''The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People'' is an
ethnographical
Ethnography (from Greek ''ethnos'' "folk, people, nation" and ''grapho'' "I write") is a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. Ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject o ...
study by the British anthropologist
E. E. Evans-Pritchard
Sir Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard, Kt FBA FRAI (21 September 1902 – 11 September 1973) was an English anthropologist who was instrumental in the development of social anthropology. He was Professor of Social Anthropology at the University ...
(1902–73) first published in 1940. The work examined the political and familial systems of the
Nuer people in the
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan
Anglo-Egyptian Sudan ( ar, السودان الإنجليزي المصري ') was a condominium of the United Kingdom and Egypt in the Sudans region of northern Africa between 1899 and 1956, corresponding mostly to the territory of present-day ...
and is considered a landmark work of
social anthropology. It was the first of three books authored by Evans-Pritchard on Nuer culture.
The structure of the book
The first two chapters - 'Cattle' and 'Oecology' - provided an environmental setting for the Nuer, cattle pastoralists who carried on limited horticulture. Evans-Pritchard emphasised the extent to which cattle dominated both their economic activity and their social ideals:
The third chapter, 'Time and Space',
''The Nuer'' was the first of three books which Evans-Pritchard would publish on the Nuer. The others were published as ''Kinship and Marriage Among the Nuer'' (1951) and ''Nuer Religion'' (1956).
In the book's introduction, Evans-Pritchard warmly thanked the Nuer for the welcome he felt they gave him:
Reception
''The Nuer'' is considered a landmark work of
social anthropology and has been discussed extensively.
Audrey Richards
Audrey Isabel Richards, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, CBE, Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, FRAI, Fellow of the British Academy, FBA (8 July 1899 – 29 June 1984), was a pioneering British social an ...
considered that the book, though "unsatisfying in some respects, it is a brilliant tonic, and in the best sense of the word, an irritating book". This judgment has been echoed by modern academics. Renato Rosaldo has criticised Evans-Pritchard for rendering invisible, in the subsequent body of ''The Nuer'', the colonial power dynamics which enabled his ethnographic research.
[Renato Rosaldo, 'From the door of his tent: the fieldworker and the inquisitor', in J. Clifford and G. Marcus, eds., ''Writing Culture'' pp.77-97]
References
Further reading
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External links
''The Nuer'' (free e-book)at
Archive.org
The Internet Archive is an American digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It provides free public access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, software applications/games, music, ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Nuer, The
1940 non-fiction books
Anthropology books
English-language books
Non-fiction books about Sudan
Nuer people
Clarendon Press books