Gaat Ngundeng Naath of South Sudan
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The Nuer Political System By Evans Pritchard
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NUER tribes are split into segments. the largest segments we call primary tribal sections and these are further segmented into secondary tribal sections which are further segmented into tertiary tribal sections. Experience shows that primary, secondary, and tertiary are sufficient terms of definition, and in the smallest tribes probably fewer terms are required. A tertiary tribal section comprises a number of village communities which are composed of kinship and domestic groups. Thus, the Lou tribe, as shown in the diagram below, is segmented into the Gun and Mor primary sections. The Gun primary section is segmented into the Rumjok and Gaatbaal secondary sections. The Gaatbaal secondary section is further segmented into the Leng and Nyarkwac tertiary sections. Only a few segments are shown diagrammatically: Gaaliek is split into Nyaak and Buth, Ruinjok into Falker, Nyajikany, Kwacgien, &c., and so on.
LOU Tribes:Mor,Gun.
The diagram on p. 140 shows the primary sections of the
Eastern Gaagwang tribe and the primary and secondary sec
tions of the Eastern Gaajak and Gaajok tribes. They are
THE POLITICAL SYSTEM
presented as accurately as my knowledge permits, but anyone,.
acquainted with he difficulties of unravelling the complex
system of Nuer tribal divisions will not be surprised if he dis-
covers sections which he knows under different names or others
which he may think should not have been omitted. I am not
certain of the secondary sections of the Gaagwang tribe, which
1 have not visited.
EASTERN JIKANY TRIBES
GAAJOK:Lang,Wangkac.GAAGWANG(Gaatcika).GAAJAK:Gaagwong,Reng,Thiang.
Among the Western jikany the Gaagwang appear to be classed as part of the Gaajok tribe whose country stretches on both sides of the Bahr-el-Ghazal, the Gaajak tribe living to the south of that river. The primary sections of these two tribes, Gaagwong, Reng, Thiang, Laang, Wangkac, and Yol, are the same as in the east, but some secondary sections which are important to the north of the Sobat are not to be found, except as very small clusters, on the Bahr-el-Ghazal, and vice versa. The reason for this is that certain lineages migrated eastwards while others remained in the homeland.After having satisfied myself that the segmentation of other
THE POLITICAL SYSTEM
Nuer tribes is on the same Pattern as that of the Lou and Jikany
tribes 1 did not make detailed lists of their divisions, being
interested in new and different inquiries. I include, however,
some diagrammatic representations of tribal segmentation in
Gaawar, Lak, and Thiang countries, for which I am indebted
to Mr. B. A. Lewis, at one time Commissioner for Zeraf River
District.
GAAWAR:Radh,Bar.LAKE:Jenyang,Kwacbur.THIANG CIENG:Riah,Bang.
THE POLITICAL SYSTEM
It will have been observed that I have not attempted to list all the sections of each tribe, but have merely tried to indicate the mode of segmentation so that the relation between tribal divisions and lineages may be more clearly understood in the following chapter. Segments of a tribe have many of the characteristics of the tribe itself. Each has its distinctive name, its common sentiment, and its unique territory. Usually one section is clearly divided from another by a wide stretch of bush or by a river. Segments of the same tribe also tend to turn in different directions for their dry season pastures, as is shown on the sketch-maps on PP. 56, 58, and 6o, so that the spatial divisions of the rains are maintained, and may be accentuated during the drought, though, as we have pointed'out, in the larger tribes to the east of the Nile severity of natural conditions may also produce closer interrelations than he smaller tribes to the west.The smaller the tribal segment the more compact its territory, the more contiguous its members, the more varied and more intimate their general social ties, and the stronger therefore its sentiment of unity. As we shall see, a tribal segment is crystallized around a lineage of the dominant clan of the tribe and the smaller the segment the closer the genealogical relationship between members of this clan fragment. Also the smaller the segment the more the age-set system determines behaviour and produces corporate action within it. Political cohesion thus not only varies with Variations,of political distance but is also a function of structural distance of other kinds.Each segment is itself segmented and there is opposition between its parts. The members of any segment unite for war against ~ adjacent segments of the same order and unite with these adjacent segments against larger sections. Nuer themselves state this structural principle clearly in the expression of their political values. Thus they say that if the Leng tertiary section of the Lou tribe fights the Nyarkwac tertiary sectionand, in fact, there has been a long feud between them-the villages which compose each section will ~ombine to fight; but if there is a quarrel between the Nyarkwac tertiary section and the Rumjok secondary section, as has occurred recently over water rights at Fading, Leng and Nyarkwac will unite against their common enemy Rumjok which, in its turn, forms a coali tion of the various segments into which it is divided. If there is a fight between the Mor and the Gun primary sections, Rumjok and Gaatbal will unite against the combined Mor sections: Gaaliek, jimac, and jaajoah. If there is fighting against the Gaajok or the Gaawar the primary sections, Gun and Mor, will, at any rate in theory, combine and a united Lou tribe will take the field, since both sections belong to the same political group and since their dominant lineages belong to the same clan. Certainly they used to unite in raids on the Dinka.Among the Eastern Gaajok, Minyal, Wang, and Nyathol sections combine against Yol. Also Thiur, Dwong, and Kwith sections unite for war. These fights between tribal sections and the feuds that result from them, though based on a territorial principle, are often represented in terms of lineages, since there is a close relation between territorial segments and lineage segments, and Nuer habitually express social obligations in a kinship idiom. Thus in telling me that Wangkac and Yol would unite for war against any other section Nuer stated the proposition by saying that the WANGKAc and YOL lineages, which are the dominant lineages in these sections, would unite because their ancestors were sons of the same mother. We shall see in Chapter V that Nuer generally speak in such terms.This principle of segmentation and the opposition between segments is the same in every section of a tribe and extends beyond the tribe to relations between tribes, especially among the smaller Western Nuer tribes, which coalesce more easily and frequently in raiding the Dinka and in fighting one another than the larger tribes to the east of the Nile. Thus a man of the Fadang section of the Bor tribe exemplified it when he told me, 'We fight against the Rengyan, but when either of us is fighting a third party we combine with them'. It can be stated in hypothetical terms by the Nuer themselves and -can best be represented in this way. In the diagr= on p. 144, when Z, fights Z, no other section is involved. When Z, fights Y1, Z, and Z2 unite as Y2. When Y, fights X1, Y, and Yz unite, and so do X,And X2. When X, fights A, X1, Xz, Y1, and Y2 all unite as B. When A raids the Dinka A and B may unite.The larger tribal sections were almost autonomous groups and acted as such in their enmities and combinations were not always as regular and simple as they were explained to me and as I have stated them. I give a few examples of fighting between tribal sections. One of the worst wars in Nuer history occurred in the last generation between the Gun and the Mor moieties of the Lou tribe. It was known as kur luny yak, the war of letting loose the hyena, because so many people were killed that the dead were left for the hyenas to eat. It is said that in this struggle men displayed unusual ferocity, even cutting off arms to seize quickly ivory armlets. There was a lengthy, and more recent, feud between the Leng and the Nyarkwac tertiary sections of the Lou tribe which has continued up to the present. It sprang out of an earlier fight between Thiang When A raids the Dinka A and B may unite.The larger tribal sections were almost autonomous groups and acted as such in their enmities and alliances. At one time they would be fighting among themselves and at another would be combining against a third party. These combinations were not always as regular and simple as they were explained to me and as I have stated them. I give a few examples of fighting between tribal sections. One of the worst wars in Nuer history occurred in the last generation between the Gun and the Mor moieties of the Lou tribe. It was known as kur luny yak, the war of letting loose the hyena, because so many people were killed that the dead were left for the hyenas to eat. It is said that in this struggle men displayed unusual ferocity, even cutting off arms to seize quickly ivory armlets. There was a lengthy, and more recent, feud between the Leng and the Nyarkwac tertiary sections of the Lou tribe which has continued up to the present. It sprang out of an earlier fight between Thiang and Yol which once formed sub-sections of the Nyarkwac. The ancestors of the dominant lineages in the Leng and Yol divisions were brothers, whereas the ancestor of the dominant lineage of the Thiang division stood to these brothers in the relationship of sister's son. For a long while Yol and Thiang lived peaceably together, but some thirty years ago a fight broke out between them, and Thiang, deieated, fled to seek protection among the Leng section, The Yol sent messages to the Leng telling them that they were not to receive their enemies or give them asylum. The Leng replied that the ancestor of the UNG lineage was the matemal uncle of the ancestor of the THIANG lineage and that they could not refuse asylum to their sisters'sons. This attitude involved Yol (Nyarkwac) in a second war, this time against a combination of Leng and Thiang. Other recent Lou feuds were between the FalkirandNyajikany divisions of the Rumjok secondary section and between various local communities of the Mor primary section, particularly between two divisions of the Jimac secondary section,In Eastern Gaajok country the Yol primary section joined the Gaagwang tribe, who seem to have identified themselves so much with the Gaajok tribe that we may almost speak of them, as we can to the west of the Nile, as a single tribe separated from the Gaajak by the wide Macar swamps, against several, if not all, sections of the Gaajak tribe. Yol fought Nyayan while Gaagwang fought Reng and Kang. About half a century ago the Laang and Wangkac primary sections of the Gaajok tribe were involved in a long feud and there was also warfare between