an exclusiveagnatic group. Every Nuer village is associatedwith n lineage, and though the members of itoften comprise a small proportion of the community, it is identified with them in such a waythat we may spealc of it as an aggregate ofpersons clustered around an agnatic nucleus.The aggregate is linguistically identified withthe nucieus by che designation of the villagecommunity by the name of the lineage. It isonly in reference to rules of exogamy and certain ritual activities that one needs to regardlineages as completely autonomous groups. Insocial life generally, they function within localcommunities, of all sizes (rom the village to thetribe, and as part of them. We cannot herediscuss the ways by which residential groupsbecome a network of kinship ties — marriage,adoption, and various fictions — but the resulttends to be that a local group is a cognaticcluster round an agnatic core, the rules of exogamy being the operating principle in thistendency.

Nuer dans are everywhere much dispersed,so that in any village or camp one finds representatives of diverse dans. Small lineages havemoved freely over Nuerland and have settiedhere and there and have aggregated themselvesto agnatically unrelated elements in local communities. Migration and the absorption ofDinka have been circumstances favouring che

dispersal and mixture of dans. Being a conquering, pastoral people and not having anancestral cult, the Nuer have never beenbound to any particular spot by necessity orsentiment.

Nevertheless, there is a straight relation between political structure and the dlan system,for a cian, or a maximal lineage, is associatedwith each tribe, in which it occupies a dominantposition among other agnatic groups. Moreover, each of its segments tends to be associatedwith a segment of the tribe in such a way thatthere is a correspondence, and often a linguisticidentification, between the parts of a clan andthe parts of a tribe. Thus if we compare f~gures2.3 and 2.4 and suppose clan A to be the dominant clan in tribe B, then maximal lineages Band C correspond to primary sections X and Y;major lineages fl and E correspond to secondary section X’ and X’; major lineages F and Gcorrespond to secondary sections Y’ and Y2;and minor lineages J and K correspond to tertiary sections Z’ and Z2.

We speak of a clan which is dominant in atribe as the aristocratic cian, although, excepton the periphery of Nuer expansion eastwards,its predominance gives prestige rather thanprivilege. Its members are in a minority —

often a very smal1 minority — in the (ribe. Notall members of the aristocratic clan live in thetribe where it is dominant, but many are alsofound in other tribes. Not all dans are associated with a tribe in this manner. A man is onlyan aristocrat in the one tribe in which his cian isdominant. IF be lives in another tribe, be is notan aristocrat there.

There is consequently in every tribe somesocial differentiation. There are aristocrats,Nuer of other dans, and Dinka, but thesestrata are not ciasses and the second and thirdare properly to be regarded as categories ratherthan as groups. The Dinlca who have beenabsorbed into Nuer society have been for themost part incorporated into their kinshipsystem by adoption and marriage, and conguest has not led to the development of dlassesor castes. This is, perhaps, to be attributed, inpart at any rate, to the fact that the Dinka, likethe Nuer, are chiefly pastoralists and that inother respects their ways of life are very similar.

Without presenting all the evidence andwithout making every qualiflcation, we atte’npr

THE NUER OF THE SOUTHERN SUDAN 73

an explanation of why Nuer dans, especiallythe dominant dans, are segmented into lineages to a far greater degree than is usualamong African peoples. In our view, they aresegmented because the political structure towhich they correspond is segmented in theway we have describcd. Social obligationsarnong the Nuer are expressed chiefiy in a kmship idiom and the interrelations of local dommunities within a tribe are defined in terms ofagnatic relationship. Therefore, as the tribe segments the cian segments with it and the point ofseparation between the tribal sections becomesthe point of divergence in the cian structure ofthe lineages associated with each section. For,as we have seen, dans and their lineages are notdistinct corporate groups, but are embodied inlocal communities, through which they function structurally. Such being the case, it is notsurprising that they take the form of the Statewhich gives them corporate substance.

