ANTB19H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 5: Nuer Language
Document Summary
E-p describes the nuer to have a simple language system. (pg. 195) there is no word in their language that can be translated clan" in ours . He did not know the language well nor did he have any translators/interpreter to guide him through the nuer language, so he could not assume that their language is simple. E-p illustrates the lineage system to be represented as a series of bifurcations of descent, as a tree of descent, or as a series of triangles of ascent . E-p suggests that because the nuer do not reside within a familiar context of his colonial residential system in britain that he is accustomed to, that the nuer lineages are not corporate, localized, communities (pg. 203). Although, the members of a nuer lineage who live in an area associated with it see themselves as a residential group, and the values, or concept, of lineage thus functions through the political system .
