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Note from DrB: Hi Team 7. I just wanted to leave a quick note to show you that anyone can access this sandbox. I sent the link to one of your teammate's. After you navigate here, click "Edit" up on the right side menu bar.

The Cattle of Money and the Cattle of Girls among the Nuer, 1930-83. Author(s): Sharon Hutchinson.

Evans-Pritchard, E. E. "The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People." Oxford: Calderon Press, 1940. Print. 

Faezeh-Book: [null Nuer-American passages : globalizing Sudanese migration / Dianna J. Shandy.] This book can provide material to create a new section on migration of Nuer and causes of conflict. Additionally, from the class readings we can expand the introduction section of the article.

This also could be a good source for the article. http://www.un.org/en/peacekeeping/missions/unmiss/

Jasmine- Newcomer, Peter J. "The Nuer are Dinka: An Essay on Origins and Environmental Determinism." Man. New Series, Vol 7, No. 1. (March 1972): p 5-11. Print. 

Anene-Kinship and marriage among the Nuer. Evans-Pritchard, E.E. 1902-1973

Aaron- Duany, Wal. "Customary law and ways of life in transition among the Nuer of South Sudan". Web: http://dx.doi.org/10.3362/9781780442761.006. 12 Sep. 2014

Joshua - Miner, Edward - "The Development of Nuer Linguistics " http://www.dlib.indiana.edu/collections/nuer/edward/linguistics.html

Joshua - "The Oxford Encyclopedia of African Thought", First Edition, Edited by F. Abiola Irele and Biodun Jeyifo

Aaron- edit to article: Hutchinson, Sharon (May, 1992). [www.jstor.org/stable/645038 "The Cattle of Money and the Cattle of Girls among the Nuer, 1930-83"] www.jstor.org. to Hutchinson, Sharon (1992). The Cattle of Money and the Cattle of Girls among the Nuer, 1930-83. American Ethnologist, 19(2), 294-316. http://www.jstor.org/stable/645038.

Ways to Improve the Article: (Jasmine) 1. Add more info on the Nuer-Dinka conflict - origins of the conflict - political influence - current conditions

(Faezeh, I got books about these two subjects) 2. Include a section on the impact of oil economy on Nuer since the 1980s. There is no information about it in the article.

3. The section about resettlement of Nuer refugees in the US can be expanded. My major critique is that there is a mention about this under culture, but there is a lack of citation. This could be edited to include a more comprehensive information.

Aaron- add more content to the introduction and the history by incorporating the life and culture of the Nuer people.

Anene- Kinship dynamic is different with the Nuer. To a Nuer individual, his parents and siblings are not considered mar (blood relatives) kin. He doesn't refer to them as kin. To him they are considered gol which is far more intimate and significant. There are kinship categories in the Nuer society. Those categories depend on the payment to them. There is a balance between the mother and father's side that is acknowledged through particular formal occasions such as marriage.

EDITS:

Anene- Nuer girls usually marry 17 or 18. If a young girl gets engaged at an early age, the wedding and consummation ceremonies are essentially delayed. Women generally have give birth to their first children when they are mature enough to bear them. As long as a girl marries a man with a cattle, she pretty much has the free will to chose her mate. Now, her parents can choose a mate for her, but they ask for her consent. It is quite tough for parents to force their daughter to marry a man she isn't attractive to or simply dislikes. Nuer girls do stand up against being pressured by family when it comes to marriage issues. Anene- Kinship dynamic is different with the Nuer. To a Nuer individual, his parents and siblings are not considered mar (blood relatives) kin. He doesn't refer to them as kin. To him they are considered gol which is far more intimate and significant. There are kinship categories in the Nuer society. Those categories depend on the payment to them. There is a balance between the mother and father's side that is acknowledged through particular formal occasions such as marriage. Joshua - The Nuer adopted the practice of circumcision as part of the process of assimilation other ethnic groups. The Nuer are not historically known to circumcise, but on rare occasions, may participate as part "of ritual in their belief systems". For instance, The Nuer occasionally perform circumcisions to cleanse people who have engaged in the act of incest.