Those dans which are associated with tribeshave generally greater lineage extension anddepth than those which are not so associated,and the larger the tribe ihe more significancethis association has for the Nuer. It is in thelargest tribes, territorially and numerically, andthose which have expanded most and assimilated most foreigners, like the Lou and LasternGaajak and Gaajok tribes, that we find thegreatest attention paid to the distinct and dominant position of the aristocratic dans. Indeed,not only do political relations affect the cianstructural form, splitting it into segments alongthe lines of political hssion, but also the clansystem may be said to have a correspondingaction on the political structure. In a confusionof lineages of different clan origin and in anamorphous network of cognatic links, the political structure is given consistent form, in thelanguage of kinship, by one clan — a singlesystem of lineages — being made to correspondto the tribe and to its structure of opposedsegments. Just as a man is a member of a tribalsegment opposed to orher segments of the sameorder and yet also a member of the tribe whichembraces all these segments, so also be is amember of a lineage opposed to other lineagesof the same order and yet also a member of theclan which embraces all these lineages, andthere is a strict correspondence between thesetwo sets of affihiations, since the lineage is cm-

bodied in the segment and the cian in the tribe.Moreover, the distance in clan structure between two lineages of a dominant cian tendsto correspond to the distance in tribal structurebetween the t-wo sections with which they areassociated. Thus the system of lineages of thedominant clan enables the Nuer to rhink oftheir tribe in the highly consistent form of clanstructure. In each segment the network of kmship ties are given unity and coherence by theircommon relationship to the lineage of the dominant clan that resides there, and as these separate lineages are composite in relation tootber dans so the whole tribe is built aroundan exclusive agnatic framework. Though thesections may tend to draw apart and to split,a common agnatic value, shared by the dominant lineages contained in them, endures.

IV. Age-set System

Another tribal ihstitution is the age-set system,which is socially more significant among theNuer than among other Nilotic peoples of theSudan. Nuer boys pass into the grade of manhood through a severe ordeal and a series ofrites connected with it. These initiations takeplace whenever there are a sufficient number ofboys of from about fourteen to sixteen years ofage in a village or district. All the youths whohave been initiated in a successive number ofyears belong to one age-set, and there is a fouryear mnterval between the last batch of initiatesof one set and the first batch of the next sel, andduring this mnterval no boys may be initiated.The initiation period is open for about sixyears, so that, with the four years of the closedperiod, there are ahout ten years between thecommencement of any age-set and the commencement of the set that precedes or succeedsit. The age-sets are not organized in a cycie.

Nuer age-sets are a tribal institution in thesense that, in the larger tribes at any rate, all thesections of a tribe have the same open andclosed periods and call the sets by the samenames. They are also the mest characteristicof all Nuer national institurions, for initiationscars are the sign of their communion and thebadge of their suprenlacy. Moreover, thotigheach big tribe bas its own agc-scr crganIzatIon,adjacent tribes co-ordinate thcir sets in periodsand nomenclature, se rhat thc Wcsrcrn Nuer,

74 E. E. EVANS-PRITCHARO

the Eascern Nuer, and the Central Nuer rend tofall inta three divisions in this respect. But evenwhen a man travels from ane end of Nuerlandto the other, be can always, and easily, perceivethe set which is equivalent to his own in eacharea. The age-set system, therefore, like thecian system, whilst having a tribal connotation,is not bound by lines of political cleavage.

There is usually in each tribe a man whoseprivilege it is to open and close initiatianperiods and to give each set its name. Thisman belongs to ane at those lineages whichhave a special ritual relationship to cattle andare known as ‘Men of the Cattle’. He opensand closes initiation periods in his own district,and otber districts of bis tribe tallow suit. Oncea period has been opened, each village anddistrict initiates its boys when it pleases. Theage-sets have no corporate activities and cannotbe said to have specihc political functions.There are no grades of ‘warriors’ and ‘elders’concerned with the administration at the country, and the sets are not regiments, for a manfights with tbe members of his local community,irrespective at age. In the rites of initiation thereis no educative ar moral training. There is noleadership in the sets.

There are probably never more than six setsin existence at any time, since six sets coverabout seventy-five years. As each set dies itsname is remembered only tar a generarian artwa. Each ser becames more senior as the yearsga an, sa that a man rises fram a junior to amiddle, and fram a middie ta a senior pasitionin his cammunity as a member at a graup. Thestratification at the age-set system is thus afurther exemplificatian at the principle at segmentatian which we have seen ta be a characteristic at the political and kinship systems.There is further stratificatian within each set,but this is not at great impartance, far the sersees itselt, and is seen by orhers, as an undividedgraup in relatian to atter sets, and its divisionsbecame merged as the set becames more senior.A set once camplete does not change its membership, but the sets are canstantly changingtheir positians in relatian ta the whole system.There is also a certain relativity abaut thesestratified sets similar ta that we nated abouttribal sectians and dans, far, while they keeprheir distinction, there is often a situationaltusian of two sets in relatian ta a third. This is

especially apparent at feasts. Whether a set isregarded as junior ar egual depends nat only anits positian in the age-ser structure, but also onthe status of a third set concerned in any situation, a tendency dnc to the connexion betweenage-sets and generations.

