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The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People
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271 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1940
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About the author
E.E. Evans-Pritchard
85 books58 followersSir Edward Evan "E. E." Evans-Pritchard (21 September 1902 – 11 September 1973) was an English anthropologist who was instrumental in the development of social anthropology. He was Professor of Social Anthropology at the University of Oxford from 1946 to 1970.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews
October 17, 2012
In reading this book, it is extremely important to recognize that it a criticism of Thomas Hobbes' LEVIATHIAN. The way that E-P describes the Nuer not only fits Hobbes' description of humans in a state of nature, but at many points borrows language from Hobbes. The Hobbesian argument is that the state of nature compels humans to create government. E-P's argument is that the Nuer, even as examples of Hobbes' imagined state of nature, have no government. This is an important point, and a challenge to a great deal of political theory.
It is easy to get bogged down in recent criticisms of E-P and represent this book as somehow complicit in British colonialism. Yet, once one is aware of the underlying political debate in which E-P is engaging, then one realizes that he was undoing the political assumptions on which the Colonial Office operated. Anthropology is far more sophisticated now than in the 1930s, but I think E-P's criticism of Hobbes is still of great value.
It is easy to get bogged down in recent criticisms of E-P and represent this book as somehow complicit in British colonialism. Yet, once one is aware of the underlying political debate in which E-P is engaging, then one realizes that he was undoing the political assumptions on which the Colonial Office operated. Anthropology is far more sophisticated now than in the 1930s, but I think E-P's criticism of Hobbes is still of great value.
October 4, 2010
In the grand tradition of unself-consciously Othering the subject of study. With about 70 pages on cattle.
September 27, 2009
Methodology: lots of details, glossing over of concepts, then generalization to fit his structuralist framework
Attempts to be a neutral participant-observer, but come on!
“No high barriers of culture divide men from beasts in their common home, but the stark nakedness of Nuer amid their cattle and the intimacy of their contact with them present a classic picture of savagery” (40).
While his analysis is rooted in a structuralist paradigm, he does address conflict...
He writes about feuds and you can read the observations about "power" and the distribution of resources. Essentially, there's this magical mechanism that deals with conflict and violence – fusion and fission – within the systemic system that allows it to restore equilibrium all the time.
uhhhh I had many problems with this text, but that's probably because I'm not a fan of structural functionalism and I don't like old white men calling the "natives" they observe "savages." How uncouth. Regardless, he makes many good observations and it's an ethnography worth reading...sorta...I mean, read it and decide for yourself.
Attempts to be a neutral participant-observer, but come on!
“No high barriers of culture divide men from beasts in their common home, but the stark nakedness of Nuer amid their cattle and the intimacy of their contact with them present a classic picture of savagery” (40).
While his analysis is rooted in a structuralist paradigm, he does address conflict...
He writes about feuds and you can read the observations about "power" and the distribution of resources. Essentially, there's this magical mechanism that deals with conflict and violence – fusion and fission – within the systemic system that allows it to restore equilibrium all the time.
uhhhh I had many problems with this text, but that's probably because I'm not a fan of structural functionalism and I don't like old white men calling the "natives" they observe "savages." How uncouth. Regardless, he makes many good observations and it's an ethnography worth reading...sorta...I mean, read it and decide for yourself.
April 29, 2019
Probably the driest ethnography ever written, with about 80 pages about cattle alone, but hey, it's a classic so you're supposed to say it's good anyway, right?
December 4, 2009
colonialist nonsense, but a first effort at true ethnography, just misguided.
April 18, 2019
Anthropological publications are not my main source of reading pleasure, and I say that, as someone who holds a BA degree, with Anthropology as one of my majors. Am I admitting that I passed an entire three year degree without ever reading a full, ethnographic classic? Well what if I did? Who really learns anything in undergraduate degrees anyway? That was about fifteen years ago. Did I learn more about the subject of Anthropology in the past few days, while reading EP’s Nuer, than I ever did during my three year degree? Well, let’s look at it this way, I was only eighteen on nineteen back then. I’ve lived a full life in between. I’ve actually traveled to these places. I’ve woken up in the arms of women in the Horn of Africa. I’ve hitch hiked the back highways of highland New Guinea. I’m no longer an out of high school kid, who at nineteen, thought he knew all there was to know.
