ANTH 208 Lecture 12: Anth. 208 (Classics in Ethnography) Week Twelve Lecture Notes
Anth. 208 Week Twelve Lecture Notes
● The Nuer tribe is a segmentary system that exists in a state of equilibrium between
splitting apart and coming together, maintained between locality, movement, and
segmentation
○ Similar to the political structure of a group in Burma studied by another guy in the
1940s
● The part of about fission and fusion is key to understanding the Nuer
● Spears can’t be used on those from within the same village, only if at a minimum from
another village with neighbors stick to clubs
● Levitical marriage: When a husband is given to the wife of a man who was from the
same tribe and then died, replacing the husband with someone from the same tribe so
the marriage relationship between the two groups continue
● Ghost marriage: When a woman pledges to bear the children of a dead man, meaning
any children she has regardless of biological father are regarded as being from the
lineage of the dead man in order to continue his line
● Look at Return to Laughter for what it is ethnographers do, not a factual account
● Ethnographic novels were big in the nineteenth century, examples are Return to
Laughter, Gesto the Sheik, etc. Forest People sort of falls into this category as well
Document Summary
The nuer tribe is a segmentary system that exists in a state of equilibrium between splitting apart and coming together, maintained between locality, movement, and segmentation. Similar to the political structure of a group in burma studied by another guy in the. The part of about fission and fusion is key to understanding the nuer. Spears can"t be used on those from within the same village, only if at a minimum from another village with neighbors stick to clubs. Look at return to laughter for what it is ethnographers do, not a factual account. Ethnographic novels were big in the nineteenth century, examples are return to.
