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The Nuer - their own name Naath or Nei Ti Naath ("people") - are an African ethnic group in South Sudan and western Ethiopia , especially in the Gambela region , with an estimated 900,000 members. Traditionally they are cattle breeders and domestic cattle play an important role in all areas of their lives, from business to religion. Their social structure is subdivided into many individual descent groups ( lineages ), which derive their origin from the patriarchal line ( patrilinearity ) and together form a segmentary society without central political leadership ( acephaly ). The Nuer belong to the Nilots , a large group of African peoples who speak the Nilotic languages and whose common original home is believed to be in South Sudan.
The Nuer people mainly inhabit the wetlands of the White Nile and two of its most important tributaries. The Nuer are divided into different groupings, especially the Garjok , Garjak and Jekiang (Nasser District), the Lau (Abwong District), the Gaweir (Fanjak District), the Lak and Thiang (Zeraf Island, Fanjak District ), as well as the Western Nuer (Yivrol district). In the 1930s, the Nuer gained a certain degree of popularity through the extensive field research of the British ethnologist Edward Evans-Pritchard and the Austrian ethnologist Hugo Bernatzik . They played a role in the civil war in South Sudan from 2013 to 2018 for the political leadership of the country, which threatened to escalate into an ethnic conflict between the Nuer and the Dinka people.
Settlement area
The Nuerland is located in the south of Sudan, where the typical climate of the savannah prevails. The Nuerland is flat, without hills or mountains. The landscape is only sparsely interrupted by trees or shrubbery. During the dry season the soil has dried out. In the rainy season , from June to December, it is covered by tall grasses and sometimes flooded. The year only alternates between these two seasons of roughly the same duration.
The strict rhythm of flooding and drought forces the Nuer to adapt in all areas. The huts made of grass, clay and logs that they inhabit during the rainy season are, if possible, on slight elevations to protect them from the flood. In addition, the Nuer undertake seasonal hikes. The reasons for this are lack of water and the invasion of insects that threaten their cattle herds.
Economy
The Nuer economy is based on livestock , agriculture and fishing . They are cattle farmers for most of the year. The cattle are the only highest property, for whose protection they would even risk their lives. Every family has their own cows. The roles are clearly assigned here. The woman is responsible for the daily milking and the man for herding the animals. The cattle are primarily not kept for consumption, but for the production of milk, which is one of the Nuer's staple foods. Meat is only eaten at important festivals, which are usually associated with rituals that require the sacrifice of an animal.
In the rainy season , when the Nuer flee to higher areas due to raging rivers and floods, agriculture is predominant. The woman plants millet and corn while the man continues to look after the animals. Arable farming is heavily dependent on seasonal conditions and the nature of the soil, but also on the abundance of cattle.
In December, at the beginning of the dry season , the Nuer bring their herds closer to the rivers again. During this time they mainly live from fishing, as many fish are stuck in the lagoons due to the dwindling water and can be caught with spears , hoes or fishing nets .
The Nuers are forced to this mixed economy, as neither cattle, grain, nor fish alone ensure adequate nutrition. The loss of one of these three food sources poses a threat to existence. Any agricultural surpluses are therefore shared with neighbors. None of the food is intended for the market, everything is solely for self-sufficiency .
In addition to subsistence farming, there are only a few professional fields. Some men are blacksmiths and produce spears, hoes, and jewelry. Others find work in the Arab settlements or in Christian missions , where they can perform various tasks and earn some money.
Social organization
Lineage system
A lineage is a group of descent that is unilinearly derived from a common ancestor and sees itself as a social community . The society of the Nuer is organized in patrilinear lineages, their descent is only derived from the paternal line, each from a progenitor . The lineages are important for the control and distribution of resources and flow over into the local segments (parts). Two lineages that are equal to each other are only differentiated from a third lineage. Lineages are very relative groups like tribal segments and, like these, are also very dynamic.
