Kinship In Sudan Buth And Mar Among

Kinship In Sudan: Buth And Mar Among The Nuer Essay, Research Paper

Kinship in Sudan: Buth and Mar Among the Nuer

Introduction

The Nuer people are one of more than one hundred ethnic groups in the northeastern African country of Sudan, which stretches stretches southward from Egypt for 2000 kilometres and westward from the Red Sea for 1500 kilometres. The Nuer are 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 inhabit 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 defiing which kind of marriage is forbidden, permitted or perferred. Residence rules dictate where new spouses wil 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, 1998

Evans-Pritchard, E.E.

1940 The Nuer: A description of the modes of livelihood and political institutions of a Nilotic people. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

1951 Kinship and Marriage Among the Nuer. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

1956 Nuer Religion. Oxford: Clarendon Press.

Radcliffe-Brown, A.R. and Forde, D.

1987 African Systems of Kinship and Marriage. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd.

Seligman, C.G., and Seligman, B.Z.

1932 Pagan Tribes of the Nilotic Sudan. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul Ltd.

The position of leader is not an inherited responsibility. Leaders emerge in the community after demonstrating leadership qualities and gaining the respect of the other community members. Leaders were often the elders in the community

The people are generous to each other, but any request which has an overtone of an order can quickly anger them. Friends must have an obligation to be hospitable to each other. Hospitality offered by one friend must be returned by the other at a later time.

Relative age is of great importance in interpersonal relations. Every person is categorized in terms of an age set which is an association made up of equals in age. Males are divided into age grades so that each one is a senior, equal or junior to any other males. One is deferential to a senior, informal with an equal and superior to a junior. Women belong to the system as mothers, wives, sisters or daughters of the males. The Nuer are kind to their aged and usually respect their opinions.

Age, rather than relationship, governs the use of terms of address. Anyone older is addressed as “father” or “mother”; anyone younger is addressed as “son” or “daughter”. The very old are called “grandfather” or “grandmother”. People of the same age are addressed as “brother” or “sister”.

The cutting of six tribal scars on each side of the forehead is seen as qualifying a boy for manhood and he is then able to fight in battles. The typical age of initiates has decreased over time. During the 1930’s, the typical age range was 14-15 years which decreased to between 9 and 13 years in the 1980’s. A celebration takes place and a big cow is killed. The age set may then take on

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