Joshua - In the 1940s, missionaries began to attempt to evangelize the Nuer. The book of Genesis was translated and published in 1954, with the whole New Testament following in 1968. By the 1970s, there were nearly 200 Nuer congregations established. However, reporting indicates that only around 1% of Nuer identify as Christian.

Jasmine (adding this to the History section)- There are different accounts of the origin of the conflict between the Nuer and the Dinka, South Sudan's to largest ethnic groups. Anthropologist Peter J. Newcomer suggests that neither the Nuer nor the Dinka are intrusive and that the Nuer are actually Dinka. He argues that hundreds of years of population growth created expansion, which eventually led to raids and wars.

Source: Newcomer, Peter J. "The Nuer are Dinka: An Essay on Origins and Environmental Determinism." Man. New Series, Vol 7, No. 1. (March 1972): p 5-11. Print. 

Faezeh- 1. In the early 1990s about 25,000 African refugees were resettled in the United States throughout different locations such as South Dakota, Tennessee and Minnesota. (P. 1)In particular, 4,288 refugees from Sudan were resettled among 36 different states between 1990 to1997 with the highest number in Texas at 17 percent of the refugee population from Sudan. (P. 65)

The Nuer refugees in the United States and those in Africa continue to observe their social obligations to one another. They use different means ranging from letters to new technologically advanced communication methods in order to stay connected to their families in Africa. Nuer in the United States provide assistance for family members’ paperwork to help their migration process to the United States. Furthermore, Nuer in the United States observe family obligations by sending money for those still in Africa. (P. 160) 

2. Oil exploration and drilling began in 1975 and 1976 by companies such as Chevron.  In 1979 the first oil production took place in the southern regions of Darfur. In the early 1980s when the North-South war was happening, Chevron was interested in the reserves in the south.  In 1984 guerrillas of SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army) attacked the drilling site of the north at Bentiu.  In return, Chevron cleared Nuer and Dinka people in the oil fields area to ensure security for their operations.  (Lobban, P.104)

The Nuer-Dinka struggle in oil fields continued in late 1990s into the early 2000s. The struggle for oil production was not only manifested in North-South fight, but also in Nuer-Dinka and many internal conflicts among Nuer. (Lobban, P.106)

As part of Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), 50 percent of net revenues of southern oil fields were given to the government of souther Sudan as a solution to one of the sources of decades of civil conflict. (Shandy, P. 21)

Source: Lobban, Richard Andrew. Global Security Watch - Sudan. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2010. Print.

Shandy, Dianna J. Nuer-American Passages: Globalizing Sudanese Migration. Gainsville: U of Florida, 2006. Print.

Aaron: add to introduction-- "The Nuer are related to the Dinka people of South Sudan with whom they share..." customs, languages, myths, and culture. Despite the many conflicts, the Dinka and the Nuer have intertwined their lineages and community since their origin. As one of the largest ethnic groups in southern Sudan, the Nuer people are pastoralist who herd cattle for a living. The cattle of the Nuer people serve as companions and a lifestyle.

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The Nuer people are a Nilotic ethnic group primarily inhabiting the Nile Valley. They are concentrated in South Sudan, with some also found in southwestern Ethiopia. They speak the Nuer language, which belongs to the Nilo-Saharan family. The Nuer are related to the Dinka people of South Sudan with whom they share some similarities. However, they refer to themselves as "Nath". The Nuer people have historically been under counted as a result semi-nomadic lifestyle the community engage, as well as lack of proper national statistic about the community.

Contents

  null hide 

History[edit | edit source]

The nature of relations among the various southern Sudanese tribes was greatly affected in the 19th century by the intrusion of Ottomans, Arabs, and eventually the British. To be reworded or removed- Some ethnic groups made their accommodation with the colonizers and others did not, in effect pitting one southern ethnic group against another in the context of foreign rule. For example, some sections of the Dinka supported colonial rule which was resisted by the Nuer. The Dinka treated the resisting Nuer as hostile, and hostility developed between the two groups as a result of their differing relationships to the British.

