Kinship and Credit among the Nuer
- 1 October 1971
- journal article
- Published by Cambridge University Press (CUP) in Africa
- Vol. 41 (4) , 306-319
- https://doi.org/10.2307/1158921
Abstract
Introduction: More than a generation has passed since the appearance of Professor Evans-Pritchard's The Nuer. The sub-title of this classic work, ‘A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People’ is, I believe, inaccurate. The Nuer is more an interpretation than a description, and it is difficult to isolate the descriptive material, which Evans-Pritchard as a matter of policy (1940a, p. 261) subordinated to theory. Although the theory of the book is an abiding part of anthropological discussion and controversy, having become a model for the study of other societies, we should still return to the facts, asking to what extent the Nuer ‘model’ fits the way of life of the Nuer of the southern Sudan.Keywords
This publication has 16 references indexed in Scilit:
- Kinship and the Social OrderPublished by Taylor & Francis ,2017
- Social OrganizationPublished by Taylor & Francis ,2013
- Ethnographic AtlasEthnohistory, 1971
- On Descent and Descent GroupsCurrent Anthropology, 1968
- Primitive Social Organization: An Evolutionary Perspective.American Sociological Review, 1964
- The Structure of Unilineal Descent Groups1American Anthropologist, 1953
- Kinship and Marriage among the NuerBritish Journal of Sociology, 1952
- 22. Some Observations on the Distribution of Bloodwealth Among the NuerMan, 1952
- The Structural Implications of Matrilateral Cross-Cousin MarriageThe Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 1951
- A PROBLEM OF ANTHROPOLOGICAL APPROACHBantu Studies, 1941