The most evident actian of age-sets in determining behaviour is the way duties and privileges are ettected by a transition from boyhaadta manhaad. Alsa, in virtue ot the positian at hisset in the structure, every male Nuer is in a statusatseniority,equality, ar juniarity towards everyother Nuer man. Same men are his ‘sans’, samebk ‘brathers’, and same his ‘fathers’. Withautentering here inta turther detail, we may saythat ihe attitude at a man towards ather menat his community is largely determined by theirrespective positions in the age-set system. Henceage relatians, like kinship relatians, are structural determinants at behaviaur. The age-setsystem rnay, moreaver, be regarded as a politicalinstitution, since it is, to a large extent, segmented tribally and since it divides a tribe — astar as its male members are cancerned — inragraups, based an age, which stand in a deflniterelatian to each atter. We do not cansider, hawever, that it has any direct accard with the tribalstructure, based on territorial segmentation,which we have recorded. The politica-territorialsystem and rhe age-set system are bath cansistent in themselves and ta same extent averlap,but they are not inrerdependent.

V. Feuds and other Disputes

The palitical system operates largely, we think,thraugh the institution at the teud which isregulated by a mechanism knawn as the ‘leopard-skin chiet’, a ritle we retain, although theappellation at ‘chiet’ is misleading. This personis one at those specialists who are concerned, ina ritual capacity, with variaus departments otNuer sacial lite and of nature. Leapard-skinchiets belong ta certain lineages only, thaughnat all members af these lineages utilize theirhereditary ritual pawers. In mast at Nuerland,the lineages are not branches otdaminant dans.

When a man has killed anorber, be must atonce go ta a chiet, who cuts his arm sa that theblood may flow. Until rhis mark at Cain hasbeen made, rhe slayer may neirher eat nordrink. If be fears vengeance, as is normally

THE NUER OF THE SOUTHERN SUDAN 75

the case, he remains at the chief’s home, for it issanctuary. Within the next few months thechief eticits from the slayer’s km that they areprepared to pay compensation to avoid a feudand he persuades the dead man’s km that theyought to accept compensation. During thisperiod neither party may eat or drink fromthe same vessels as the other and they maynot, therefore, eat in the home of the samethird person. The chief then collects the cattie— dli recently some forty to fifty beasts — andtakes them to the dead man’s home, where heperforms various sacriflces of cieansing andatonement. Such is the procedure of settling afeud, and before the present administration ithad often to be used, for the Nuer are a turbutent people who esteem courage the highestvirtue and skill in fighting ihe most necessaryaccomplishment.

in so brief a description, one may give theimpression that the chief judges the case andcompels acceptance of his decision. Nothingcould be further from the facts. The chief isnot asked to deliver a ~udgement: it would notoccur to Nuer that one was required. Heappears to force the km of the dead man toaccept compensation by his insistence, even tothe point of threatening to curse them, but il isan established convention that be sKatt do so,in order that the bereaved relatives may retaintheir prestige. What seems really to haveconnted were the acknowledgement of community ties between the parties concerned,and hence of the moral obligation to satte theaffair by the acceptance of a traditional payment, and the wish, on both sides, to avoid, forthe time being at any rate, further hostilities.

A feud directly affecteci only ciose agnatickinsmen on both sides. One did not avengeoneself on cognates or on distant agnates.Nevertheiess, we helieve that the feud had awider social connotation and that therein liesits political significance. We must first recognizethat feuds are more easily settled the smaller thegroup involved. When a man kills a near kinsman or a ciose neighhour, the marter is quicklyclosed by compensation, often on a reduceciscale, being soon offered and accepted, forwhen a homicide occurs within a village generalopinion demands an early settiement, since it isobvious to every one that were vengeanceallowed corporate life would be impossibie. At

the other end of the scale, when a homicideoccurs between primary or secondary sectionsof a tribe, there is littie chance of an eariy settlement and, owing to distance, vengeance is noteasily achieved, so that unsettied feuds accumuiate. Such homicides are generally the resuit ofintertribai fights in which several persons arekilied. This not only increases the difficutty ofsettiement, but continues between the sectionsthe mutual hostility thav occasioned the fight,for, not only the close agnatic kinsmen of thedead, butentiretocalcommunitiesare involved.Feud, as a choice between direct vengeance andacceptance of compensation, without the necessity of immediate settiement, but requiringeventual conclusion, is especially a conditionthat fiourishes between viliages of the samedistrict. The kinsmen of the dead man are nearenough to strike at the kinsmen of the slayerand far enough from ihem to permit a temporary state of hostility between the local communities to which the parties betong. For wholecommunities are of necessity involved, thoughthey are not subject to the rigid tahoos that ahomicide imposes on close agnatic kinsmen ofslayer and slain, nor are they threatened withvengeance. Nevertheless, their members are, asa rule, closety related by cognatic or affinal desto the principals and must assist them if there isan open fight. At the same time, these communities have frequent social contacts, so thateventually the mechanism of the leopard-skinchief has to be employed to prevent their compiete dislocation. The feud thus takes on a poiitical compiexion and expresses the hostilitybetween polirical segments.