So the book? Reviews here seem to suggest it’s a boring over rated work, over done on the cattle description. My opinion? That can’t be more further from the truth. Look at it this way. You’ve got these beautiful people who live side by side with these strange bovine creatures. In an ecological environment that’s akin to outback Australia. Half the year it rains and floods. The other half it’s dry and parched. It’s this basic dichotomy in the climate that determines the economic mode and political structure of these people. When it rains they live in settled villages where they harvest crops of millet and maize. You can say they’re agricultural. When it’s dry they migrate with their cattle to the edges of dried up rivers and lakes where they fish and hunt. The transhumance mode takes over. It is this division in mode of living that gives the Nuer their distinct character, and as they shift between agriculture and hunting, (depending on the ecological season), it is their cattle that remain constant and dependable providers, of not only food, but also clothing, jewellery and energy needs. This is why cattle are so prized in their society.
On a final note, EP lived among the Nuer between the years of 1930-1936, in which time he mastered their language and almost became one of them. British Anthropology at the time was seeking to discover the glue that held preindustrial societies together and they succeeded. They discovered kinship, in all its fascinating manifestations. So not only is Nuer about a people who switch between village and hunting camp, depending on the season being wet or dry, but it also describes the distinct social structures of tribe, lineage and age set, in relation to economically determined migration between wet and dry territories.
This is remarkable research and analysis. That there is a record of the livelihood of the 1930’s Nuer, in such a book, in such a keen perspective, is something I believe, should be celebrated all these years after the fact, rather than discarded as a defunct way of seeing ourselves. For what more was cultural/social anthropology than an attempt to understand ourselves?
So the book? Reviews here seem to suggest it’s a boring over rated work, over done on the cattle description. My opinion? That can’t be more further from the truth. Look at it this way. You’ve got these beautiful people who live side by side with these strange bovine creatures. In an ecological environment that’s akin to outback Australia. Half the year it rains and floods. The other half it’s dry and parched. It’s this basic dichotomy in the climate that determines the economic mode and political structure of these people. When it rains they live in settled villages where they harvest crops of millet and maize. You can say they’re agricultural. When it’s dry they migrate with their cattle to the edges of dried up rivers and lakes where they fish and hunt. The transhumance mode takes over. It is this division in mode of living that gives the Nuer their distinct character, and as they shift between agriculture and hunting, (depending on the ecological season), it is their cattle that remain constant and dependable providers, of not only food, but also clothing, jewellery and energy needs. This is why cattle are so prized in their society.
On a final note, EP lived among the Nuer between the years of 1930-1936, in which time he mastered their language and almost became one of them. British Anthropology at the time was seeking to discover the glue that held preindustrial societies together and they succeeded. They discovered kinship, in all its fascinating manifestations. So not only is Nuer about a people who switch between village and hunting camp, depending on the season being wet or dry, but it also describes the distinct social structures of tribe, lineage and age set, in relation to economically determined migration between wet and dry territories.
This is remarkable research and analysis. That there is a record of the livelihood of the 1930’s Nuer, in such a book, in such a keen perspective, is something I believe, should be celebrated all these years after the fact, rather than discarded as a defunct way of seeing ourselves. For what more was cultural/social anthropology than an attempt to understand ourselves?
January 27, 2008
"The Nuer" is a superb ethnographic work done by Evans-Pritchard. But when you realize the forces behind his work, it's really difficult to not read the book as a military report: here and there you'll find strategic information about Nuer's manners and institutions, information used, of couse, to better control the Nuer people.
From E.-P. account we learn that the Nuer created an almost anarchist society -- they don't had political chiefs, and live under no authority pressure. Evans-Pritchard noted that, and I suspect he treated the political system of Nuer as a kind of superior to our own (western). And in some parts of the book you can really find a certain awe to Nuer: from between them Evans-Pritchard himself had to live like a Nuer, and the Nuer treat him like an equal.