There are at least 20 clans in Nuerland , which in turn consist of the amalgamation of different lineages. This segmentation of the Nuer clans has many properties that can also be found in the structure of the individual tribes . The most important property of a lineage is that the relationship of each member to another can be clearly established on the basis of their genealogical family tree . However, relationships with members of another lineage of the same clan are also common, since the lineages are related to one another in descent and ultimately go back to a common ancestor. For example, clan A can be subdivided into so-called maximum lineages B and C. These are further subdivided into the smaller lineages D, E, F and G, which in turn split into even smaller groups, right up to so-called minimal lineages.
The Nuer clans and lineages are not locally bound communities; their members live widely, so that members of different clans can be found in each village. Migration and secession from the Dinka in South Sudan are possible reasons for this dispersion and mixing of the Nuer clans.
In the political organization of the Nuer, the lineages form the predominant principle of order. Political relationships are even embedded in the individual kinship names . Since kinship relationships determine mutual obligations, the respective kinship group is the result of mutual dependence . In principle, a lineage must have enough of its own cattle to remain attractive for possible alliances with other lineage.
Age groups
The seniority principle prevails within the social units : everyone who is slightly older is authorized to give instructions to the slightly younger. The old men are the chairmen of the negotiations, the younger ones are heard if necessary. However, this disadvantage is offset by the generation change . In addition, seniority is partially broken down by the fact that military or political power falls to younger groups.
marriage
For the Nuer, marriage is the most important ritual of passage in life, and there is an exogamous marriage rule : the spouse should be sought outside of one's own descent group (lineage). In order to marry a woman, the future husband or his family must hand over a bride price in the form of cattle to the woman's family. Sometimes , even if the girl is very young, a marriage is arranged only because the family has financial problems.
During puberty, young women have between five and seven holes pierced in each ear for ear rings and a hole in the center of their lip. They also have to learn to run a household. When a woman reaches marriage age , she adorns her body with various pieces of jewelry and wears a headband made of pearls. This is how men know that she is of marriageable age. If it has not yet been promised to a man, men willing to marry can apply for the woman with their relatives. At a meeting they sit in a circle and explain why they are interested in the woman and suggest a certain number of cattle to give to their family if they marry. Such negotiations can take a few days. Only when both families are in agreement is the woman introduced to her future bridegroom; if she does not agree with the election she can appeal. This seldom happens, however, since marriage is a financial gain for the woman's family.
The marriage ceremony is divided into two sections. The first part takes place in the bride's village, the husband's family brings the promised animals to the wife's family. After the festival, where men and women dance separately, the wife is accompanied by her friends to the husband's village, where she spends a night with her husband. The following day there is another big party, at the end of which the woman and her friends return to their home village.
The woman spends the first two years after the marriage with her family, where her husband can visit her ( temporary visiting marriage ). She then moved in with the man permanently, but would eat separately from him for the next two years. The marriage is considered final only after the birth of the second child, and only after the birth of a third child does the wife and children become full members of the man's clan.
Divorces are not unknown, the most common reason being the absence of children. If a woman does not have children, the man demands the return of his bride price paid with cattle and sends the woman back to her family.
The British ethnologist Edward Evans-Pritchard found the so-called " woman-woman-marriage " among the Nuern in the 1930s : a childless woman takes on the role of husband and marries another woman, for whom she also receives a bride price paid. In addition, she appoints a man who will father children with her partner, who will then be assigned to her own lineage. As a “female father”, she subsequently takes on legal and social paternity for the other woman's children.
Evans-Pritchard also found two forms of " ghost marriage " among the Nuern: either a woman is officially married to a deceased man in order to incorporate her children into his parentage group (he is subsequently recognized as their genealogical "spirit father"), or the widow or sister of a man who died childless marries another man, with the couple's children continuing the line of descent of the deceased.
Marital residence
The Nuers do not have any fixed rules for following the residence . The choice of common place of residence after a marriage depends on ecological , demographic and economic conditions. In most cases the wife moves in with her husband or his family ( patrilocality : with the husband's father). According to Evans-Pritchard, however, it was not considered unusual among the Nuernians for the man to live with his wife's family ( matrilocality ).