the Yol and Wangkac sections in which Yol, assisted by their allies the Gaagwang tribe, were victorious; the Wangkac being so heavily defeated that they moved southwards to the banks of the Pibor river. Here, they say, they were attacked b Turuk (Arabs of some kind and moved by north again to the site of their old homes. They were too exhausted to resume their feud ' with the Yol section. In spite of these internal feuds, if any section of the Gaajok tribe is engaged in warfare with the Lou tribe all its sections will come to assist the threatened section if it is not strong enough to resist whatever section of the Lou is opposed to it. There have also been feuds between the Eastern Gaajak sections, e.g. between Thiang and Reng. When two tribes fight, other tribes remain neutral, and if two sections of a tribe are at war with one another the other sections of each may leave them to fight it out if they are well matched and do not appeal for assistance. Some of Mis's Soule's. informants pointed out that when there was trouble a few years ago between the Yol section of the Gaajok tribe and the Lony section of the Gaajak tribe they were strong enough to fight their own battle, but had Lony not been strong enough to fight singlehanded then the Kaang and Tar, and possibly other, sections of the Gaajak would have come to its assistance, in which case the Gaajok sections would have joined Yol. They also pointed out that at present there is trouble between the Luluaa section and the Wang section. There is also trouble between various sections of W~ngkac. If Luluaa and Wang begin to fight then the Wangkac sections will compose their differences and join Lul,uaa.In accordance with the general tendency to the west of the Nile the Western Gaajok and Gaajak tribes are not only smaller but less united than, had frequent and bitter internal feuds. There was a fierce .Bor, whose dominant lineages spring from one mother. The Kwoth and Bor divisions were defeated and migrated southwards to settle at Kwac in Rengyan country. The same Gai division also had a feud with the Reng primary division, after which it moved into Karlual country. There were numerous other feuds in the Gaajak tribe. The Gaajok tribe once lived entirely on the left bank of the Bahrel-Ghazal and their present extension on the right bank is a consequence of migration following feuds.The Leek tribe once all lived on the right bank of the Bahr-elGhazal. Here two of its primary sections, Cuaagh and Deng who lived to the west of the Gany river, fought the third primary section, the Keunyang (Karlual), who lived to the east of that river, and being defeated crossed the Bahr-el-Ghazal and settled on its left bank. The story is that some aristocrats of the Nyapir section and some aristocrats of the Nyawah section used offensive expressions in songs about one another. These songs led to fighting between the young men, one of whom on each side was killed. There was further fighting in consequence, and finally Deng and Cuaagh crossed the river. In the following year they recrossed the Bahr-el-Ghazal to camp in the dry. season on the right bank and on their return to their villages they drove before them herds belonging to Keunyang. Six of their girls came back to collect their dairy vessels which they had left in a camp hut and were waylaid and killed by some Keunyang men. This act was considered a serious breach of the rules of war, for the Nuer do not kill their own womenfolk. Because of it the Deng uttered a curse, according to which it is forbidden to an aristocrat of Keunyang who crosses the Bahr-el-Ghazal and settles among the Deng or Cuaagh, and also to an aristocrat of Deng or Cuaagh who moves southwards and- settles among the Keunyang, to build a cattlebyre in the usual manner. The curse also causes an aristocrat who thus changes his residence to beget only boys for his first few children because of the slain girls. When the Government raided Karlual (Keunyang) country many Keunyang aristocrats crossed the river to live in Deng and Cuaagh country. At the present day many Deng and Cuaagh spend the dry season in Keunyang country because their own country is not rich in good pasture grasses but consists mainly of marsh grasses which are not so nourishing.Within each of these primary sections there were constant feuds. Thus in Karlual country, Riaagh, Gom, jiom, Nyaagh, jikul, and Ngwol sections have been frequently at feud with one another. It would be tedious to recount the occasions and outcome of these petty feuds. I want only to make it clear that the villages occupied.When a man has killed a neighbour a cow is often immediately paid over in earnest so that the community may remain at peace.It must not be supposed, however, that the ease with which feuds are settled is an indication of lack of strong indignation or that the difficulty with which they are settled is an indication of greater indignation.Feuds are settled with comparative ease in a restricted social milieu where the structural distance between the participants is narrow but they are more difficult to settle as the milieu expands, until one reaches intertribal relations where no compensation is offered or expected. The degree of social control over feuds varies with the size of the tribal segment, and Nuer themselves have often explained this to me. Long and intense feuds may take place between tertiary tribal sections, but an effort is generally made to close them, for a segment of this size has a strong sense of community, close lineage ties, and some economic interdependence. However, it is far less easy to stop feud between persons of different tertiary sections than to stop feud in a village or between neighbouring villages, where a quick and permanent settlement is assured, and unsettled feuds between sections of this size tend to accumulate. This is especially the case where -there has not been a single death resulting from a personal quarrel but several deaths in a fight between the two sections. When a fight has taken place between secondary tribal sections there is little chance of exacting vengeance except by a general fight' ' and people feel less the need to submit to mediation since they have few social contacts and these of a temporary kind, for the relative ease with which feuds are settled is an indication of the cohesion of the community. The larger the segment involved the greater the anarchy that prevails. People say that there is payment of blood-cattle between primary tribal sections, but they do- not greatly feel the need of paying it. The tribe is the last stage in this increasing anarchy. It still has nominal political unity, and it is held that feuds between its most distant members can be settled by compensation, but often they are not settled, and if many men are killed in a big fight between large sections nothing is done to avenge them or to pay compensation for their deaths. Their kinsmen abide their time till there is another fight. The political integument may in consequence be stretched eventually to the breaking-point and the tribe split into two. The rent between sections enlarges until they have little to do with each other beyond occasional uniting for raids; and feuds between their members are settled, if at all, with greater difficulty and casualness.The-likelihood of a homicidd developing-into a blood-feud, its force, and its chances of settlement are thus dependent on the structural interrelations of the persons concerned. Moreover, the blood-feud may be viewed as a structural movement between political segments by which the form of the Nuer political system, as we know it, is maintained. It is true that only close agnatic kin of both sides are immediately and directly involved, but feuds between persons belonging to different tribal sections sooner or later influence the interrelations of the whole com-' munities to which they belong.The kinsmen of a slain man try to kill the gwan thunga, the slayer, but they have a right to kill auy of his close agnates (gaat gwanlen). They must not kill sons of the mother's brother, father's sister, or mother's sister, because these people do not belong to the slayer's lineage. Also, only the minimal lineages on both sides are directly involved in the feud. However, the significance of the feud may be held to lie less in the ease of settlement within smaller groups than in the difficulties, of settlement within larger groups, which participate indirectly in the conflict. We have noted that people at feud may not eat in the same homesteads, and, as a man eats in all the homesteads of his village, the villagers at once come within the scope of the prohibition and enter into a state of ritual opposition to each other. All the people of a village are generally in some way related to one another and have also a strong sense of community, so that if any fighting occurs between their village and another on account of a feud in which some of their members are involved the whole village is likely to be drawn into it. Thus at dances men of each village who attend them arrive in war formation and maintain an unbroken line throughout the dance, so that if one of them is attacked the others are at his side and are bound to assist him.People not directly affected by the feud may thus be compelled to assist the principle.We have noted, moreover, that the intensity of a feud and the manner of its prosecution depend on the structural relationship of the persons concerned in the political system. A feud cannot be tolerated within a village and it is impossible to maintain one for a long period between nearby villages. Consequently, although fights most frequently occur within a village or between neighbouring villages and camps, a feud, in the sense of a relation between parties between whom there is an unsettled debt of homicide which can be settled either by vengeance or by payment of compensation-a temporary state of active hostility which does not compel immediate settlement but which requires eventual conclusion--can only persist between tribal sections which are near enough to each other for the maintenance of actively hostile relations and far enough from each other for these relations not to inhibit essential social contacts of a more peaceable kind. A feud has little significance unless there are social relations of some kind which can be broken off and resumed, and, at the same time, these relations necessitate eventual settlement if there is not to be complete cleavage. The function- of the feud, viewed in this way, is, therefore, to maintain the structural equilibrium between opposed tribal segments which are, nevertheless, politically fused in relation to larger units.Through the feud whole sections are left in a state of hostility towards one another, without the hostility leading to frequent warfare, for the scope of direct vengeance is limited to small kinship groups and their efforts to exact it are not incessant. There is a fight between two sections and some people are killed on either side. Only