From E.-P. account we learn that the Nuer created an almost anarchist society -- they don't had political chiefs, and live under no authority pressure. Evans-Pritchard noted that, and I suspect he treated the political system of Nuer as a kind of superior to our own (western). And in some parts of the book you can really find a certain awe to Nuer: from between them Evans-Pritchard himself had to live like a Nuer, and the Nuer treat him like an equal.
September 26, 2007
I promise that I am not going to chunk up my reading list with school books, but this was pretty interesting both as a time capsule and a way of understanding the Sudan. There are also a couple of funny, why-won't-these-savages-respect-me-as-an-important-anthropogist moments. I know that when reading Dave Eggers book I wish a had a better sense of tribal systems and in its overly western theoretical style, this book provides that. What I am mainly recommending here is a leaf through.
March 7, 2015
Evans-Pritchard was true to his time when it comes to kinship and social theory. Women are irrelevant in discussions about society, political and domestic domains are separate, etc. This is a great book to read to study how these theories are applied, and it also shows how lacking they can be.
January 27, 2008
It's a classic and worth a read if you are interested in understanding the development of anthropology and ethnography.
April 23, 2012
Classic. Colonialist. Depressing. And way too much about cattle. Yet important to know where Anthropology's roots are in order to help it grow away from them.
May 10, 2020
Faccio parte di quella minoranza di lettori che è partita con Evans-Pritchard alla scoperta di questa "anarchia ordinata" senza essere una studiosa di antropologia. Probabilmente è anche la ragione per cui questo testo mi ha appassionata tanto. Infatti, nonostante anche i meno esperti possano notare che si tratta di un lavoro datato (per metodologia, per approccio..), ha saputo stupirmi senza annoiarmi.
Questi gruppi di pastori transumanti vivono in simbiosi con le mandrie, tutto viene e torna alle mucche, perfino i nomi delle persone. Ci sono più di cinquanta modi di descrivere il manto del bestiame. Il tempo è scandito dalle attività umane e le stagioni variano con l'acqua che li circonda. Ore e minuti non esistono. Per non parlare delle peripezie che l'autore ha affrontato per scrivere questo libro, dai bagagli andati perduti nel viaggio, al passare mesi in mezzo ai Nuer senza sapere come comunicare, e senza essere accettato. Ho letto questo libro come se fosse un messaggio da un mondo dimenticato e perduto, quasi difficile da immaginare. Sicuramente la mia percezione è molto romanzata, ma d'altronde anche la narrazione lo è stata.
"Al di là del ciclo annuale, il calcolo del tempo è una concettualizzazione della struttura sociale e i punti di riferimento sono una proiezione nel passato delle relazioni attuali tra i gruppi di persone. Più che un mezzo per coordinare gli eventi, è un mezzo per coordinare le relazioni e, pertanto, mira di più al passato perchè le relazioni si spiegano in termini di passato".
Questi gruppi di pastori transumanti vivono in simbiosi con le mandrie, tutto viene e torna alle mucche, perfino i nomi delle persone. Ci sono più di cinquanta modi di descrivere il manto del bestiame. Il tempo è scandito dalle attività umane e le stagioni variano con l'acqua che li circonda. Ore e minuti non esistono. Per non parlare delle peripezie che l'autore ha affrontato per scrivere questo libro, dai bagagli andati perduti nel viaggio, al passare mesi in mezzo ai Nuer senza sapere come comunicare, e senza essere accettato. Ho letto questo libro come se fosse un messaggio da un mondo dimenticato e perduto, quasi difficile da immaginare. Sicuramente la mia percezione è molto romanzata, ma d'altronde anche la narrazione lo è stata.
"Al di là del ciclo annuale, il calcolo del tempo è una concettualizzazione della struttura sociale e i punti di riferimento sono una proiezione nel passato delle relazioni attuali tra i gruppi di persone. Più che un mezzo per coordinare gli eventi, è un mezzo per coordinare le relazioni e, pertanto, mira di più al passato perchè le relazioni si spiegano in termini di passato".