To be added- There are different accounts of the origin of the conflict between the Nuer and the Dinka, South Sudan's two largest ethnic groups. Anthropologist Peter J. Newcomer suggests that neither the Nuer nor the Dinka are intrusive and that the Nuer are actually Dinka. He argues that hundreds of years of population growth created expansion, which eventually led to raids and wars.

In 2006, the Nuer were the tribe that resisted disarmament most strongly. Members of the Nuer White Army, a group of armed youths often autonomous of tribal elders' authority, refused to lay down their weapons, which led SPLA soldiers to confiscate Nuer cattle, destroying their economy. The White Army was finally put down in mid-2006, though a successor organisation self-styling itself as a White Army formed in 2011 to fight the Murle tribe (see 2011–2012 South Sudan tribal clashes), as well as the Dinka and UNMISS. Nuers have been fighting hard to preserve their lifestyle, economy, culture, religion and history in the way of continuous onslaught by notorious Dinka tribes.

Culture[edit | edit source]

Cattle have historically been of the highest symbolic, religious and economic value among the Nuer. Sharon Hutchinson notes that "..among Nuer people the difference between people and cattle were continually underplayed." Cattle are particularly important in their role as bride wealth, where they are given by a husband's lineage to his wife's lineage. It is this exchange of cattle which ensures that the children will be considered to belong to the husband's lineage and to his line of descent. The classical Nuer institution of ghost marriage, in which a man can "father" children after his death, is based on this ability of cattle exchanges to define relations of kinship and descent. In their turn, cattle given over to the wife's patrilineage enable the male children of that patrilineage to marry, and thereby ensure the continuity of her patrilineage. A barren woman can even take a wife of her own, whose children (obviously biologically fathered by men from outside unions) then become members of her patrilineage, and she is legally and culturally their father, allowing her to participate in reproduction in a metaphorical sense.

To be added- Kinship dynamic is different with the Nuer. To a Nuer individual, his parents and siblings are not considered mar (blood relatives) kin. He doesn't refer to them as kin. To him they are considered gol which is far more intimate and significant. There are kinship categories in the Nuer society. Those categories depend on the payment to them. There is a balance between the mother and father's side that is acknowledged through particular formal occasions such as marriage.

E. E. Evans-Pritchard studied the Nuer and made very detailed accounts of his interactions. He also describes Nuer cosmology and religion in his books.

Nuer Online indicates that, "Nuer (Nuäär) believes that God is the spirit of the sky or the spirit who is in the sky” Kuoth Nhial” (God in Heaven) the creator, but Nuers believe in the coming of God through rain, lightning and thunder, and that the rainbow is the necklace of God. The sun and the moon as well as other material entities are also manifestation or sign of God, who after all is a spirit.

The spirits of the air above are believed to be the most powerful of the lesser spirits, while there are also spirits associated with clan-spears names such as WiW, a spirit of war, associated with thunder. Nuers believe that when a man or a woman dies, the flesh, the life and the soul separate. The flesh is committed to the earth, while the breath or life goes back to God (Kuoth). The soul that signifies the human individuality and personality remains alive as a shadow or a reflection, and departs together with the ox sacrificed, to the place of the ghosts.".

In the 1990s, Sharon Hutchinson returned to Nuerland to update Evans-Pritchard's account. She found that the Nuer had placed strict limits on the convertibility of money and cattle in order to preserve the special status of cattle as objects of bride wealth exchange and as mediators to the divine. She also found that as a result of endemic warfare with the Sudanese state, guns had acquired much of the symbolic and ritual importance previously held by cattle.

The people speak the Nuer language / Thoknath which belongs to the Nilo-Saharan language phylum. Though their geographical proximity with their Dinka's neighbors, the two people speak completely different languages and are unable to understand each other.

The Nuer receive facial markings (called gaar) as part of their initiation into adulthood. The pattern of Nuer scarification varies within specific subgroups. The most common initiation pattern among males consists of six parallel horizontal lines which are cut across the forehead with a razor, often with a dip in the lines above the nose. Dotted patterns are also common (especially among the Bul Nuer and among females).

Typical foods eaten by the Nuer tribe include beef, goat, cow's milk, mangos, and sorghum in one of three forms: "ko̱p" finely ground, handled until balled and boiled, "walwal" ground, lightly balled and boiled to a solid porridge, and injera / Yɔtyɔt, a large, pancake-like yeast-risen flatbread.

