ANTH 2 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Transhumance
Document Summary
Grasslands > cattle > social and political organization (segmentary) Pictures of cattle - how important cattle is for them. Nuer tend to define all social processes and relationships in terms of cattle. Flooding/drought - tropical weather system (summer"s humidity creates rainfall) An environmental system which directly conditions nuer life and influences their social structure. Rainy (collect animals on go to dry hills)/dry seasons (spread out over the land) Cattle must be kept in dry areas. Transhumance - the movement of people when they move their animals through a landscape in a cyclical manner to take advantage of the resources in that landscape. Cattle technology - conserving milk through processes of fermentation; designed for pasteurization. Sparse settlements; small, separate political groups: segmentation. Working together in groups in order to live. Different smaller segments of the nuer because of the environment. Concentrate during rainy months; disperse during the dry months. Divide and take advantage of the environment.