September 27, 2021
3 stelle su 5
Ho letto questa monografia etnografica per l'esame di Antropologia culturale e mi è piaciuta solamente in parte. Si tratta sostanzialmente di un'opera che si concentra sull'analisi dei sistemi politici dei Nuer, un popolo nilotico dalla cultura abbastanza interessante quanto lontana dalla nostra.
La prima parte di questo libro è molto interessante, scorrevole, semplice, leggera: si parla della loro quotidianità, delle loro attività sociali, del rapporto con il bestiame e con l'ambiente ecologico ...
La seconda parte riguarda invece il sistema politico, i lignaggi e le classi d'età, tutti argomenti troppo difficili spiegati tra l'altro con un linguaggio abbastanza complicato tale per cui è compromessa la comprensione di queste tematiche di cui, detto sinceramente, non mi interessa poi granché.
Avrei preferito leggere aspetti diversi della cultura dei Nuer che esulassero dalla loro organizzazione politica.
Insomma, non è un libro bruttissimo, però dalla seconda metà in poi si capisce poco o nulla sia per il linguaggio utilizzato sia perché i sistemi politici dei Nuer sono complicatissimi.
Se non dovete leggere questo libro per un esame, ma siete interessati a questo popolo, cercate un'opera che si concentri più sugli usi e i costumi in generale. Sì, qui qualcosa è descritto, ma molto vagamente: non si parla di religione, non si parla di famiglia, non si parla di istruzione, non si parla quasi di nulla che non abbia attinenza al taglio politico dell'opera stessa.
Per una lettura disimpegnata non lo consiglio in alcun modo.
Ho letto questa monografia etnografica per l'esame di Antropologia culturale e mi è piaciuta solamente in parte. Si tratta sostanzialmente di un'opera che si concentra sull'analisi dei sistemi politici dei Nuer, un popolo nilotico dalla cultura abbastanza interessante quanto lontana dalla nostra.
La prima parte di questo libro è molto interessante, scorrevole, semplice, leggera: si parla della loro quotidianità, delle loro attività sociali, del rapporto con il bestiame e con l'ambiente ecologico ...
La seconda parte riguarda invece il sistema politico, i lignaggi e le classi d'età, tutti argomenti troppo difficili spiegati tra l'altro con un linguaggio abbastanza complicato tale per cui è compromessa la comprensione di queste tematiche di cui, detto sinceramente, non mi interessa poi granché.
Avrei preferito leggere aspetti diversi della cultura dei Nuer che esulassero dalla loro organizzazione politica.
Insomma, non è un libro bruttissimo, però dalla seconda metà in poi si capisce poco o nulla sia per il linguaggio utilizzato sia perché i sistemi politici dei Nuer sono complicatissimi.
Se non dovete leggere questo libro per un esame, ma siete interessati a questo popolo, cercate un'opera che si concentri più sugli usi e i costumi in generale. Sì, qui qualcosa è descritto, ma molto vagamente: non si parla di religione, non si parla di famiglia, non si parla di istruzione, non si parla quasi di nulla che non abbia attinenza al taglio politico dell'opera stessa.
Per una lettura disimpegnata non lo consiglio in alcun modo.
August 29, 2021
“È la scarsità, non la sufficienza, che rende generosi”
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A grande richiesta.
Individui estremamente orgogliosi, intrattabili ma coraggiosi e nobili. Vivono per il loro bestiame e subordinano le esigenze umane a quelle dei vitelli. Sono ipertrofici nei confronti delle loro mucchine, ne provano devozione. È da questa simbiosi che E. Pritchard ci accompagna per mano fino a raggiungere i sistemi politici.
Cosa può insegnarci oggi un popolo seminomade patrilineare?
Il viaggio con ciò che non è famigliare è sempre arricchente (Erodoto), i Nuer mettono in discussione l’universalità dei concetti di spazio e tempo, sono scelte culturali.
