Tribal unity cannot be understood from the reality of any of the facts we mentioned, taken individually or collectively, but this is only possible by referring to the kinship system. The Nuer clan is not a loose group of individuals who acknowledge common kinship, like many African clans, but it is highly stratified. Segments are hereditary structures, and thus we refer to them as genealogical groups and to the clan as an exogamous system that traces their descent back to a common ancestor. The distinctive feature of a genealogy is that the relationship of each member to the others can be established in genetic terms. His relationship to members of other genealogies of the same clan is, in turn, known, as long as the genealogies are genetically linked. Therefore, in the diagram below, (A) represents a clan that is dissected to the maximum extent of the two genealogical chains (B) and (C), and these two chains in turn branch into basic chains (D), (E), (F), and (G). In the same way, genealogies (H), (I), (J), and (K) represent segments of genealogies (E) and (F); (L), (M), (N), and (O) represent genealogies that are segments of the two minor genealogies (H) and (J). The clan as a whole is a hereditary structure, meaning that the Latin letters represent people to whom the clan and its segments trace their origin, and from whom they usually take their names. There must have been more than twenty clans of this type in Nuerland, not taking into account the many small genealogies of Dinka origins.
The Nuer genealogy is a patrilineal group, consisting of all living individuals descended, through males only, from the founder of that particular line. Logically, it also includes dead individuals descended from the founder, but those dead are only important insofar as their genetic status explains the relationship between the living. Extensive paternal kinship is recognized as far as it can be traced, so that the depth of the line of descent is always consistent with its breadth.
The Nuer clan, being so segmented, has many of the characteristics that we found in the tribal structure. Their genealogies are distinct groups only in relation to each other. Thus, in the above diagram, (M) represents a group only facing (L), (H) represents only a group facing (I), (D) represents only a group facing (E) and so on. There is always a merging of genealogies complementary to the same branch with respect to a complementary branch, that is, in the diagram, (L) and (M) no longer separate two worldly genealogies, but two small genealogies, and (H) confronts (I), and (D) and (E) no longer separate two major genealogies, but they are basic genealogies, and (B) confronts (C). Therefore, two equal and opposite genealogies represent a composite in relation to a third genealogy, such that the individual is a member of a genealogy in relation to a specific group and not a member of it in relation to a different group. Genealogies are thus genealogical groups, like divisions of a tribe, and, like them, are dynamic groups. Hence it can only be described in terms of values and situations.
Nuer genealogies are not localized communal joints, although their members often have a relationship with the location and speak of the location as if it were entirely a patrilineal group. Every Nuer village is connected by a lineage, and although its members usually constitute a small proportion of the community, they are so closely linked that we can speak of it as a gathering of people gathered around a patrilineal nucleus. The grouping linguistically corresponds to the nucleus by defining the village community by the name of the genealogy. Only by reference to the rules of exogamy and certain ritual activities should one count the lineages as entirely separate groups. In social life in general, genealogies perform their function within the framework of local communities, at all levels from the village to the tribe, and as part of them. We cannot discuss here the ways in which residence groups become a network of kinship ties - marriage, adoption, and other possibilities - but the result tends to be that a local group of matrilineal lineage gathers around a nucleus of patrilineal lineage, the rules of exogamy being the active principle in this tendency.
The Nuer clans are everywhere scattered, so that in every village or camp one finds representatives of various clans. Small lineages moved throughout the Nuer land, settling here and there, grouping themselves around loosely connected patrilineal elements into local communities. Migration and the absorption of the Dinka were conditions that favored the spread and mixing of clans. Because they were conquerors, Marahil herders, and did not profess ancestor worship, the Nuer were never bound to a certain point, neither by necessity nor by feeling.
However, there is a direct relationship between the political structure and the clan system, since the clan, or overall lineage, is associated with each tribe, in which it occupies a dominant position among other patrilineal groups. In addition, each segment of it tends to be associated with a segment of the tribe, so that there is communication, and usually linguistic unification, between the parts of the clan and the parts of the tribe. Therefore, if we compare Illustration 2 with Illustration 3 and assume clan A is dominant in tribe B, the genealogies B and C correspond to the primary divisions X and Y; The major genealogies D and E correspond to the minor divisions X¹ and X²; The major genealogies F and G correspond to the minor divisions Y¹ and Y²; The two sub-genealogies J and K correspond to the third divisions Z¹ and Z².