The balanced opposition of political segments is, we helieve, largely maintained bythe institution of the feud which permirs astate of latent hostility between local communities, but ailows also their fusion in a largergroup. We say that rhe hostility is tatent because even when a feud is heing prosecutedthere is no uninrerrupted endeaveur to exactvengeance, hut the kinsmen of the dead maytake any opporrunity that presents itself to accomplish their purpose; and, also, hecause evenwhen compensation has heen accepted the sorerankles and rhe feud ma y, n spi re of settiemenbreak out again, for N Lier rccognhzc thar in

sentiment a feud gocs on for uver. [be leopard—skin chief does not ru le a ud j titige, bot nets

76 E. E. EVANS-PRITCHARD

as mediator through whom communities ciesirous of ending open hostility can conclude anactive state of feud. The feud, including the roleplayed in it by the chief, is thus a mechanism bywbich the political structure maintains itseif inrhe form known to us.

The leopard-skin chief may also act as mcdiator in disputes concerning ownership ofcattie, and he and the eiders on both sidesmay express their opinion on the merits of acase. But thc chief does not summon the defendants, for he has neitber courr nor jursdicdon and, moreover, has no means ofcompellingcompliance. All he can do is to go with theplaintiff and some elders of his community tothe home of the defendant and to ask him andhis kinsmen to discuss the matter. Only if bothsides are willing to submit to arbitration can itbe settled. Also, although the chief, aker consultation with the elders, can give a verdict, thisverdict is reached by general agreement and ina large measure, therefore, anses from an acknowledgement by the defendant’s or plaintiff’s party that the other party has justice onits side. It is, however, very seldom that a chiefis asked to act as mediator, and there is no oneelse who has autbority to intervene in disputes,which are settled by other than legal methods.

In the strict sense of the word, the Nuer haveno law. Thene is no one with legislative orjuridical functions. There ane conventionalpayments considered due to a man who hassuffered certain injunies — adultery with hiswife, fornication with his daughter, theft,broken limbs, &c. — but these do not make alegal system, for there is no constituted andimpartial authority who decides on the nightsand wrongs of a dispute and there is no external power to enforce such a decision were itgiven. If a man has right on his side, and, invirtue of that, obtains the support of his kinsmen and they ane prepared to use force, he hasa good chance of obtaining what is due to him,if the parties live near to one anotber. The usuafway of obtaining one’s due is to go to thedebtor’s kraal and take his cattle. To resist isto run the nisk of homicide and feud. lt seemsthat whether, and how, a dispute is settleddepends very largely on the relative positionsof the persons concerned in the kinship andage-set systems and the distance berween theircommunities in tnibal structure. In theory, one

can obtain redress from any member of one’stnibe, but, in fact, there is little chance of doingso unless he is a member of one’s local community and a kinsman. The force of ‘law’ varieswith the position of the parties in politicalstructure, and thus Nuer ‘Iaw’ is essentiallyrelative, like the structure itself.

During the year I spent with the Nuer, I neverheard a case being conducted, either before anindividual or before a council of elders, and Ireceived the impression that it is very rare for aman to obtain redress except by force or threatsof force. And if the Nuer has no law, likewise belacks government. The Ieopardskin chief is nota political authority and the ‘Man of the Cattle’and other nitual agents (toteinic specialists,rain-makers, fetich-owners, magicians, divmens, &c.) have no political status or functions,though they may become prominent and fearedin their locality. The most influential men in avillage ane generally the heads of joint families,especially when they are nich in cattie, ofstrongcharacter, and members of the aristocratic clan.But they have no clearly defined status on function. Every Nuer, the product of a hard andequalitanian upbringing, deeply democratic,and easily roused to violence, considers himselfas good as his neighbour; and families and jointfamilies, whilst co-ordinating their activitieswith those of rheir fellow villagers, regulatetheir affairs as they please. Even in raids, thereis very little organization, and leadership is restnicted to the sphere of fighting and is neitherinstitutionalized nor permanent. It is politicallysignificant only when raids ane controlled andorganized by prophets. No Nuer specialists canbe said to be political agents and to represent, orsymbolize, the unity and exclusiveness of localgroups, and, apart from the prophets, none canbe said to have more than local prominence. Allleaders, in this vague sense of influential personsin a locality, are adults and, except for an occasional prophetess, all ane men.