Abitano un ambiente aspro che non perdona chi rimane indietro ma loro ritengono di vivere nel paese più bello del mondo.
Gli stranieri assimilati erano “altro” ma diventano “noi” (mobilità sociale che ora non è pervenuta) perché la comunione della vita è maggiore della differenza di discendenza.
-i Dinka vanno razziati sempre e comunque.
-Evans Pritchard non se ne abbia a male ma la sua ricerca è stata un po’ misogina e classista.
-i LIGNAGGI, no lignaggi no 18.
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#nuer#evanspritchard#antropologia#letture#lettureantropologiche #letture#lettureconsigliate#bookstagram#instabooks#libridaleggere#linrisuilibri#leggere#bookaesthetic#bookstagramitalia#bookwarm#booksandcoffe#bookphotography
-
-
A grande richiesta.
Individui estremamente orgogliosi, intrattabili ma coraggiosi e nobili. Vivono per il loro bestiame e subordinano le esigenze umane a quelle dei vitelli. Sono ipertrofici nei confronti delle loro mucchine, ne provano devozione. È da questa simbiosi che E. Pritchard ci accompagna per mano fino a raggiungere i sistemi politici.
Cosa può insegnarci oggi un popolo seminomade patrilineare?
Il viaggio con ciò che non è famigliare è sempre arricchente (Erodoto), i Nuer mettono in discussione l’universalità dei concetti di spazio e tempo, sono scelte culturali.
Abitano un ambiente aspro che non perdona chi rimane indietro ma loro ritengono di vivere nel paese più bello del mondo.
Gli stranieri assimilati erano “altro” ma diventano “noi” (mobilità sociale che ora non è pervenuta) perché la comunione della vita è maggiore della differenza di discendenza.
-i Dinka vanno razziati sempre e comunque.
-Evans Pritchard non se ne abbia a male ma la sua ricerca è stata un po’ misogina e classista.
-i LIGNAGGI, no lignaggi no 18.
-
-
#nuer#evanspritchard#antropologia#letture#lettureantropologiche #letture#lettureconsigliate#bookstagram#instabooks#libridaleggere#linrisuilibri#leggere#bookaesthetic#bookstagramitalia#bookwarm#booksandcoffe#bookphotography
September 29, 2023
True Rating - 2.5 Stars
I think that this book is an important piece of early ethnographic works, however I think that it's a very dry read. Some of the information about the Nuer I learned through this book is very fascinating, such as the Nuer's relationship with their cattle, the Nuer's kinship system, and their initiation rite. However, I think the information is very hard for a person who has little experience with socio/anthropological language because of Evans-Pritchard's heavy use of academic jargon.
My professor who assigned this book also brought up a very good point. Evans-Pritchard did his work for the colonial government at the time, hence why he focused so heavily on the Nuer's political system. He should have made that a bigger part of his argument and he didn't which I found annoying.
Overall: Interesting ideas and concepts brought up but they are lost in the dry language
I think that this book is an important piece of early ethnographic works, however I think that it's a very dry read. Some of the information about the Nuer I learned through this book is very fascinating, such as the Nuer's relationship with their cattle, the Nuer's kinship system, and their initiation rite. However, I think the information is very hard for a person who has little experience with socio/anthropological language because of Evans-Pritchard's heavy use of academic jargon.
My professor who assigned this book also brought up a very good point. Evans-Pritchard did his work for the colonial government at the time, hence why he focused so heavily on the Nuer's political system. He should have made that a bigger part of his argument and he didn't which I found annoying.
Overall: Interesting ideas and concepts brought up but they are lost in the dry language
January 2, 2018
In summary, what Evans-Pritchard's detailed studies show, is that people who have different modes of production have different social organisation which consequently shapes different ideas in peoples heads. Trying to get the heads around these ideas, is very difficult for those who view from outside. This is why it is so wrong to described pre-capitalist, or even pre-class modes of production as "primitive". They're anything but. It is for this reason that the author spends so much time looking at the details of inter-tribal relations and the like. But for most of us, we can simply delight in reading about a different way of organising society, not because we want to return to such a way of living, but because it shows that human-nature is not fixed and may well change again.