We speak of a dominant clan in the tribe as the aristocratic clan, although, except in the vicinity of the Nuer's eastward expansion, its sovereignty confers rank rather than privilege. Its members constitute a minority - usually a significant minority - in the tribe. Not all members of an aristocratic clan live in the tribe in which their clan dominates, but many of them are found in other tribes. Not all clans are related to the tribe in this way. An individual is considered an aristocrat only in the tribe in which his clan dominates. If he lived in another tribe, he would not be an aristocrat there.
There is, therefore, in every tribe a kind of social hierarchy. There are aristocrats, Nuer from other clans, and Dinka, but these categories do not represent classes and the second and third categories are more classes than two groups. The Dinka who were absorbed into Nuer society often descended into their kinship system through adoption and marriage, and the occupation did not lead to the development of classes and sects. This can be attributed, potentially, and in part at any rate, to the fact that the Dinka, like the Nuer, are essentially marahil pastoralists and in other respects lead a similar lifestyle.
Without providing all the evidence and without claiming any qualifications, we attempt to explain why the Nuer clans, especially the dominant clans, are divided into much greater genealogies than is usual among African peoples. In our view, their clans are explained because the political structure to which they are connected is explained in the way we described. Social obligations among the Nuer are primarily expressed through kinship, and the interrelationships of local communities within the tribe are determined according to patrilineal descent. Therefore, as the tribe dissects, so too does the clan dissect with it, and the point of separation between the tribe’s sections becomes the point of deviation in the structure of the clan’s genealogy linked to each section. As it has become clear to us, clans and their genealogies are not distinct communal groups, but are embedded in local communities, through which they function structurally. Likewise, it is not surprising that it takes the form of a state that gives them a common existence.
Those clans that are linked to tribes generally have a greater extent and depth in their genealogy than those that are not linked to a tribe, and the larger the tribe the more important this connection becomes for the Nuer. It is in the tribes that are larger in area and population, and in those that have expanded more and absorbed more foreigners, such as the Luo, the Eastern Jajaks, and the Jajuk tribes, that we find the greatest interest in the distinguished and dominant position of the aristocratic clans. Of course, political relations affect not only the structural form of the clan, dividing it into segments along the lines of political division, but it can also be said that the clan system in turn exerts a corresponding effect on the political structure. In the confusion of the genealogies of the different origins of the clan and in the network of Umayyad lineage connections, the political structure takes a compatible form, in the language of kinship, by making one clan - one system of kinship chains - correspond to the tribe and its structure in the face of factions. Just as the individual is a member of a tribal segment facing other segments of the same rank and also a member at the same time of the tribe that includes all those segments, he is also a member of a genealogy facing other genealogies of the same rank and also a member at the same time of the clan that includes all those genealogies. There is strict agreement between these two components of belonging, as long as the genealogy is contained in the segment and the clan in the tribe. In addition, the distance in clan structure between two genealogies of a dominant clan tends to correspond to the distance in clan structure between the two sections to which the two clans are related. The system of genealogies of the dominant clan thus enables the Nuer to think of their tribe in the consistent form of the clan structure. In each segment, the connections of the kinship network are given unity and cohesion through the common relationship to the genealogy of the dominant clan that resides there, and since these separate genealogies are complex in their relationship with other clans, the entire tribe is built around a completely patrilineal framework. Although sections may tend to withdraw and divide, a patriarchal value, shared by the prevailing lineages contained within them, remains.
