Nuer Dilemmas: Coping with Money, War, and the StateThrough the pioneering efforts of the famed British anthropologist E. E. Evans-Pritchard, the Nuer of southern Sudan have become one of anthropology's most celebrated case studies. Now Sharon Hutchinson combines fresh ethnographic evidence and contemporary theoretical perspectives to show not only what has happened to the Nuer since their 1930s encounters with Evans-Pritchard, but, more importantly, what is to be gained from a thoroughly historicized treatment of ethnographic materials. Hutchinson's work provides a vision for what anthropology has become in the 1990s. Concentrating on Nuer perceptions, experiences, and evaluations of change, Hutchinson traces the historical conditions that have led contemporary men and women to reconsider fundamental aspects of their lives. She raises a number of important issues that Evans-Pritchard did not: How can we move beyond static structural models based on notions of cultural "boundedness," "homogeneity," and "order"? How have Nuer people been actively reshaping and reassessing local forms of power in light of dramatic economic shifts, religious proselytizing, civil war, and colonial and postcolonial rule? Hutchinson has produced a rich ethnographic document that offers a new rhetorical strategy for writing ethnographies that is processual, dialogical, and reflexive all at once. |
Contents
ORIENTATIONS | 21 |
THE COMMODIFICATION | 56 |
NEW CONTEXTS | 103 |
THE CHANGING SYMBOLISM | 158 |
STRUGGLES OVER | 237 |
POLITICAL LEADERSHIP | 270 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
administrative adultery agnatic Anyanya Anyuak Arabs Baggara Bentiu bloodwealth bonds bride's bridewealth cattle British brothers bull-boys cattle and money cattle of girls cattle of money cattle sacrifice child Christian cieng civil claims colonial commensalism contemporary eastern contemporary Nuer contrast conversion court cultural daughter death developed diel Dinka divinity divorce early earth priest east eastern Gaajok eastern Jikany Nuer eastern Nuer Evans-Pritchard exogamic extended father feud fighting forced government chiefs guns head of cattle homicide Howell husband incest increasingly initiation Jonglei Canal Khartoum killed kinship kinsmen Lou Nuer maar Malakal marriage marry meat Moreover mother Nasir nueer Nuer chiefs Nuer communities Nuer language Nuer social Nuer women paternal patrilineal political polygyny powers procreative prohibitions prophets relations relatives rite ruaal scarified sexual Shilluk sister Southern Sudan spear SPLA Sudanese tion transgenerational western Nuerland Western Upper Nile White Nile wife wives woman Wutnyang young