those lineages which have lost a member are in a state of direct feud with the lineages which they have deprived of a member, but through common residence, local patriotism, and a network of kinship ties, the whole sections participate in the enmity that results, and the prosecution of the feuds may lead to further fighting between the communities concerned and to a multiplication of feuds between them. Thus when the Nyarkwac section of the Lou tribe fought the Leng section, the LAm lineage and the people who live with them were ranged against the MAR, KWOTH, and MALUAL lineages and the people who live with them; the MANTHIEPNI lineage was ranged against the DUMIEN lineage; and so forth. Only these minimal lineages were involved with one another in the feuds that resulted, and not collateral lineages, even though they took part in the fight in other sectors of it, but the hostility between the sections was common to all their members. A good example of how Nuer feel in such matters is furnished by their reactions at Muot Dit cattle camp when the Government seized hostages to compel them to hand over two prophets. Their main com-plaint to me was that the hostages did not belong to the same lineages as the prophets and were therefore not directly concerned in the issue. The Government was looking at the affair in territorial terms, they in kinship terms on analogy with the conventions of a feud.Apart from ritual observances, kinship obligations, community sentiment, and so forth, there is a further reason why bloodfeuds between small lineages, especially when there are many of them, develop into states of feud, and tend to maintain hostile feelings between communities.'As is explained in Chapter V every community is associated with a lineage in such a way that all persons in the community who are not members of the lineage are assimilated to it in political relations which are, therefore, often expressed in lineage values. Hence a blood-feud between small agnatic groups is translated into a feud, in the more general sense, between the lineages with which these groups are associated through the expression of the disturbed relations in terms of their structure, and the communities associated with the lineages are involved in mutual hostility.Hostility between smaller segments of a tribe may involve the larger segments of which they form part. A quarrel between two villages may thus, as we have noted, bring about a fight between secondary, and even primary, tribal sections. The interrelations between larger sections are operated, as it were, by the interrelations between smaller sections. When a section in which there are unsettled feuds fights another section all quarrels are neglected for the time and the whole section combines for action. The feud is a political,being an approved and regulated mode of behaviour between communities within a tribe. The balanced opposition between tribal segments and their complementary tendencies towards fission and fusion,which we have seen to be a structural principle, is evident in the institution of the feud which, on the one hand, gives expression to the hostility by occasional and violent action that serves to keep the sections apart, and, on the other hand, by the means provided for settlement, prevents opposition developing into complete fission. The tribal constitution requires both elements of a feud, the need for vengeance and the means of settlement.The means of settlement is the leopard-skin chief, whose role we shall examine later. We therefore regard the feud as essentialto the political system as it exists at present. Between tribes there can only be war, and through war, the memory of war, and the potentiality of war the relations between tribes are defined and expressed, Within a tribe fightin always produces feuds, and a relation of feud is characteristic of tribal segments and gives to the tribal structure a movement of expansion and contraction.There is, ' of course, no clear-cut distinction between fighting against another tribe and fighting against a segment of one's own tribe. Nuer, however, stress that the possibility of arbitration and payment of blood-wealth for deaths resulting -from a fight within a tribe makes it a ter, feud, and that this is different from a fight between tribes, kur, in which no claims for compensation would be recognized. Both differ from raiding of Dinka, pec, and from individual duelling, dwac, though all fighting is kur in a general sense. But it is obvious that a fight in a village which at once leads to payment of compensation for deaths and a fight between tribes in which there is no compensation for deaths are two poles, and that the further we go from a village community the fights between tribal sections become more like fights between tribes in that blood-wealth is paid with increasing difficulty and infrequency, so that between primary sections the tribal value, the feeling that blood-wealth can, and even ought to, be paid, alone distinguishes their fights from fights between tribes. Here again we would emphasize the conclusion that the tribal value is relative to the structural situation.We would emphasize further that blood-feuds only directly involve a few persons and that though they sometimes cause violence between whole local communities-a feud in a wider sense-ordinary social contacts continue in spite of them. The strands of kinship and affinity, of age-set affiliations, and of military and even economic interests remain unbroken; and these strands act like elastic between the sections, being capable of considerable expansion by disturbed political relations, but always pulling the communities together and keeping them as a single group in relation to other groups of the same kind. As we have explained, these strands lessen in number and strength the larger the community, but they stretch even beyond tribal frontiers. Increasing anarchy, increasing difficulty in settling feuds, goes together with lessening frequency of social contacts of all kinds. Social cohesion increases as the size of the community narrows.There are, of course, disputes between Nuer other than those about homicides, but they can be treated briefly and in direct relation to homicide and the feud. In a strict sense Nuer have no law.. There are conventional compensations for damage, adultery, loss of limb, and so forth, but there is no authority with power to adjudicate on such matters or to enforce a verdict. In Nuerland legislative, judicial, and executive functions are not invested in any persons or councils. Between members of different tribes there is no question of redress; and even within a tribe, in my experience, wrongs are not brought forward in what we would call a legal form, though compensation for damage (ruok) is sometimes paid. A man who considers that he has suffered loss at the hands of another cannot sue the man who has caused it, because there is no court in which to cite him, even were he willing to attend it. I lived in intimacy for a year with Nuer and never heard a case brought before an individual or a tribunal of any kind, and, furthermore, I reached the conclusion that it is very rare for a man to obtain redress except by force or threat of force.The recent introduction of Government courts, before which difter the institution of such Government tribunals they operate side by side with the old methods of justice.Before discussing the chief characteristics of Nuer legal procedure I record that, according to verbal information, for I have never observed the procedure, one way of settling disputes is to use a leopard-skifi chief as mediator. sputes are now sometimes settled, in no way weakens this impression, because well knows how among other African peoples cases are brought before courts under Government supervision which would not previously have been settled in a court, or even settled at all, and how for a long time aThus, I was told that a man who has a cow stolen may ask a leopard-skin chief to go with him to request the return of the cow. The chief goes first, with several of the elders of his village, to the plaintiff's homestead, where he is given beer to drink. Later they go, with a deputation from the plaintiff's village, to the defendant's village, and here also the chief may be presented with some beer or a goat. The chief is considered to be neutral and a certain sanctity attaches to his person so that there is little likelihood of the deputation being injured. The visiting elders sit with elders of the defendant's village and the chief in one of the byres and talk about the matter in dispute.The owner of the animal gives his view and the man who has stolen it attempts to justify his action. Then the chief, and anybody else who wishes to do so, expresses an opinion on the question. When every one has had his say the chief and elders withdraw to discuss the matter among themselves and to agree upon the decision. The disputants accept the verdict of the chief and the elders and, later, the owner of the animal gives the chief a young steer or a ram unless he is a very poor man, when he gives him nothing.If a man has a dispute with another of the same neighbourhood they may both go to the homestead of a local leopard-skin chief and lay their spears on the ground in his byre. A man would not plant his spear upright in a chief's byre, and I was told that were he to do so a bystander might appropriate it, as disrespect had thereby been shown to the chief.When both men have stated their views the chief and the elders discuss the matter outside the byre and re-enter it to acquaint the disputants of their decision. The person in whose favour the decision has been given hands his spear to the chief, who either gives it to a friend or spits on it and returns it to its owner. It was clear from the way in which my informants described the whole procedure that the chief gave his final decision as an opinion couched in persuasive language and not as a judgement delivered with authority. Moreover, whilst the sacredness of the chief and the influence of the elders carry weight, the verdict is only accepted because both parties agree to it.No discussion can be held unless both parties want the dispute settled and are prepared to compromise and submit to arbitrationj the chief's role being that of mediator between persons who wish other people to get them out of a difficulty which may lead to violence. The man against whom the decision is pronounced may give way to honour the elders and the chief where he would not give way'directly and without their intervention, for he does not lose ' prestige by accepting their verdict. If there is any doubt about the facts, certain oaths, which are in the nature of ordeals, may be employed, such as swearing statements on the chief's leopard skin.For a dispute to be settled in this way not only is it necessary that both parties should want the matter amicably settled, but it is also necessary that they should themselves reach agreement during the discussion.