Full review: http://resolutereader.blogspot.co.uk/...
Full review: http://resolutereader.blogspot.co.uk/...
April 6, 2023
The political institutions are acephalous, so that's fun to read about. There were a lot of slow bits though, details about cattle and the names of lineages. Then at the end, he's like, "y'all probably wanted more detail and less theory," well, yeah, but I want the titillating details like a Mondo genre film, you know. Not the six billion ways to talk about the spots on your cow. I guess the cool myths and stories are in his other book about Nuer religion, but there was one weird story in here about the time when stomachs lived outside and separate from humans. I've been tempted, while reading this, to check what is up with the Nuer in the almost hundred years since he wrote this, but I suspect it's not a happy story and I have enough stuff to be sad about.
February 4, 2022
Un'opera certamente fondamentale per la storia dell'antropologia moderna, che si pone in contrapposizione al funzionalismo nomotetico di Radcliffe-Brown che imperava all'epoca.
Evans-Pritchard dimostra un occhio attento e una mente aperta, per quanto possibile, allo studio e alla comprensione di questa popolazione. Privo di inutili lungaggini va dritto al sodo descrivendo in modo comprensibilmente l'ordinamento sociale e le strutture politiche dei nuer trovando uno stretto collegamento con l'ambiente e il sistema economico-ecologico in cui i Nuer vivono.
Evans-Pritchard dimostra un occhio attento e una mente aperta, per quanto possibile, allo studio e alla comprensione di questa popolazione. Privo di inutili lungaggini va dritto al sodo descrivendo in modo comprensibilmente l'ordinamento sociale e le strutture politiche dei nuer trovando uno stretto collegamento con l'ambiente e il sistema economico-ecologico in cui i Nuer vivono.
October 11, 2018
I don't usually go out of my way to review school books but my god. This is the driest, most boring steaming pile of cow feces that I've ever read. Why are there 80 pages about cows? no one asked for this, literally no one. I can understand and appreciate why this was an important work of ethnography at the time but his attempts to be a passive observer are tainted by inherit colonialist perspectives.
July 16, 2019
Mi è piaciuto. Il tipo di libro di stampo scientifico (antropologico, nello specifico) che però riesce ad avere un taglio documentaristico e al contempo intrigante, vista la grande distanza tra la cultura occidentale e quella dei Nuer.
ENG
I liked it. The type of scientific-style book (anthropological, in particular) which, however, manages to have a documentary and at the same time intriguing cut, given the great distance between the Western culture and the one of the Nuer.
ENG
I liked it. The type of scientific-style book (anthropological, in particular) which, however, manages to have a documentary and at the same time intriguing cut, given the great distance between the Western culture and the one of the Nuer.
April 11, 2018
Lots of cows. Cool photos. Kind of dated "western" view of native tribes.
February 8, 2019
I had to read this for my graduate seminar....it was good overall, but I don't know if I will read it again.
June 16, 2020
Persiga a vaca.
May 13, 2021
学习了学习了。
April 11, 2024
I blir sint. Men ig han prøvde.
Read
October 28, 2024He kind of buries the ghost marriage thing
November 11, 2025
5 carefree stars for “CATTLE TIME”
July 26, 2019
One of the finest novels in the English language, but unputdownable.
March 21, 2014
Although this book is packed with some very interesting information, it is dry, and casual readers of ethnographies may have a hard time reading it. I also have to say that although he is writing from a British structural functionalism perspective, he is still very liberal in his description of the Nuer. In short, very interesting, but also, very dry.
October 2, 2016
In poche parole, i nuer non hanno voglia di coltivare, non hanno voglia di uccidere bestiame, selvaggina o pesci, non mangiano frutti selvatici, non commerciano e poi si lamentano se patiscono la fame... l'importante è aver, finalmente, finito i compiti.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 45 reviews