To be removed-(Because of the civil wars in Southern Sudan over the past 50 years, many Nuer have imigrated to Kenya, Ethiopia and elsewhere. Approximately 25,000 Nuer were resettled in the United States as refugees since the early 1990s, with many Nuer now residing in Nebraska, Minnesota, Sag Harbor, NY, Iowa, South Dakota, Tennessee, Georgia and many other states, and some of them living in Canada, mostly in Toronto, Kitchener, Edmonton, and Calgary. There are currently (2008) over 20,000 Southern Sudanese in Australia, perhaps a third of these Nuer.)

To be added- In the early 1990s about 25,000 African refugees were resettled in the United States throughout different locations such as South Dakota, Tennessee and Minnesota. (P. 1)In particular, 4,288 refugees from Sudan were resettled among 36 different states between 1990 to1997 with the highest number in Texas at 17 percent of the refugee population from Sudan. (P. 65)

The Nuer refugees in the United States and those in Africa continue to observe their social obligations to one another. They use different means ranging from letters to new technologically advanced communication methods in order to stay connected to their families in Africa. Nuer in the United States provide assistance for family members’ paperwork to help their migration process to the United States. Furthermore, Nuer in the United States observe family obligations by sending money for those still in Africa.  (P. 160)

Nuer military and political leaders[edit | edit source]

Some important Nuer politicians are Bul Nyawan who fought against the Khartoum government in Bentiiu; he was killed in 1985 by the current president of Sudan. Commander Ruai and Leah Diu Deng were responsible for the attack that forced Chevron to suspend activities in the oil field around 1982.

Naming conventions[edit | edit source]

  • "Nya" (née ya) meaning "daughter of", is the standard prefix used for female names. "Gat" meaning "son of", is a common prefix for male names.[citation needed]
  • Children are commonly given names to mark historical events ("Dɔmaac" meaning "bullet", or "Mac" meaning "fire or gun" given to a child born during times of war or from another man in the name of the deceased father who legally married the mother ).[citation needed]
  • "Nhial" means "rain", and is a common name for males.[citation needed]
  • Many Nuer have been exposed to missionaries and carry a Christian first name. Their second name is a given name and always in Nuer. The father's given name follows the child's given name, which is then followed by the grandfather's name, and so on. Many Nuer can easily recount ten generations of paternal lineage because they carry those names themselves.[citation needed]
  • When a Nuer comes to the Western world, which wants a first and last name, it is their custom to give their name as their first name followed by their father's name as their middle name and their grandfather's name as their last name.[citation needed]
  • Post civil war, the Nuer began accepting cash currency into their economy, changing the dynamics of their cattle and how they were viewed. Each type of cattle are titled according to how they are acquired such as: "the cattle of money" (purchased with cash currency) and "the cattle of girls/daughters" (bridewealth).

Most Nuer people are named after their cattle. The boys usually chose the name of their favorite cattle based on the form and color of the ox. The girls are named after the cows that they milk. Sometimes the cow names are passed down. (The Nuer, E.E. Evans-Pritchard)

Impact of Oil Economy on Nuer

To be added-Oil exploration and drilling began in 1975 and 1976 by companies such as Chevron.  In 1979 the first oil production took place in the southern regions of Darfur. In the early 1980s when the North-South war was happening, Chevron was interested in the reserves in the south.  In 1984 guerrillas of SPLA (Sudan People’s Liberation Army) attacked the drilling site of the north at Bentiu.  In return, Chevron cleared Nuer and Dinka people in the oil fields area to ensure security for their operations.  (Lobban, P.104)

The Nuer-Dinka struggle in oil fields continued in late 1990s into the early 2000s. The struggle for oil production was not only manifested in North-South fight, but also in Nuer-Dinka and many internal conflicts among Nuer. (Lobban, P.106)

As part of Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), 50 percent of net revenues of southern oil fields were given to the government of souther Sudan as a solution to one of the sources of decades of civil conflict. (Shandy, P. 21)

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