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The Nuer Political System By Evans Pritchard
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. No one can compel either party to accept a decision, and, indeed, a decision cannot be reached unless there is unanimity, since the elders are of both parties to the dispute. They go on talking, therefore, till every one has had his say and a consensus,has been reached.The five important elements in a settlement of this kind by direct negotiation through a chief seem to be (i) the desire of the disputants to settle their dispute, (2) the sanctity of the chief's person and his traditional role of mediator, (3) full and free discussion leading to a high measure of agreement between all present, (4) the feeling that a man can give way to the chief and elders Without loss of dignity where he would not have given way to his opponent, and (5) recognition by the losing party of the justice of the other side's case.I repeat that I have not seen this method employed and add that I am of the opinion that it is very rarely used and only when the parties are fairly close neighbours and belong to communities closely linked by many social ties. In theory any member of a tribe can obtain redress from any other, but we know of no evidence that leads us to suppose that it was often obtained. Before summing up what we judge to be the nature and scope of legal relations in Nuerland we record a few brief examples of typical acts likely to lead to violence if some reparation is not made.When a Nuer speaks of a person having stolen (kwal) an animal, he means that he has taken it without permission and by stealth and by no means implies that he ought not to have taken it. Within a tribe an abductor of cattle always considers that he is taking what is owing to him. It is a debt (ngwal) which he is settling in this way, because the man who owes him cattle has not repaid them of his own accord. The legal issue, therefore, is whether he is right in assuming a debt and whether he should have taken the particular animals he took. So well is this practice of helping yourself to what is owing to you an established habit, that it may be said to be a customary way of settling debts. Thus the final cattle of a homicide-payment are often seized in the pastures, and it often happens that when a bridegroom and his kin do not hand over all the cattle they have promised, the wife's brothers try to seize the animals still owing to them. In other circumstances a man will steal a cow which he is owed, sometimes employing the services of a magician to charm the owner so that he may not guard his herd on the day the theft is planned; for example a man who lent another an ox for sacrifice in sickness, at his daughter's wedding, in time of famine, and so on, and has not received a heifer in return, although the debtor possesses one. Having seized a cow from the debtor's herd he is quite willing to return it if he receives instead the heifer owing to him. The debtor will Ahen either try to steal his cow back again or he will open a discussion which will result in his paying a heifer and receiving back his cow.The only quarrels within a village or camp about ownership of cattle that I have witnessed have concerned obligations of kinship or affinity and have eventually been settled by one party giving way on account of his relationship to the other. If a man seizes cattle from a kinsman or neighbour he walks into his kraal and takes them. If the owner has a strong case he may resist: otherwise he lets the cattle go, for he knows that the man will be supported by public opinion in the community. If a man seizes cattle from a man of a different village he adopts different tactics. With one or two friends he watches the cattle in their grazing-ground till a suitable opportunity occurs. I have never heard of a Nuer stealing a cow from a fellow tribesman merely because he wanted one. He has, on the other hand, no hesitation in stealing cows from persons belonging to neighbouring tribes and will even go with friends to another tribe in order to steal from them. This theft (kwal) is not considered in any way wrong.If a man commits adultery he pays an indemnity of five cows and an ox, unless the man is impotent, when the adulterer can claim a cow on the marriage of a female child of his adultery. Even when the husband is not impotent, if the adulterer can show that there is fruit of his adultery he can claim back the cattle he has paid as an indemnity, except for a cow known as yang kule, the cow of the sleeping-skin, which has ritual significance. But adultery within a small local community is probably rare because the people are all related to one another, and therefore a man considers that not only would it be wrong to commit adultery with their wives but also that it would be, in a greater or lesser degree, incestuous. If the two men are close kinsmen the adulterer provides an ox for sacrifice but is unlikely to pay an indemnity. If they are not close kinsmen the husband may try to seize the adulterer's cattle, but he only takes this step if he actually catches the offender committing adultery. The adulterer, to avoid a fight, runs away, and if he fears that his cattle may be seized he places them in the kraals of friends and kinsmen. This makes it difficult for the husband to seize them, for even if he knows where they are he does not want to involve himself in quarrels with a number of his neighbours by raiding their kraals. Nuer do not consider it immoral to commit adultery with the wives of persons living in other villages. If the husband discovers the offence he may try to seize the offender's cattle, but in doing so he runs the risk of resistance and some one may get killed and a feud result. A herd is the joint property of brothers, even though it is divided among them' and they do not readily acquiesce in the loss of cattle on account of adultery. In my experience it is very seldom indeed that a man obtains compensation for adultery. Adultery with the wife of a man of another tribe is a matter of no importance. What can he do anyhow?Likewise fornication with an unmarried girl is compensated by payment of a heifer and a steer. But it is most unlikely that the payment will be made. If the girl's kinsmen know that she is having relations with a man who possesses cattle and is likely to marry her they turn a blind eye to the affair. If he has no cattle, or if the girl is already engaged, and one of her brothers catches him in congress with her he fights him, unless, as usually happens, the man runs away, for it is not considered cowardly to run away in these circumstances. The girl's kinsmen may then come to his kraal and, if he possesses them, take a male calf and a female calf, and if they are strong enough they may not be resisted. This is what Nuer tell one, but I have never known any one pay a male and a female calf, although after every dance I have seen the youths and maidens have paired off and there has been much promiscuous intercourse and very little effort to conceal it. It frequently happens that a man impregnate s an unmarried girl and he is then expected to marry her.The girl's kinsmen may raid his kraal and seiz some of his cattles, but he will try to circumvent this by hiding his beasts in the kraals of re a later he marries the girl the cattle her kinsmen have seized count as part of the bride-wealth, and if he refuses to marry her they count as payment for possession of the child, so that in either case he pays no indemnity but only a fee to establish his rights. Here again, in point of fact, it is very difficult for the girl's brothers to seize the man's cattle, unless he is willing to let them do so, and there is always the risk of a fight which may become general. One does not fornicate with the girls of one's own village, for they are generally related to one, so that when an issue of the kind arises it is generally between persons of different villages of the same district. If the young man can avoid being hit over the head with a club at the time of the incident and keeps clear of the girl's village for a few months he is not likely to pay an indemnity-quences. If he has put the girl in child or to suffer any other conse he will, in normal circumstances, send a kinsman to say that he engaged and the intends to marry her. The girl is then regarded as young man becomes son-in-law to her parents and one does not injure one's son-in-law. Even if he refuses to marry their sister, the brothers hesitate to attack the father of her child.it is possible to obtain from Nuer a list of compensations for injuries to the person: e.g. ten cattle for a broken leg or skull, ten cattle for the loss of an eye, two cattle for a girl's broken teeth, &c. For a flesh wound, however serious, there is no compensation unless the man dies. In different parts of Nuerland the number of cattle to be paid in compens.ation varies. I have not recorded any instance of a man receiving such compensation, except from a Government court, but Nuer say that he would receive it if his kinsmen were strong enough to retaliate.It is alleged that, in the old days, if a man died of magic his kinsmen would try to slay the magician (gwan wal), though I have ed a case of a magician having been killed. Nuer point not record out that a magician does not use his magic against persons in his own community but only against persons of other Villages, so that it is not easy to revenge yourself on him since he will b~ supported by his village who regard powerful magic as of value to their community. It is also said that in the old days a witch (Peth) was sometimes slain, though I cannot say how often, if at all, this occurred.Many disputes anse about bride-wealth: the husband's people do not pay what they have promised or there is a divorce and the wife's people do not return all the cattle that have been paid. In such circumstances the debtor does not deny the debt but puts forward a counterbalancing claim on some account or says that he has no cattle to settle it. Often enough he says this even when he has got cattle. The claimant can only be sure of getting his due if he takes it by force from the debtor's kraal or from the herd in the grazing-grounds. If he is strong and has the backing of a powerful lineage he is not resisted, since he has right on his side. Such matters;are easily settled within a village and among people who share a common dry season camp because every one realizes that some agreement must be reached by discussion and that it must accord with justice. But when the parties belong to different, and maybe hostile, villages, settlement is not so easy. The leopard-skin chief may be employed, in the manner described, to bring the parties together for discussion and some agreement may then be reached,but many such debts are never settled. They are remembered for years. Perhaps some day, maybe in the next generation, an opportunity will occur to steal the cattle.If a wife dies in her first pregnancy or childbirth the husband is held responsible. There is no question of a feud arising, but the husband loses the bride-cattle he has paid, since these now become blood-cattle for the loss of his wife. The husband is only responsible if the death occurs during childbirth before expulsion of the afterbirth If there is any dispute about the mode of death or the number of cattle that are still owing it is settled by a mediator called kuaa yiika or kuaa yiini, 'the chief of the mats', an office which pertains to certain lineages. This man has no other office and is not an important person in virtue of his role of arbitrator in disputes of this kind. It is easy to obtain compensation, as the father-inlaw has the bride-wealth in his possession. There is, moreover, a tie of affinity and neither party is likely to resort to violence.Using these brief notes on some exemplifications of the tendencies in Nuer law we may now state what these tendencies are. We speak of 'law' here in the sense which seems most appropriate when writing of the Nuer, a moral obligation to settle disputes by conventional methods, and not in the sense of legal procedure or of legal institutions. We speak only of civil law, for there do not seem to be any actions considered injurious to the whole community and punished by it. The informants who said that witches