Political organization
Segmentary society
The Nuer have become known worldwide through their political system. Among other things, the ethnologist Evans-Pritchard dealt with their political organization from 1933 to 1938. He speaks of an ordered anarchy , a regulated anarchy, and a segmentary society , a form of political organization of societies without central political authority ( acephaly ).
The levels of political action are area segments (parts) that are politically equally ranked and divided equally. Villages are grouped into tertiary tribal segments that can combine to form secondary and primary segments. A tension between two tertiary segments is canceled at the next higher level of the secondary segments.
Several primary segments form a tribe , the largest political unit of the Nuer. A tribe comprises the largest area within which disputes can be settled through arbitration and which holds together externally in the event of a conflict. However, the tribe only appears as a unit in opposition to other tribes. This often happens during battles for natural resources, or during raids against neighboring peoples. According to Sahuns (1961), territorial segments are only formed as a result of external circumstances - as soon as the conflict situation resolves, the segments cease to act.
A tribal segment has practically the same characteristics as a tribe: a sense of belonging, a dominant lineage, territorial distinction, economic resources, and so on. Each segment represents a miniature state. It differs from the state itself only in its size.
Laws and "leopard skin chief"
The Nuers have no laws in the strict sense. In the event of harm, adultery or similar conflicts, however, there are traditional forms of compensation, a type of civil law, the effectiveness of which also depends on the person's position in the social and political structure, as well as on his or her origin and age.
In Nuer-Land there is no institution or individual that fulfills the task of the legislature (legislative power), executive (executive power) or judiciary ( jurisdiction ). The Nuer are a clear example of an egalitarian society whose members are socially and politically equal; their lives are “ democratic ”, but there is often a risk of uncontrolled violence. Such disputes are usually resolved by the heads of families. In more severe cases, however, a so-called "will leopard skin - chief " involved to settle to the dispute. Its main function is to mediate between different parties. However, since it cannot force a final judgment, but can only influence the actions and views of the contending parties, it has only religious significance, but no political power , according to Evans-Pritchard in the 1930s .
This view is now highly controversial, because the "leopard skin chief" represents an alliance of distant relatives who want to prevent disputes and feuds through their union . The more members such an alliance has, the greater the pressure on the parties to resolve the dispute as quickly as possible. In this regard, the "leopard skin king", as the head of a large family alliance, is also clearly assigned political influence.
religion
Belief in one god
The Nuers believe in the only god "Kwoth". He is father and creator of the world and protector of human beings, invisible but present everywhere in the world, or in heaven, so that he is separated from human beings. This god has no earthly form ( prophet , church building ) and in the metaphors of the Nuer, Kwoth is primarily associated with the wind or air, which are also everywhere. The religion of the Dinka influenced the belief of the Nuer.
The God of the Nuer knows everything and explains everything. He has the right of life and death, and if an accident occurs, it is always Kwoth's will. Therefore the Nuers accept these calamities and give up. God built their social organization and formed their morality; humble and peaceful behavior in a society attracts God's good will and helps avoid unhappiness. To be in harmony with God, the Nuer must first live in harmony with other people. A mistake can be forgiven by sacrifice; God is a friend of the Nuer and they trust him. Man and God communicate through sacrifices and prayers, which are part of their everyday life for the Nuer.
The Nuers also believe in other deities. These are divided into two groups: on the one hand there are the spirits of heaven, the most powerful, and on the other hand the spirits of earth. When the Nuers worship these spirits, they are worshiping their God at the same time.
