ANTHRO 121AW Lecture Notes - Lecture 13: Wage Labour, Idiom, Bride Price
I) We Return to the Nuer
● Changing Nuer Political Economy
○ Ottoman Empire (Turkey): slavers (?) had to flee and ended up in the North of
Sudan
○ British conquest: Nuer incorporated with the British
○ Independence of Sudan & 1st Civil War (1955-1972): first Civil War in Sudan
● Second Civil War (1983-2005)
○ Discovered oil in Nuer lands
○ Armed militias would raid villages of Nuer (rape women, kill the men, sell off the
women and children into slavery) so they would access that oil
● Sudan Liberation Army formed and Nuer was very involved in it
● Nearly 2,000,000 Sudanese were killed in the conflict
○ SPLA: Nuer were heavily enlisted and fought in this war
■ (Sudan People's Liberation Army)
● 4 and ½ million refugees
● UN Brokered Peace Accord in 2005
○ Ended war and in 2011 there was a referendum
○ 2011 Referendum: South Sudan Independence - voted whether or not they
should be a part of Sudan; they chose to secede (South Sudan: newest country
in the world)
○ Conflict in the new nation: largest ethnic group - Dinka, second largest - Nuer
■ President is a Dinka (fired his whole cabinet - Nuer - because they were
going to run against him)
■ Vice President is the Nuer
II) Blood (riem)
- Nuer construction of nature
○ We’re seeing the Nuer through different eyes (reanalysis by an ethnographer)
A) Blood: the source of vitality (& vulnerability)
B) Food & Blood; Blood & Food
a) By eating food you build blood
b) Nurture it with food
C) Cattle & Blood
a) Things that have blood have vitality
b) Out of all things with blood, cattle are the most special - *the blood of cattle and
the blood of human are one
c) *No error exceeds the cow - cows fix everything (e.g. blood feud)
d) Medium through which power of blood is made socially significant and
stable
II) The Oneness of People and Cattle
Document Summary
Ottoman empire (turkey): slavers (?) had to flee and ended up in the north of. British conquest: nuer incorporated with the british. Independence of sudan & 1st civil war (1955-1972): first civil war in sudan. Armed militias would raid villages of nuer (rape women, kill the men, sell off the women and children into slavery) so they would access that oil. Sudan liberation army formed and nuer was very involved in it. Nearly 2,000,000 sudanese were killed in the conflict. Spla: nuer were heavily enlisted and fought in this war. Ended war and in 2011 there was a referendum. 2011 referendum: south sudan independence - voted whether or not they should be a part of sudan; they chose to secede (south sudan: newest country in the world) Conflict in the new nation: largest ethnic group - dinka, second largest - nuer. President is a dinka (fired his whole cabinet - nuer - because they were going to run against him)