and magicians were sometimes killed stated that it was always individuals or groups of kin who waylaid them and killed them in vengeance.The first point to note about Nuer law is that it has not everywhere the same force within a tribe, but is relative to the position of persons in social structure, to the distance between them in the kinship, lineage, age-set, and, above all, in the political, systems. In theory one can obtain redress from any member of one's tribe, but, in fact, there is little chance of doing so when he is not a member of one's district and a kinsman. The wider the area which contains the parties to a dispute the weaker the feeling of obligation to settle it and the more difficult the task of enforcing settlement, and, consequently, the less the likelihood of it being settled. Within a village differences between persons are discussed by the elders of the village and agreement is generally and easily reached and compensation paid, or promised, for all are related by kinship and common interests. Disputes between members of nearby villages, between which there are many social contacts and ties, can also be settled by agreement, but less easily and with more likelihood of resort to force. The nearer we get to the tribe the less the chances of settlement. Law operates weakly outside a very limited radius and nowhere very effectively. The lack of social control to which we have often referred is thus shown in the weakness of law, and the structural interrelations of tribal segments are seen in the relativity of law, for Nuer law is relative like the structure itself. A cogent reason why there is little chance of redress between members of different secondary and primary tribal sections is that the basis of law is force. We must not be mislead by an enumeration of traditional payments for damage into supposing that it is easy to exact them unless a man is prepared to use force. The club and the spear are the sanctions of rights. What chiefly makes people pay compensation is fear that the injured man and his kin may take to violence. It follows that a member of a strong lineage is in a different position from that of a member of a weak lineage. Also the chances of a man obtaining redress for an injury are less the further removed he is from the man who has injured him, since the opportunity for violence and the effectiveness of kinship backing lessen the wider the distance between the principals. Since self-help, with some backing of public opinion, is the main sanction it is only operative when people are within easy striking distance of one another. This is one of the main reasons why it is difficult to settle feuds when the parties belong to different primary or secondary tribal sections.Most disputes occur in villages or camps and between Persons of nearby villages, since people who live close to one another have more opportunities for dispute than those who live far from one another. Such quarrels are usually Complicated by notions of kinship, affinity, age, and so forth and are very often the result of breaches of specific patterns of social behaviour rather than simple breaches of general social regulations. They are, therefore, generally settled in harmony with these traditional patterns. But, if they are not settled by the mediation of kinsmen, they are likely to lead to violence, because, as we have remarked, Nuer are at once prepared to fight if they are wronged or insulted, unless kinship, or great disparity in age, restrains them. If a man refuses to pay compensation for a wrong, therefore, he runs a great risk of his skull being cracked with a club,and even of being speared if excitement runs high. And this is what often happens.For this reason we have said that Nuer law, in so far as it applies to a study of political relations, must be treated in connexion with the blood-feud. Disputes can often be settled on account of close kinship and other social ties, but between tribesmen as such they are either settled by the aggrieved party using force, and this may result in homicide and bloodfeud, or by the debtor giving way in the knowledge that force may be used and a feud result. It is the knowledge that a Nuer is brave and will stand up against aggression and enforce his rights by club and spear that ensures respect for person and property.The Nuer has a keen sense of personal dignity and rights. The notion of right, cuong, is strong. It is recognized that a man ought to obtain redress for certain wrongs. This is not a contradiction of the statement that threat of violence is the main sanction for payment of compensation, but is in accord with it, for a man's kinsmen will only support him if he is right. It is doubtless true that if a man is weak it is unlikely that his being in the right will enable him to obtain satisfaction, but if he is in the right he will have the support of his kin and his opponent will not, and to resort to violence or to meet it the support of one's kin and the approval of one's community are necessary. One may say that if a man has right on his side and, in virtue of that, the support of his kinsmen and they are prepared to use force, he stands a good chance of obtaining what is due to him, so long as the parties to the dispute live near one another.When we speak of a man being in the right we do not suggest that disputes are mostly a clear issue between right and wrong. Indeed, it would be correct to say that, usually, both parties are to some extent right and that the only question which arises is, Who has the greater right? To state the matter in a different way: a Nuer dispute is usually a balance of wrongs, for a man does not, except in sexual matters, wantonly commit an act of aggression. He does not steal a man's cow, club him, or withhold his bride-cattle in divorce, unless he has some score to settle. Consequently it is very rare for a man to deny the damage he has caused. He seeks to justify it, so that a settlement is an adjustment between rival claims.I have been told by an officer with wide experience of Africans that Nuer defendants are remarkable in that they very seldom lie in cases brought before Government tribunals. They have no need to,since they are only anxious to justify the damage they have caused by showing that it is retaliation for damage the plaintiff has inflicted earlier.Feuds are settled through the leopard-skin chief and he plays a minor role in the settlement of disputes other than homicide. It might be supposed that this functionar has a ocition threat forming part of the proceedings. Certainly to-day chiefs have no authority in virtue of their power of cursing. He is also known as kuaar twac because he alone wears a leopard-skin (twac) ~cross his shoulders. A chief may be seen wearing one in Mr. Corfield's photograph on Plate XXIV. The word kuaar has ritual associations in all the Nilotic languages, but, without discussing further what word might best define its scope of reference in Nuer, we intend to refer to the person in this account, as we have done heretofore, as a chief, with the caution that we do not thereby imply that he has any secular authority for we hold that his public acts are mainly ritual.Nevertheless, his function is political, for relations between political groups are regulated through him, though he is not a political authority controlling them. His activities are chiefly concerned with settlement of blood-feuds, for a feud cannot be settled without his intervention, and his political significance lies in this fact. Chiefs sometimes prevent fights between communities by running between the two lines of combatants and hoeing up the earth here and there. The older men then try to restrain the youths and obtain a settlement of the dispute by discussion. However, we think that a fight can only be prevented in this way when the disputants are close -neighbours and anxious not to kill one another.Besides the part they play in feuds, chiefs perform ritual to cleanse parties to incestuous congress, and they possess slight rain-making powers, though Nuer do not attach much importance to the art.On the whole we may say that Nuer chiefs are sacred persons, but that their sacredness gives them no general authority outside specific social situations. I have never seen Nuer treat a chief with more respect than they treat other people or speak of them as persons of much importance. They regard them as agents through whom disputes of a certain kind can be settled and defilement of a certain kind can be effaced, and I have often heard remarks such as this: 'We took hold of them and gave them leopard skins and made them our chiefs to ,do the talking at sacrifices for homicide.' Their ritual sphere seldom extends beyond a tribal section.Only certain lineages are chiefs and only some men of these lineages practise as such. It is, perhaps, significant that in many parts of Nuerland, including most of the area with which I am acquainted, chiefs do not belong to the dominant clans in the tribes in which they function, though some of them are said to be aristocrats in parts of Eastern Gaajak, Gaawar, and Leek. Most of those whose clans I know belong to the GAATLEAK and JIMEM clans which nowhere have aristocratic status.Since quarrels between tribal s ' ections are expressed in terms of lineages of the dominant clan associated with the sections, as will be explained in the following chapter, the chief, having no position in the system of dominant lineages, is thereby more fitted to mediate between them. He is not a member of the hereditary owners of the tribal land, but is a stranger living there. A chief may act as such in whatever tribe he resides in. If a chief is killed the ceremonies connected with payment of compensation are performed by an aristocrat of the tribe. This is probably because, even when the chiefs of an area are not all members of one clan, they are believed to have a kind of kinship through their common badge of the leopard skin and cannot marry into one another's families. We regard chiefs as a category of ritual experts and do not consider that they comprise in any way a class or rank. We believe their social function to be a mechanism by which the equilibrium of the political system is maintained through the institution of the feud. The slight authority of chiefs and, in many parts, their position outside the dominant clan, accord with this view.In taking the view that to regard the leopard-skin chief as a political agent or-a judicial authority is to misunderstand the constitution of Nuer society and to be blind to its. fundamental principles, we have to account for the part he plays in the settlement of feuds. We have stated that he has no judicial or execu-' tive authority. It is not his duty to decide on the merits of a case of hoinicide. It would never occur to Nuer that a judgement of any kind was required. Likewise he has no means of compelling people to pay or to accept blood-cattle. He has no powerful kinsmen or the backing of a populous community to support him. He is simply a mediator in a specific social situation and his mediation is only successful because community ties are acknowledged by both parties and because they wish to avoid for the time being at any rate further hostilities.Only if both parties want the affair settled can the chief intervene successfully. He is the machinery which enables groups to bring about a normal state of affairs when they desire to achieve this end.It is true that a leopard-skin chief has always in these circumstances to persuade, by exhortations and threats, the kinsmen of the dead man to accept compensation, but this pressure must not be regarded as a command. It is quite clear from many Nuer statements on the matter that the chief's threats are encouraged to their furthest point in order that by yielding to his persuasion the kinsmen of the dead man may not dishonour themselves by neglecting to exact a life for the life of their kinsman.A chief's threats might go no further than saying that if the kinsmen would not listen to him neither would he, when they were in a similar difficulty, listen to them. But I was told that were the people to refuse mediation with undue obstinacy the chief might threaten to leave their homestead and to curse them. He would take an ox and rub its back with ashes and begin to address it, saying that if the injured