Spirits of heaven
Many spirits in heaven come from the belief of the Dinka. The children of these spirits are also more or less worshiped. Although they are associated with material elements on earth, these spirits are in heaven, close to God, but they are less powerful than him. Deng (associated with diseases), Teny and Diu are the three great spirits of heaven, besides there are a variety of other heavenly spirits:
- Col is associated with rain and light
- Rank (or rangdit) is associated with wildlife and hunting, but also with light
- Nai is associated with the bouquet
- Wiu, spirit of war
- Buk, female spirit of the rivers
The spirits of heaven are particularly important to society as a whole, but they can bond with a particular family by coming to earth and taking possession of a person. The prophets are finally possessed by one spirit. For other people, the obsession comes in the form of a temporary illness. A possessed person needs the help of the prophet to know which spirit is responsible and what he wants. That is, the spirit expresses itself through the possessed person. Then the person is healed by gratifying the mind by sacrificing an ox or by giving tobacco and beer. This obsession creates a lasting relationship between man and spirit, because after his healing, man and his descendants should again and again worship the spirit through sacrifices. If one forgets or despises this spirit, the spirit calls man to memory through misfortunes. Therefore, oxen are dedicated to spirits by drawing a mark out of ashes on the animal's fur. These animals are also named after spirits and should not be sold. The Nuer don't always follow these rules so strictly.
Colwic are also spirits of heaven. The spirit of someone struck by lightning is taken in by God, whereupon it becomes a Colwic. Oxen are sacrificed in his honor so that he does not come back and bring them misfortune; to keep death away from the family and to purify them, because people are afraid of death. The burial of a person who has been killed by lightning is to be distinguished from ordinary burials: the sacrificial animal is not killed by a cut in the neck, but by a lance to represent the sudden death of the person. Then the meat is divided and eaten. If a Colwic is dissatisfied with a person's actions, he can take possession of him. The difference to the other spirits of heaven is that the Colwic was originally human, while the other spirits come directly from God, something like God's sons.
Spirits of the earth
They are of little importance but take an active part in people's lives. According to Evans-Pritchard, they are divided into: totemic spirits (for a whole group), totemistic spirits (for an individual), nature spirits (Biel) and fetiches . Lienhardt and Johnson used a different classification: clan divinity and tutelary Powers ( totems ), Powers of magical substance , talking Powers ( fetish ) and nature sprites (Biel).
The spirits of the earth take the form of a natural being and are God's expression. Lions, snakes, crocodiles, birds, rivers and plants are used by the Nuer as a totem, which means that a spirit in the form of a natural being is connected to a lineage and gives the name or title for the clan. The lineage worships the spirit, not the animal, which is just a material symbol for the spirit. Even so, they should not kill it or eat it, otherwise the spirit will bring bad luck to the family (illness or distorted children). Oxen are also dedicated to them. On the other hand, these animals should also respect people and not harm them. A natural being becomes a lineage totem after an unusual event, when an animal behaves in a strange way towards a person. But an animal becomes a totem above all because humans and animals have a common ancestor. According to the stories of the Nuer, humans and totem animals are born as twins of a woman.
Prophets of the Nuer
The prophets are seen as mediators between man and God. Most of them come from families of the prophets, so the office is inherited. Nonetheless, divination must be learned. According to the Nuer, the prophets have a force in their bodies that Johnson called "Flesh". This gives them eloquence and helps to influence other people. The main tasks of the prophets are healing and intervention in conflicts in order to preserve the morality of the Nuer in society. They lost importance during the colonial period as their role was taken over by the settlers.
Christianity
Missionaries began their work with the Nuer in 1940, churches and Christian congregations were built, despite some resistance.
Culture
language
The Nuer language has a certain similarity to other Nilotic languages in many areas . It is probably more similar to the Dinka language than to the other neighboring languages. Various approaches have been attempted to create a standard written Nuer language, but none of these has met the varying expectations and the official government.
music and dance
Both the Nuer children and adults love music. Some are also good singers. They improvise their songs depending on the occasion. With their songs they praise their flock, but they are also about marriage and conflict. The Nuers also have a lullaby. All of their songs have a similar structure (stanzas of one or two lines and a chorus): the stanzas are sung in a shrill tone, the chorus in a deep, low tone. They rarely repeat themselves exactly, but often say the same thing in different terms.
