THE NUER OF THE SOUTHERN SUDAN By E. E. EVANS-PRITCHARD
T WRITE shortly of the Nuer because I have already recorded a JL considerable part of my observations on their political constitution and the whole is about to be published as a book.1 They have, nevertheless, been included in this volume for the reasons that their constitution is representative of East Africa and that it provides us with an extreme political type.
I. Distribution
To discover the principles of their anarchic state we must first review briefly the oecology of the people: their means of livelihood, their distribution, and the relation of these to their surroundings. The Nuer practise cattle-husbandry and agriculture. They also fish, hunt, and collect wild fruits and roots. But, unlike the other sources of their food supply, cattle have more than nutritive interest, being indeed of greater value in their eyes than anything else. So, although they have a mixed economy, Nuer are predominantly pastoral in sentiment.
Nuerland is more suited for stock-breeding than for agriculture : it is flat, clayey, savannah country, parched and bare during the drought and flooded and covered with high grasses during the rains. Heavy rain falls and the rivers overflow their banks from June to December. There is little rain and the rivers are low from December to June. The year thus comprises two seasons of about equal duration. This seasonal dichotomy, combined with pastoral interests, profoundly affects political relations.
During the rains Nuer live in villages perched on the backs of knolls and ridges or dotted over stretches of slightly elevated ground, and engage in the cultivation of millet and maize. The country which intervenes between village and village, being more
1 This record is printed in a series of papers in Sudan Notes and Records from 1933 to 1938. The research was done on four expeditions and was financed mainly by the Government of die Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and partly through a Leverhulme Fellowship. Rather than merely describe again what I have already described elsewhere, I have presented my material in a more abstract form than would be permissible were a descriptive account not accessible.