party were to insist on revenge many of them would be killed in the endeavour and they would throw spears vainly at their enemies. I was told that he would then raise his spear to slaughter the animal, but this would be as far as people would care to let him go. Having asserted their pride of kin, one of the dead man's family would seize his upraised arm to prevent him from stabbing the ox, saying: 'No! Do not kill your ox, It is finished. We will accept compensation.' My informant, whose statements were supported by others, further added that if people were to insist on refusing the mediation of a leopard-skin chief he would take a short-horned ox and, after invoking God, slay it and rub the hairs off its head so that the members of the lineage who rejected his mediation might perish in prosecuting their feud. We conclude, therefore, that a chief's curse is not in itself the real sanction of settlement, but is a conventional, ritual, operati6n in the settlement of feuds, which is known to every one in advance and is allowed for in their calculations. The threat of it is compelled by those on whom it would fall were it uttered. These affairs are like a game in which everybody knows the rules and the stages of development: when one is expected to give way, when to be firm, when to yield at the last moment and so forth. This conclusion is based on many statements (I have only once been present at discussions between a chief and the kinsmen of a slain man, and then the circumstances were unusual). It may, however, be said with certainty that no amount of pressure from a leopard-skin chief, if it is ever exerted, can settle feuds expeditiously, if at all, between the larger tribal sections. In other disputes the chief acts rarely, and Only when both sides strongly desire settlement He has no jurisdiction to hear cases in a locality. Here, aigain, I was told that if one party refused to accept his decision as arbiter he might pass the man his leopard-skin, an action tantamount to a curse. The man must then make the chief a gift before he will consent to take back the skin. However, this probably happens only when a man refuses to accept a decision to which every one else, including his own elders) have agreed. I was also told that in disputing a chief's words a man will do so respectfully, first spitting into the chief's hands as a sign of good a chief is shown will. No doubt respect on such occasions, but the chiefs I have seen were treated in everyday life like other men and there is no means of tellin that a man in is a chief by observing People's behaviour to him. His role disputes may be regarded as a means by which neighbours, who wish a difficulty, settled withOut resort to force and who acknowledge that the other side have a good case, can negotiate.We have considered the some len th 7,Position of the leopard-skin chief at 9 ecause it is structurally important. He in no way represents or symbolizes the unity and exclusiveness of political groups, but is a mechanism by which, through the institution of the feud, these groups interact and maintain their structural distance. There are other people in Nuerland with ritual powers, of one kind or another, which sometimes make a man well known and,. occasionally, very influential, but none of them are politically Important, except the Prophets whose activities we discuss later. They neither govern nor judge and their sacred functions are not, like those of the leopard-skin chief, specifically related to the interaction of local groups. However, we do not entirely pass them by because sacred powers often give a man prestige from which he may attain local eminence as an important elder,if they are combined with wealth, ability, and wide kinship connexions.Next to prophets and leopard-skin chiefs the ritual status that carries with it most prestige is that of the wut ghok, the Man of the cattle. Certain lineages have hereditary ritual powers in relation to cattle and are asked to cure sick beasts and to make barren cows. fruitful, though only some members of these lineages use their powers. Like leopard-skin chiefs, Men of the Cattle are often members of stranger lineages and not of the aristocratic clan of their tribe. I was told that their curse is feared, as it can. be directed to the cattle, and that Nuer do not care to offend them, but, outside tradition, I have not recorded any occasion of its utterance. Apart from the few Men of the Cattle who play a part in the regulation of Age-sets (see Chap. VI), and those who are sometimes consulted about migration to new pastures, they hive no public functions. One iz~ut ghok of the Eastern Gaajok became very rich and powerful a generation ago, but his prestige was largely due to his possession of magic.Besides the kuaa muon, who has a ritual relationship to the earth and the wut ghok, who has a ritual relationship to the cattle, there are a number of totemic specialists whose ritual connexion with lions, crocodiles, weaver birds, &c., enables them to influence the behaviour of these creatures. A totemic specialist is a possessor (gwan) of the spirit (kwoth) of his totem. Totemic specialists have no pq~htjcal_ significance and have no social influence in virtue of their powers alone. There is a war specialist whose duty it is to sh-ake- -aspe-'a-rin the face of the enemy and to deliver an invocation against.them. He is known as gwan muot, possessor of the spear, or ngul, and is often, perhaps always, a member of a senior lineage of the dominant clan of the tribe, for he invokes the spear by the spear-name of the clan. There are also magicians of various kinds: leeches, diviners, owners of medicines, and owners of fetishes. Of these specialists only owners of fetishes become prominent members of their communities on account of their ritual powers. Nuer are very much afraid of fetish spirits and believe them to be so powerful that they will even purchase them with cattle. A fetishowner may become the most influential man in the village, and I have been surprised at the respect and fear with which his neighbours sometimes treat him. Nevertheless, he has no defined authority in controlling the relations of the villagers to one another nor does he represent the village in its relations with neighbouring communities. Ritual status gives a man vague influence in his locality; but authority only in specific ritual situations. Sex and age are two, more general, conditioning attributes of local influence. Women and children have always a position inferior to that of men. Women occasionally gain a reputation as Prophets and magicians but, as a rule, they play no leading part in public affairs. Among the Nuer, relations between the sexes, and between man and wife, are more equitable and give females more privilege than in any other tribe I have visited in the Southern Sudan. Nevertheless, they are subject to men: daughters to their fathers and wives to their husbands.Boys are under the command of their parents and elder brothers and only become full tribesmen, with the privileges and responsibilities of such, at initiation. The relations between the sexes and between children and adults belong rather to an account of domestic relations than to a study of political institution.When a lad has passed through initiation he becomes 'a man' and when he has married and begotten several children he becomes 'a true man', what we have called an elder. We have from time to time spoken of the part played by elders in homicides and other disputes. When a local community acts corporately and leadership and advice are required, these functions rest with the elders. They decide when seasonal moves are to be made and where camps are to be formed, negotiate mari'iages, advise on questions of exogamy, perform sacrifices, and so forth. Their opinions on such matters are readily accepted by the younger men, who take little part in the talk unless they are directly concerned in the issue. When the elders disagree there is much shouting and argument, for every one who wishes to speak does so and as often and loud as he pleases. The words of some elders count for more than the words of others and one easily observes that their opinions are usually agreed to.These elders are members of central age-sets, at the present time the Maker and Dangunga, for members of the most senior sets, the Thut and Boiloc, take little part in public life. We discuss in Chapter VI the relations between age-sets. Here we remark only that there is no constituted authority within each sct, all members being of equal status, and that, whilst members of junior sets respect those of senior sets, the authority of older men is personal, very indefinite, and based on analogy with domestic relations within the family.
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The Nuer Political System by Evans Pritchard
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Behaviour between individuals is influenced by the distance between them in the age set system, but age-sets are not a political institution in the sense of the system having an administrative, military, or judicial organization.Age by itself does not give a man social position. He must have other qualifications as well. Those elders with most influence are the gaat twot, the children of bulls. Such a man is called a tut, bull, and in strict usage this is equivalent to dil, tribal aristocrat. As will be fully explained in Chapter V a dil is a member of the dominant clan in each tribe and, in virtue of his membership, has within that tribe a slightly superior social position. This clan is not a ruling class and the enhanced prestige of its members is very indefinite. The clan system has no hereditary leadership; a senior lineage does not rank higher than others; there is no 'father of the clan'; and there is no 'council of clan elders'. Tut is also used in a wider sense to refer to men of social position who-do not belong to the dominant clan but to other lineages which have long been domiciled in the tribe. A tut in this rather wide sense of 'man of good standing', or 'social leader', is usually a scion of an important lineage, the head of his own family, and master of his homestead and herd. He is generally also the eldest surviving son of his father's family and, therefore, head also of the joint family, the master of the hamlet. If he is to gain a social reputation he must also possess sufficient cows to be able to entertain guests and to attract young kinsmen to reside in his byre. Round such a man's homestead are clustered the homesteads of his brothers and married sons and, often enough, the homesteads of his sisters' husbands and daughters' husbands. To be a social leader, whose opinion is readily agreed to, he must also be a man of character and ability.The authority of a gat twot, or tut wec, 'bull of the camp', as he is often called, is never formalized. He has no defined status, powers, or sphere of leadership. Lineage, age, seniority in the family, many children, marriage alliances, wealth in cattle,prowess as a warrior, oratorical skill, character, and often ritual powers of some kind, all combine in producing an outstanding social personality who is regarded as head of a joint family and of a cluster of cognatic kinsmen and affines, as a leader in village and camp, and a person of importance in the rather vague social sphere we call a district. It is easy to see in village or camp who are its social leaders, and it is these people who have furnished the administration with most government chiefs, for the influence of the leopard-skin chief is mainly restricted to the circuit of his ritual functions and only if he is also a gat twot does he exercise influence beyond these limits.When we ask, however, in what way a tut acts as a leader in his community it is difficult to answer. As the chief man of his family and joint family he takes the most prominent part in settling the affairs of these groups, but he cannot on that account be said to have political authority, for these domestic groups act independently of others in the village, though some co-ordination between them is imposed by their common requirements. A joint family decide on the advice of their tut to change camp and the tut is supposed to drive in the first tethering peg in the new camp, if he is present, but other joint families of the same camp may