The music is very much associated with dance. There are three main types of music and their associated dances.
The bul is a Nuer drum used at festivals to accompany dancing. They use them a few hours before sunset for their rituals (wedding and funeral) in their villages. There are two small drums that are struck with sticks (regular rhythm) and one large drum that is struck by hand (irregular rhythm). The dance is very similar to that of the dom piny.
At weddings there is a couple dance in which the groups of the two spouses face each other. During the dry season, the Nuer migrate to the rivers. They don't take their drum with them, but instead build another instrument, the Dom Piny, on the spot.
Dom Piny is an instrument that can only be found among the Nuer in Sudan. It is not used for rituals in the village, but only replaces the drum during the dry season. The dom piny is both a percussion instrument and a stringed instrument:
The shorter (left) string gives a low tone, the (right) longer string a higher one. The instrument needs two musicians: the first sits in front of it. He strikes the right string quickly and regularly with a small stick. On the other string, he mutes the sound by pressing a stick on the left string every second or fourth beat of the right string, so that two rhythms are possible, which are selected depending on the mood of the musician. On the other hand, the second player hits the skin over the hole with every second note from the first musician.
A dance is associated with dom piny . The men dance with their lance and shield, the women wear jewelry. The men gather in a circle around the instrument. Jumps in the air are an important element of these dances. By singing and screaming, they respond to the kiit , the leader, like a chorus. Two groups face each other like in a war. The women play only a minor role here, they dance outside the men's circle and are only allowed to approach the men to dance with them as long as they put their hands on their heads.
Thom is an individual dance in which the individual dancers or couples each take turns. The thom is also a bowl lyre with six strings, which corresponds to the five-string tom of the Schilluk . It is played with the left hand. The musician regularly taps the body with the other hand.
history
In the first millennium AD, people settled in the Bahr al Ghazal area, where conditions were favorable for the development of their agriculture. In the course of time these Nilots developed a pastoral system combined with agriculture. Their emigration from the 15th century onwards split the people into several groups who settled independently and without centralized institutions in different regions on the Nile: the Nuer, the Dinka , the Schilluk and the Luo .
In the 18th century, the Nuer migrated eastwards. In 1821 trade routes were opened connecting the north with the south. In addition to commercial goods, they brought disease and slavery , so that the population in the south of Sudan fell drastically. In the 19th century there was a huge conflict between North and South Sudan, partly because of the Egyptian attack in 1821 in the north of the country. In the 20th century, the British conquered the country despite some resistance. The British colonial administration ensured pacification . The arrival of the Egyptians and English stopped the emigration process of the Nuer, who from this time on lived in an isolated and inaccessible region. There they were initially largely protected from the influence of the intruders. It was only a generation after the British arrived in Sudan that the Nuer also fell under British authority.
In 1956 Sudan became independent. The change in government, the unstable economy and the unrest led to the first civil war between the north and south from 1955 to 1972. Many Nuer were forced to leave their homeland. They fled the war in neighboring countries like Kenya and often lost their most important property, their herds of cattle.
At the end of this crisis, the South got a certain autonomy. Not all tensions were resolved, however, so that in 1983 a second civil war broke out, in which the Nuer fought partly on the side of the government and partly on the side of the rebels. Parallel to this conflict, old clashes emerged in the south, such as the one between the Nuern and the Dinka , who are responsible for the fragmentation of the Sudanese People's Liberation Army (SPLA). In 2005 a peace agreement was signed by the government and the SPLA.
During the civil war in South Sudan from 2013 to 2018 , the Nuer found themselves in a conflict with the Dinka people over the political leadership of the country, which has been independent since 2011.
See also
literature
- Véronique Becker: Evans-Pritchard and his model of the political organization of the Nuer. Grin, Munich 2013 (student paper, 14 pages; table of contents in the Google book search).
- Ira R. Buchler: A Note on Nuer Residence. In: American Anthropologist. New Series. Volume 65, No. 3, Part 1, American Anthropological Association, 1963, ISSN 0002-7294 , pp. 652-655 (English; PDF file; 253 kB on wiley.com).
