ANTB19H3 Lecture Notes - Idiom, Transhumance, Overgrazing
Document Summary
Idiom: a group of words established by usage as having a meaning not deducible from those of the individual words (eg. raining cats and dogs ); A form of expression natural to a language, person, or group of people he had a feeling for phrase and idiom ; The dialect of a people or part of a country. The nuer tend to define all social processes and relationships in terms of cattle. Nor is nuer interest in cattle confined to their practical and social functions. The over-emphasis on cattle is thus strikingly shown in language---whatever the subject of speech it is expressed in terms of cattle as the superlative value of nuer life. The nuer are willing to fight for their cattle: cattle were the primary source of friction with the colonial government. Raiding for cattle was a condition that shaped their character, economy, and political structures.