Owing to the fact that Nuer prophets badbeen the foci of opposition to the Government,they were in disgrace, and the more influentialof them under restnaint or in hiding, duning myvisit to Nuenland, so that I was not able to makedetailed observations on their behàviour. Nuerane unanimous in stating that they did not ansemuch before the end of the last century andthere is some evidence to suggest that their

THE NUER OF THE SOUTHERN SUDAN 77

emergence was connected with the spread ofMahdism. However that may be, there can beno doubt that powerful prophets arose aboutthe time of Arab intrusion into Nuerland andthat at the time of British conquest they weremore respected and had wider influence thanany other persons. No extensive raids wereunderraken without their sanction and oftenthey led them, received part of the spoil, andto some extent supervised the division of therest of it. Though there seems to be good cvidence that the earlier prophets were no morethan ritual agents, some of the later ones appearto have begun to settle disputes, at any rate intheir own districts. However, their chief political importance rather lay elsewhere. For thefirst time a single person symbolized, even if ina mainly spiritual form, the unity of a tribe, forthe prophets were essentially tribal figures,though — and this fact is also of great politicalsignificance — rheir influence often extendedover tribal boundaries and brought about alarger degree of unity among adjacent tribesthan there appears to have been hitherto.When we add that there was a tendency forthe spirits which possessed prophets to pass, attheir deaths, into their sons, we are ~ustified inconcluding that developmenc was taking placetowards a higher degree of federation hetweentribes and towards the emergence of politicalleadership, and in explaining these changes byreference to Arab and Luropean intrusion. Opposition between Nuer and their neighboursbad always been sectional. They were now confronred by a more formidable and a commonenemy. When the Government overthrew theprophers, this development was checked.

VI. Summary

We have hriefly described and analysed whatwe regard as Nuer political structure: the relarions hetween terrirorial segments within a territorial system and the relations hetween thatand other social sysrems within an endre socialstructure. We have examined intertribal relations, and the relations between rrihal - segments. It is these relations, together with thetribal and intertribal contacts with foreignpeoples, that we define as rhe Nuer politicalsystem. In social life the political is combined

and the age-set system, and we have consideredwhat relation they bear to the political strucrute. We have also mentioned those ritual specialisms which have polirical significance. Thepolitical system has been related to environmental conditions and modes of Iivelihood.

The Nuer constitution is highly individualistic and libertarian. It is an acephalous state,lacking legislative, judicial, and executiveorgans. Nevertheless, it is far from chaotic. Ithas a persistent and coherent form which mighrbe called ‘ordered anarchy’. The absence ofcentralized government and of bureaucracy inthe nation, in the tribe, and in tribal segments —

for even in rhe village authority is not vested inany one — is less remarkable than the absence ofany persons who represent the unity and exclusiveness of these groups.

It is not possible from a study of Nuer societyalone, if it be possible at all, to explain thepresence and absence of political institutionsin terms of their functional relationship tootber institutions. At hest we can say that certain social characteristics seem to be consistent.Environmental conditions, mode of livelihood,territorial distrihution, and form of politicalsegmentation appear ro be consistent. So dothe presence of dans wirh genealogical structure and a developed age-set system seem to gotogether with ahsence of political authoriryand of class stratification. Comparative studiesalone will show whether generalizations ofsuch a kind are true and, moreover, whetherthey are useful. We cannor here discuss thesequestions and wilI only say, in conclusion, thatthe consistency we perceive in Nuer politicalstructure is one of process rather than ofmorphology. The process consists of complementary tendencies towards fission and fusionwhich, operating alike in all political groups bya series of inclusions and exclusions that arecontrolled by the changing social situation,enable us tO speak of a system and to say thatthis system is characteristically defined by therelativity and opposition of its segments.

NOTE

I This record is priiiicd i ,a synes of pa pers ‘‘i

Sudan Notes and Rncirds Ii-i nu 193.3(0 19.38.The research was ~Ione oil funn expetliiiiiiiswith orher systems, parricularly the clan system

78 E. E. EVANS-PRITCHARD

and was financed mainly by the Govemmentof the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and partlythrough a Leverhulme Fellowship. Ratherthan merely describe again what I have al

ready described elsewhere, I have presentedmy material in a more abstract form thanwould be permissible were a descriptive account not accessible.