decide not to move till another day. Leadership in a local community consists of an influential man deciding to do something and the people of other hamlets following suit at'their convenience. When villagers co-operate, there is no appointed leader to organize their activity. If some members of a village are attacked the others rush to their assistance, headed by the swiftest and bravest, but there is no one who calls on them to do so or who organizes their resistance. A village is a political unit in a structural sense, but it has no political organization. There is no headman or other appointed leader invested with authority who symbolizes its unity and no village council. Beyond his domestic groups a tut has authority .in his village only in the sense that he takes a prominent part in questions of procedure and other discussions. Outside his village he is a well-known person who is generally respected in his district, but he has no political status.In larger groups than a village and camp there is far less co-ordination of activities and less scope for leadership. Only in war is there any lengthy direct co-operation. Men noted for their prowess and ability stir up among the youths enthusiasm for a raid against Dinka or fight against another tribal section,and direct what simple tactics are employed,but these men have no political status or permanent leadership.The warriors mobilize in local divisions of their own accord,for there are no regiments and companies under officers and in fighting they follow the most forward and courageous among them. Some of these warriors become renowned and their reputation quickly attracts recruits for raids. Two of the most famous war leaders were Latjor who led the Jikany tribes, and Bidiit who led the Lou, eastwards. Neither had any ritual qualifications, but both were men of outstanding ability who were members of the dominant clans of their tribes. It is not said by Nuer that either established any, political control, or even had great authority, in their tribes. The role of prophets in war is examined later. Between tribal segments there are no other joint activities that require organization and direction.The lack of governmental organs among the Nuer, the absence of legal institutions, of developed leadership, and, generally, of organized political life is remarkable. Their state is an acephalous kinship state and it is only by a study of the kinship system that it can be well understood how order is maintained and social relations over wide Preas are established and kept up.The ordered anarchy in which they live accords well with their character, for it is impossible to live among Nuer and conceive of rulers ruling over them. The Nuer is a product of hard and egalitarian upbringing, is deeply democratic, and is easily roused to violence. His turbulent spirit finds any restraint irksome and no man recognizes a superior. Wealth makes no difference, A man with many cattle is envied, but not treated differently f Tom a man with few cattle. Birth makes no difference. A man may not be a member of the dominant clan of his tribe, he may even be of Dinka descent, but were another to allude to the fact he would run a grave risk of being clubbed. That every Nuer considers himself as good as his neighbour is evident in their every movement. They strut about-like lords of the earth, which, indeed, they consider themselves to be. There is no master and no servant in their society, but only equals who regard themselves as God's noblest creation. Their respect for one another contrasts with their contempt for all other peoples. Among themselves even the suspicion of an order riles a man and he either does not carry it out or he carries it out in a casual and dilatory manner that is more insulting than a refusal. When a Nuer wants his fellows to do something he asks it as a favour to a kinsman, saying, 'Son of my mother, do so-and-so', or he includes himself in the command and says: 'Let us depart', 'Let the people return home', and so forth. In his daily relations with his fellows a man shows respect to his elders, to his 'fathers', and to certain persons of ritual status, within the circuit of its reference, so long as they do not infringe on his independence, but he will hot submit to any authority which clashes with his own interests and he does not consider himself bound to obey any one. I was once discussing the Shilluk with a Nuer who. had visited their country, and he remarked, 'They have one big chief, but we have not. This chief can send for a man and demand a cow or he can cut a man's throat. Whoever saw a Nuer do such a thing? What Nuer ever came when some one sent for him or paid any one a cow?'I found Nuer pride an increasing source of amazement. It is as remarkable as their constant aloofness and reticence. I have already described how Nuer would interrupt''my inquiries. I mention here three incidents typical of the cavalier way in which they treated me. On one occasion I asked the way to a certain place and was deliberately deceived. I returned in chagrin to why they had told me the wrong way. camp and asked the people.One of them replied, 'You are a foreigner, why should we tell you the right way? Even if a Nuer who was a stranger asked us the way we should say to him, "You continue straight along that path ', but we would not tell him that the path forked. Why should we tell him? But you are now a member of our camp and you are kind to our children, so we will tell you the right way in future.'In this same camp, at the end of my stay, when I was sick and being removed by steamer, I asked the people to carry my tent and belongings to the river's edge. They refused, and my servant a Nuer youth, and I had to do it ourselves. When I asked him-N why the people were churlish, he replied, 'You told them to carry.That is why they refused. If you had asked them,saying ,My mother's sons,assist me"they would not have refused`.On one occasion, some men gave me information about their lineages. Next day these same men paid me a visit and one of then, asked me, 'What we told you yesterday, did you believe it?' When I replied that I had believed it they roared with laughter and called to others to come and share the joke. Then one of them said, , Listen, what 'we told you yesterday was all nonsense. Now we will tell YOU correctly.' I could relate many such stories.The Nuer have been rightly described as dour, and they are often gruff and curt to one another and especially to strangers.But if they are approached without a suggestion of superiority they do not decline friendship, and in misfortune and sickness they show themselves kind and gentle. At such moments they permit themselves to show sympathy which their pride stifles at other times, for even when Nuer approve of one they cannot bear that one shall see it and are the more truculent to hide their friendliness. Never are they truckling or sycophantic. When a Nuer wants a gift he asks for it straight out, and if you ref i use it he remains in good humour. Their only test of character is whether one can stand up for oneself. One rises in Nuer estimation the more one lives their kind of life and accepts their values.If you wish to live among the Nuer you must do so on their terms, which means that you must treat them as a kind of kinsmen and they will then treat you as a kind of kinsman., Rights, privileges, and obligations are determined by kinship. Either aman is a kinsman, actually or by fiction, or he is a person to whom you have n I o reciprocal obligations and whom you treat as a poten-tial enemy. Every one in a man's village and district counts in one way or another as a kinsman, if only by linguistic assimilation, so that, except for an occasional homeless and despised wanderer, Nuer only associates with people whose behaviour to him is on kinship pattern. Kinsmen must assist one another, and if one has a surplus of " a good thing he must share it with his neighbours. Consequently no Nuer ever has a surplus. But the European has a surplus and if his possessions are of any use to the Nuer he ought, in their opinion, to share them with the people among whom he is living.Travellers have often remarked that the Nuer have plagued them for gifts. They beg from one another with equal persistence. No Nuer is expected to part with his cattle or household property and, except in special circumstances, these would not be asked for. But were a man to possess several spears or hoes or other such objects he would inevitably lose them. Deng, a Government chief and a man of standing, told me, as I was leaving his village on the Pibor River, that he was grateful for the fishing, spears I had distributed among his kinsmen, but added that they would not be able to keep them when his relatives at Fadoi came to spend next dry season on the Pibor.The only way of keeping tobacco among the Nuer is to deny that one possesses it and to keep it well hidden. When I gave Deng a big lump of Anuak tobacco he managed to place a small piece of it in his pipe, but he had at once to distribute the rest of it. When I used to give tobacco to youths at Yakwac they-generally took a small piece for immediate use as snuff and asked me to hide the rest, so that they could come and get a bit when they wanted it without any one knowing that they possessed it. I had hiding-places all over my tent. No Nuer can resist the pleadings of his kinsman for tobacco. Age-fellows do not even ask for snuff or tobacco, but, if they find it in a man's byre,. they just take it. My own system was to give away at the first opportunity anything I possessed which Nuer might covet and to rest in poverty and peace. Arab merchants are driven almost crazy by Nuer demands for gifts, but they generally speak Nuer well and have considerable knowledge of Nuer habits and so are able to hold their own. Nevertheless I have often observed that they make gifts where no return is to be expected.Nuer are most tenacious of their rights and possessions.They take easily but give with difficulty. This selfishness arises from their education and from the nature of kinship obligations. A child soon learns that to maintain his equality with his peers he must stand up for himself against.any encroachment on his person and property. This means'that he must always be prepared to fight, and his willingness and ability to do so are the only protection of his integrity as a free and independent person against the avarice and bullying of his kinsmen. They protect him against outsiders, but he must resist their demands on himself. The demands made on a man in the name of kinship are incessant and imperious and he resists them to the utmost.Some personal recollections and general impressions were recorded in the last section in order that it might be understood what are Nuer feelings about authority. It is the more remarkable that they so easily submit to persons who claim certain supernatural powers. Fetishes are a recent introduction to Nuerland and they inspire much apprehension arnofig the people, so that, in recent years, their owners have often won prestige in their villages and made themselves feared in their districts, and Occasionally even in large tribal sections. These fetish owners are not, however, in any sense tribal leaders and cannot compare in social importance with the prophets. Owing to the fact that Nuer prophets had been the foci of oposition to the Government they were in disgrace and the more influential of them under restraint or in hiding during my visits to Nuerland, so that I was not able to make detaile observations on their behaviour-' Without discussing Nuer religious categories it May be said that a prophet is a man who is possessed by one of the sky-spirits, or Gods, whom Nuer regard as sons of the Sky-:god. Nuer have great respect for these spirits and fear, and, readily follow, those whom they possess. Prophets, conseqUently, achieved greater sanctity and_wid-q influence than any other persons in Nuer society. A prophet is known as guk and is sometimes referred to as cok kwoth, an ant of God. He also comes into the general category of gwan kwoth, possessor of a spirit. The first prophet to have gained great influence appears to have been Ngundeng who died in 19o6. He was a Lou tribesman of the GAATLEAK clan and an immigrant from the Eastern jikany. He had practised as a