ANTB19H3 Lecture Notes - Segmentary Lineage, Patrilineality, Exogamy
Document Summary
The challenge for ep was to uncover political structures where none seemed apparent. This was a radically egalitarian society that recognized no central authority or common political organization. On the round, it looked chaotic, especially to colonial administrators. But ep argued there was indeed a political structure and he called it tribal politics. Part of the confusion in understanding nuer tribal politics is that they are often expressed in terms of patrilineage and kin relations. So remember, politics is always concerned with territory and power over that territory. Often, those with whom you share territory are family, agnates (male kin traced through your patrilineage) and cognates (men and women you are related to through the patrilineage) and affines (those to whom you are related through marriage. They cannot marry anyone to whom they are related. So one must know one"s kin relations so that one can determine whom one might be allowed to marry.
