ANTH 002 Lecture Notes - Lecture 24: Moe Williams, Ascribed Status, Nuer People
15 Jul 2020
School
Department
Course
Professor
Document Summary
Have to earn this status; something you actually have to do; can be tied to prestige and wealth (ex: obtaining a post-secondary degree; nuer tribe in sudan have many cows over another person); changes with time (fluid) Something your born with; does not change over your life time (ex: royalty; biology sex chromosomes; ethnic background [unfortunately skin color]) Built on kinship and common interest associations. Un-centralized because there is no particular location where the decisions are made. Solve problems by voting or consensus (talk about it and listen to those with experience) The groups are small enough that its very democratic and can even come up with compromises. Ranked societies; difference in prestige (about achieved status) The leader moves around between communities to make sure the people are interacting peacefully and for political reasons. With the leader moving around to each community, he has multiple wives assisting in running each smaller community.
