ANTH 208 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1-6: Rinderpest, Ethnography, Feud
Chapter One: Part One
● Mainly a pastoral society, but also grow millet and maize, amount of variation varies with
tribe mainly done in absence of sufficient herds of cattle
○ Many social activities also concern their cattle, extends to how they view others
in and outside their society, such as contempt for those without cattle
○ Chiefs and those with ritual/religious power are arbiters in things related to cattle
■ Ritual specialist is called wut ghok, Man of the Cattle
○ Relationship of boyhood to manhood also marked by change in relationship to
one's cattle
● Cattle are owned by families, but a single one cannot pasture their cattle alone and so
this is done in small groups, usually village to village
○ Many social/kinship ties are determined via cattle such as in payments for
marriage, and sons inheriting their father’s cattle which are not to be split up,
fostering permanent ties between them and so they reside near each other once
married
■ Kraal: herd of cattle
■ Many names even come from/are related to cattle
Chapter One: Part Two
● At time of writing of ethnography the herds have been periodically hit by a disease called
rinder-pest, hurting their numbers
○ Used to restore these losses by raiding and going to war with the Dinka
● Some variation in amount of cattle from tribe to tribe, estimates that the number doesn’t
greatly exceed the human population
● Hypothesizes that they used to be more nomadic in the past when they were more
pastoral, which is still affecting their political system
Chapter One: Part Three
● Cattle mainly used for the milk they provide which is a main foodstuff along with millet
○ Millet is an uncertain crop, basically eat it until run out and then rely on milk
and/or fish, even when don’t run out millet is never eaten alone, milk is held to a
higher standard and having plentiful milk is seen as better than having plentiful
millet
○ Thus cows are valued based on how much milk they produce
■ Also millet alone cannot be eaten by young children who are far more
dependent on milk
■ Also the calves of good milk-producing cows are more highly valued
● Everyone in a village knows which cows are good and which are bad, payment in the
from of cows often also involves this distinction
● Milking is done by women, girls, and uninitiated boys twice a day, men are forbidden
from doing this
● Amount of milk taken from cows is affected not just by the amount produced while the
cow is lactating, a period of about seven months, but also how much is needed to
sustain the calves which they also want to survive due to their value
● Milk is consumed several ways, drunk, in millet, allowed to sour and thicken, churned
and turned into cheese, etc.
○ Also have sheet and goats which are milked in the morning, their milk goes only
to small children, and thus is not counted in value overly much
● Environmental conditions, the inability to survive on only milk without something like
millet, and the lack of resources to provide enough milk for a family to solely survive on
necessitates and mixed economy and subsistence form while also preventing the Nuer
from being nomadic
Chapter One: Part Four
● Don’t raise herds to kill them but sheep and oxen are killed in some ceremonies and
then they eat the meat boiled and roasted
○ Sacrifice fertile cows in mortuary rites but otherwise only barren females, and
people are generally more concerned with the feast that follows than any
religious stuff
○ Ceremonies include weddings, other significant events
● When oxen are sacrificed they are valued for the size and color of their horns among
other things
● Also bleed their cattle and use it to supplement their diet during dry season camps, when
doing this it’s done more or less everyday
● A beast always ends up cooked after it’s death, but it isn’t a main part of the diet, so that
they don’t need to hunt unless there’s an epidemic happening
Chapter One: Part Five
● Also use the various parts of cattle that are not eaten for their possessions such as the
skin, bones, horns, etc., even their dung makes up almost entirely their material culture
Chapter One: Part Six
● Talks about how their could be some debate as to the actual competence of the Nuer as
herdsmen as some of the practices would seem counterintuitive, but then again it’s all
worked so far, if asked they have reasons for whatever they do and care for their cattle
to the best of their abilities and knowledge
○ Their is an especially low mortality rate among the calves, which are given a
great deal of attention by the Nuer
○ There are many rituals, especially social ones, that are geared around calves and
the valuing of them, the assurance of their survival
Chapter One: Part Seven
● Asserts that the Nuer and the cows have a sort of symbiotic relationship, they are
parasites of each other
○ Both are reliant on each other to survive, very much a reciprocal relationship
○ Very much identify men with cattle, the intimacy of the relationship extends to all
levels of the society
Chapter One: Part Eight
● A huge amount of the Nuer’s vocabulary is devoted to and/or related to cattle in some
capacity
○ Have words for the various colors a cow can be, the stages of its life, body type,
milk it produces, horns they grow and are cut off, the various behaviours in
different types of the year etc. etc.
○ Men may sometimes take names from cattle upon initiation, usually this is the
first name and is based on the cattle the man was given by his father upon
coming of age
Chapter One: Part Nine
● Something to demonstrate the importance of cattle is how often the Nuer fight about
them, both amongst themselves and with other groups like the Dinka who they often raid
for cattle
○ Often claim cattle as compensation for debts and the like
Chapter Two: Part One
● The environment is at least favorable for herdsmen, also do have a wet and dry season,
but not so much that it’s monsoonal or anything
● Basically exactly what you picture when you think ‘savannah’ a huge relatively flat
grassland with sparse thornwood forests and practically no trees as far as you can see
○ Grass is markedly higher in the wet season especially near streams, areas with
lower elevation are flooded during this time generally, resembles a swamp of
sorts as streams and tributaries overflow
● When there isn’t rain there is a very high danger of drought, the landscape looks very
different during the dry season
● This weather shift is why the live on top of mounds during the wet season and not during
the dry season when it would be too hot up there
● To a certain degree their interest in cattle may be shaped by the environment, which is
very much suited to cattle herds as opposed to horticulturalism
Chapter Two: Part Two
● Lack of water is the biggest problem the Nuer face due to the environment, dig wells in
certain areas but now more have open access to open water so is less common
○ Lack of water, having to go to sources of it, as well as good grasses for the herds
are a big part of what makes the Nuer partially nomadic, the concentration
around water sources and partial horticulturalism prevents total nomadity
● Essentially a part of the year is spent in villages and part of it in camps, the same
villages usually go to the same few camps, etc.
Chapter Two: Part Three
● A village needs room for grazing for cattle and room for cultivation thus many are on top
of mounds
○ Village consists of huts and cattle byre and little else
○ Individual families can move between villages and often do based on their
specific needs or even if a bunch of cows and people have died in one village
● In camps during dry season women, and sometimes men, sleep in beehive huts, and
men sometimes simply sleep behind screens
Chapter Two: Part Four
Document Summary
Mainly a pastoral society, but also grow millet and maize, amount of variation varies with tribe mainly done in absence of sufficient herds of cattle. Many social activities also concern their cattle, extends to how they view others in and outside their society, such as contempt for those without cattle. Chiefs and those with ritual/religious power are arbiters in things related to cattle. Ritual specialist is called wut ghok, man of the cattle. Relationship of boyhood to manhood also marked by change in relationship to one"s cattle. Cattle are owned by families, but a single one cannot pasture their cattle alone and so this is done in small groups, usually village to village. Many names even come from/are related to cattle. At time of writing of ethnography the herds have been periodically hit by a disease called rinder-pest, hurting their numbers. Used to restore these losses by raiding and going to war with the dinka.