- Lexicon entry: Africa: Nuer. In: William M. Clements (Ed.): The Greenwood Encyclopedia of World Folklore and Folklife. Volume 1: Topics and Themes, Africa, Australia, and Oceania. Greenwood, Westport et al. a. 2006, ISBN 0-313-32848-X (English).
- Robert O. Collins: The Southern Sudan in Historical Perspective. Transaction, New Brunswick 2006, ISBN 1-412-80585-6 (English; the 3rd edition from 2009 as a reading sample in the Google book search).
- Edward E. Evans-Pritchard : The Nuer. A Description of the Models Livelihood and Political Institutions of A Nilotic People. Clarendon, Oxford 1940 (English; excerpt, 1969 ; reprint: General Books, Memphis 2010).
- Edward E. Evans-Pritchard: Kinship and Marriage among the Nuer. Clarendon, Oxford 1951 (English).
- Edward E. Evans-Pritchard: Only religion. Clarendon, Oxford 1970, ISBN 0-19-823106-7 (English).
- Ray Huffman: Only Customs and Folk-Lore. International Institute of African Languages & Cultures, London 1931 (English; new edition: Routledge, London 2007, ISBN 978-0-7146-2689-5 ).
- The Diagram Group (Ed.): Encyclopedia of African Peoples. Fitzroy Dearborn, Chicago et al. a. 2000, ISBN 1-57958-267-2 (English).
- Archibald Norman Tucker: Tribal Music and Dancing in the Southern Sudan (Africa), at Social and Ceremonial Gatherings. A Descriptive Account of the Music, Rhythm, etc., from Personal Observation. William Reeves, London, 1933 (English).
Web links
- Jok Madut Jok: Nuer. In: Encyclopedia of World Cultures. 2002, accessed on January 20, 2019 (English, ethnographic summary).
- Orville Boyd Jenkins: People Profile: The Nuer of South Sudan and Ethiopia. In: Strategy Leader Resource Kit (SLRK). The Virtual Research Center, August 2011, accessed January 20, 2019 (English, extensive data).
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ethnologue -Lexikon: Nuer: A language of South Sudan. 2018, accessed on January 20, 2019.
- ↑ See for maximum and minimum lineages: Brian Schwimmer: Segmentary Lineages. Department of Anthropology, University of Manitoba, Canada, 1995, accessed January 20, 2019 .
- ↑ a b Gabriele Rasuly-Paleczek: ad. Various other forms of marriage. (PDF: 853 kB, 52 pages) In: Introduction to the forms of social organization (part 3/5). Institute for Cultural and Social Anthropology, University of Vienna, 2011, p. 110 , archived from the original on October 17, 2013 ; accessed on January 20, 2019 (documents for your lecture in the summer semester 2011): “But there are also societies where marriage occurs between people of the same sex, such as B. in the Nuern, where EVANS-PRITCHARD (1951) studied the establishment of the "Woman-Woman-Marriage". In this case, a woman can give a bridewealth [( bride price )] to another woman's relatives and marry them. She then has absolute control over the woman and her children, she delegates the reproductive duties to a male genitor . (BARNARD / SPENCER 1997: p. 351f) With the help of "Woman-Woman-Marriage" a woman, who functions here as a social or genealogical father for a woman's children, can perpetuate her own lineage , since the children who are in the frame born of the "Woman-Woman-Marriage", the line of the woman, d. H. of the "female" husband. (cf. BARNARD / SPENCER 1997: p. 627 and SEYMOUR-SMITH 1986 [) ...] According to EVANS-PRITCHARD, the Nuers also practice the »ghost marriage« to maintain their lineage. There seem to be two forms: [...] that a woman marries a "dead man" who then becomes the genealogical father of her children. […] A widow enters into a marriage in place of her dead husband if he has no heir, or a sister for her deceased brother if he has no offspring. The children are then added to the lineage of the deceased. "