leopard-skin chief before he had acquired a reputation as a prophet by prolonged f asts and other erratic behaviour, by his skill jr, curing barrenness and sickness, and by his prophecies. Women came to him to be made fruitful from all over Lou, from the Eastern Tikany tribes, and even from the west of the Zeraf and Nile. 19 ny brought oxen which Ngundeng sacrificed to Deng, the Sky-god which possessed him. He then anointed them with his spittle. When small-pox threatened the Lou he went out'to meet it and to stay its advance by sacrifice of oxen. He foretold cattle epidemics and other events and led expeditions against the Dinka. When Ngundeng died, the spirit of Deng eventua his son Gwek who'. began to prophesy and to cure barrenness and sickness, as il father had done. However, he never displayed the pathological qualities of his father, who appears to have been a genuine psychotic. The spirit of Deng had passed over his elder brothers, or did not long reside in them. Nuer say that a spirit eventually returns to the lineage of the man whom it first possessed, even if a generation or two later, and the chosen vesselgenerally becomes aware of its entry by experiencing severe sickness with delirium. Ordinary Nuer, particularly if they are young,do not want to be possessed, and it seems that it is often an abnormal person who is possessed in the first place, while it is the most ambitious of his sons on whom his mantle falls, for he would seem to welcome possession, although not undergoing fasts to procure it. Gwek was killed by Government forces in 1928.Another famous prophet, Diu or Dengleaka, of the Gaawar tribe,was a captured Dinka who set about to acquire a spirit by fasting and solitude. He later achieved fame and power by successful campaigns against the Dinka, whose country his followers occupied, and against Arab slavers. Like Ngundeng he had a reputation for performing miracles. Dengleaka dieddn 19o8 and his son Dwal became possessed with the spirit of the Sky-god, Diu. He is at present a political prisoner. The only prophet I have met,Buom, of Dok country, was possessed by the spirit of a Sky-god,Teeny. He was regarded as selfish and greedy by his neighbours,having been cunning enough to get, himself accepted as a Government chief. He showed too great ambition, however, and is now in exile. Well-known prophets, in other parts of Nuerland, were Mut of the Eastern Gaajak, Kulang in Western Nuerland, and others.Brief reference must be made to the very remarkable pyramid erected by Ngundeng, and added to by Gwek, in the Rumjok section of the Lou tribe. It was fifty to sixty feet high with large elephant tusks planted round the base and at the summit. Dr. Crispin's photograph on Plate XXV, taken in 1901 shows the pallisade of ivory tusks, the type of material of which it was constructed, and weathering, due to rains, round the base. It was blown up by Government forces in 1928. The material used in construction consisted of ashes, earth, and- debris excavated from sites of cattle camps. People came from all over Lou and the Eastern jikany tribes, bringing oxen with them for sacrifice, to assist in the building. Nuer say that it was built in honour of the Sky-god Deng and for the glory of his prophet Ngundeng. There is no doubt that the cult of Deng was of Dinka origin and probably the idea of a mound came from the same source. Besides the famous Lou pyramid there is said to be a smaller one at Thoc in Eastern jikany country, built by a prophet called Deng, son of Dul.Nuer are unanimous in stating that these prophets are a recent development. They say that Deng descended from the sky in recent times-within living memery, in fact-and that he was the first, or almost the first, of the Sky-gods to come to earth. They state that in the old days there were no prophets;only the ritual officials mentioned earlier. The records of European travellers are not explicit enough to confirm or reject this statement. Poncet says that among the Nuer in his day were rich and important persons, honoured after their death,whom he calls devins ou sorciers and jongleurs, I and Brun-Rollet says that the Nuer had a kind of pope for whom they had veneration akin to worship, but his account is too fanciful to carry weight.2 Whilst it is difficult to believe that there were no cases of possession sixty years ago we must, in the absence of conflicting evidence, accept so unanimous a declaration by Nuer that there was no possession by Sky-gods, and it seems fairly certain that if there were any prophets at that time their influence was restricted to small localities and had not the tribal significance of more recent times.There is some evidence that the development of Nuer prophets was related to the spread of Mahdism from the Northern Sudan. However that may be, there is no doubt that powerful prophets arose about the time when Arab intrusion into Nuerland was at its height and that after the reconquest of the Sudan they were more respected and had more influence than any other persons in Nuerland. Nevertheless, we consider that the power of these prophets, even of, the most successful ones, has been exaggerated and that their tribal position has been misunderstood. The earliest Government officials to enter Lou country have recorded that Ngundeng was greatly feared and respected and were of the opinion that if the Lou were to be administered he would have either to be reconciled or removed. However, his son, Gwek, was not supported against the Government by some sections of the tribe. Mr. Struve, then Governor of the Upper Nile Province,reported that Dwal, son of Diu, had 'rather shaky authority'among the Gaawar. I received the impression in 1932 that Buom had far more power in Dok country as a government chief than he ever had in pre-govemment days as a prophet.A prophet's curse is feared, but armed intervention of Government forces is a weightier sanction. Buom was attempting to exercise unprecedented judicial functions and his banishment met with no popular hostility and with little regret. There is no good evidence that the earlier prophets were more than spiritual persons, whose ritual powers were used particularly in warfare, though some of the later ones appear to have begun to settle disputes, at any rate in their own villages and districts. Of them all, perhaps Gwek came nearest to exercising political functions and to imposing his authority outside his own district, but the hostility between tribes and between tribal segments rendered effective personal control impossible.The only activities of prophets which can truly be called tribal were their initiation of raids against the Dinka and their rallying of opposition to Arab and European aggression, and it is in these actions that we see their structural significance and account for their emergence and the growth of their influence. All the important prophets about whom we have information gained their prestige by directing successful raids on the Dinka, for these raids were carried out in the names of the spirits which promised rich booty by their -lips. No extensive raids were undertaken without the permission and guidance of prophets, who received instructions from the Sky-gods in dreams and trances about the time and objective of attack, and often they accompanied them in person and performed sacrifices before battle. They took for themselves part of the spoil and to some extent supervised the division of the rest of it.The warriors sang war hymns to the Sky-gods before starting on raids and the sacrifices to them by their prophets were believed to ensure booty and safety. if only to a For the first time a single person symbolized, moderate degree and in a mainly spiritual and uninstitution unity of a tribe, for prophets are tribal figures. alized form, Viccance, for their influence extended they have a further signif,over tribal boundaries. Gwek had great influence in Gaajok, and it is said that because of it the Lou and the Gaajok for a time paid compensation for homicide between them. His influence reached as far as the Eastern Gaagwang and Gaaak. Dengleaka had a similar influence in the valley of the Zeraf, especially among the Thiang. Some of the Western Nuer prophets had a reputation among a number of neighbouring tribes which united for raids at the direction of their . spirits. They were not a mechanism of tribal structure like leopard-skin chiefs, but were pivots of federation between adjacent tribes and personified the structural principle of opposition in its widest expression, the unity and homogeneity of Nuer against foreigners. Probably, the coalition of tribes and the organization of joint raids is very largely their achievement-though one cannot be sure of this in the absence of historical records-and has made them important and powerful figures in Nuerland. This interpretation explains how it is that prophets began half a century ago, or at any rate came to the fore then. Certain structural changes were taking place in response to changed conditions: the development of functions that were more purely political than any exercised by individuals before and of a greater degree of unity among neighbouring tribes than there had been hitherto. As Sky-gods passed at the death of prophets into their sons we are further justified in suggesting growth of hereditary political leadership which, with the strong tendency towards federation between adjacent tribes we attribute to the new Arab-European menace. Opposition between Nuer and their neighbours had always been sectional.They were now confronted by a more formidable and a common enemy. When the Government crushed the prophets this tendency was checked . As we understand the situation, the prophets were inevitably opposed to the Government because it was this opposition among the people which led to their emergence and was personified in them.We have tried to show how distribution depends on oecology and how the lines of political cleavage tend to follow distribution in relation to modes of livelihood. But consideration of oecology only helps us to understand some demographic features of Nuer tribes and tribal segments and not the nature of their structural relations. These can only be understood in terms of certain structural principles and we have tried to isolate these principles, though not, we admit, at a very deep level of analysis. The chief points we have made are here briefly summarized.(I) Nuer attach values to their geographical distribution and these evaluations give us socio-spacial units and relate these units into a system. (2) In aU such units there is evident a tendency to segment into opposed segments, and also for these segments to fuse in relation to other units. (3) The smaHer is the segment the greater is its cohesion, and it is for this reason that a segmentary system exists. (4) The political system of the Nuer can only be understood in relation to a whole structure of which other peoples form part and, likewise, the character of aR Nuer communities must be defined by their relations with other communities of the same order with in the whole political system. (5) The social system is much wider than spheres of actual political relations and cuts across * them. (6) Political values depend on more than residential relations. Political relations can be isolated and studied independently of other social systems, but they are a specific function of the whole set of social relations.These are mainly of a kinship type and the organization of kinship relations into political relations in certain situations is one of our major problems. (7) The structural relations between Nuer tribes and other peoples and between tribe and tribe are maintained by the institution of warfare and the structural relations between segments of the same tribe are maintained by the institution of the feud. (8) There is no central administration, the leopard-skin chief being a ritual agent whose functions are to be interpreted in terms of the structural mechanism Of the feud. (9) Law is relative to the structural distance between persons and has not the same force in different sets of relations. (10) The new conditions of Arab 1-European intrusion have probably caused the development of prophets, with embryonic juridical functions, and greater intertribal solidarity.
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