Another tribal institution is the age-class system, which is of greater social importance to the Nuer than to any of the Nilotic peoples in Sudan. Nuer children pass into manhood through a harsh examination and a series of rituals associated with it. These indoctrination courses take place wherever there is a sufficient number of children aged 14-16 years in a village or area. The young men who have been indoctrinated in successive years all belong to one age class, and there is a four-year interval between the last batch of indoctrinated class and the first batch of subsequent indoctrinated class. During this four-year interval, no batch of children are indoctrinated. The duration of indoctrination is open over a period of six years, so that, in addition to the four intervening years, there are ten years between the beginning of each age class and the beginning of the class that precedes it and the one that follows it. Age classes are not arranged circularly.
The Nuer age classes are tribal institutions in the sense that, at least in the larger tribes, all sections of the tribe have the same open and closed periods and the classes are called by the same names. They are also the most special Nuer national institutions, for the scars of indoctrination are the marks of their community and the badge of their sovereignty. In addition, although each large tribe has its own organization of age class, neighboring tribes coordinate their classes chronologically and nominally, so that the Western Nuer, the Eastern Nuer, and the Central Nuer tend to be divided into three sections in this regard. But even when an individual travels from one corner of Nuer land to another, he can easily perceive the class similar to his own in each area. The age-class system, therefore, is like the clan system. While it has its tribal content, it is not restricted by lines of political stratification.
In each tribe there is an individual who has the honor of opening and closing indoctrination and giving the name to each age group. This individual belongs to one of the lineages that have a ritual relationship with cows and these individuals are known as “cow men.” He opens and closes indoctrination periods in his area, and other areas of his tribe follow suit. Once the period is opened, each village and each region can teach its children whenever it wants. Age classes are not associated with common activities and cannot be said to have political functions. There are no ranks of “warriors” or “adults” who are busy running the country, and age classes are not military units, as the individual fights with members of his local community, regardless of his age. There is no educational or moral training in the initiation rituals, nor is there leadership in the age classes.
There are usually no more than six age classes at any one time, as long as six classes cover about seventy-five years. Whenever a class dies, its name remains stuck in memory for a generation or two. Each class becomes older with the passage of time, and then the individual rises from a lower rank to a middle rank, and from a middle rank to a higher rank in his society as a member of a group. Therefore, the hierarchy in the system of age classes represents a further embodiment of the principle of explanation that we observed especially characteristic of the kinship system and the political system of the Nuer. There is a hierarchy within each age class, but this is not equally important, because the class sees itself, and others see it, as an undivided group in its relationship with other classes, and its divisions become intertwined as the class rises to a higher rank. Once a class is complete it does not change its membership, but classes constantly change their positions in relation to the system as a whole. There is also a relativity with regard to these hierarchical classes, similar to what we observed in the tribal divisions and clans, since while they maintain their specificity, there is a local fusion of two classes with respect to a third class. This is especially evident in celebrations. Whether a class is considered lower or equal depends not only on its rank in the age class structure, but also on the rank of the third class concerned in any situation, which is a tendency resulting from the relationship between age classes and generations.
The most prominent role of age classes in determining behavior lies in the way in which duties and interests are affected during the transition from childhood to manhood. Also, every Nuer male is, by virtue of his class position in the structure, in a state of priority, equality, or inferiority in relation to every other Nuer man. Some men are his “sons,” some are his “brothers,” and some are his “fathers.” Without going into details here, we can say that a man’s behavior toward other men in his society is determined to a large extent by their specific situations in the age class system. Therefore, age relationships, like kinship relationships, are structural determinants of behavior. The age-class system can be considered, in addition, a political institution since it is, to a large extent, tribally based and as long as it divides the tribe - with respect to its male members - into groups on the basis of age which are in a definite relationship with each other. We do not believe, however, that it matches the tribal structure based on the regional dissection that we have recorded. The regional political system and the age class system are both coherent in themselves and overlap in some cases, but they do not depend on each other.
The political system works, we believe, through the institution of grudges, which is organized through a mechanism known as the “tiger skin leader,” a title we retain, even though the title “leader” is misleading. This person is one of those specialists who, according to ritual capacities, is concerned with various activities of Nuer social life and nature. Leopard chiefs belong only to certain lineages, although not all members of those lineages exercise their ancestral ritual power. In most parts of Nuerland, lineages do not form branches of dominant clans.
When a person kills another, he must immediately go to the leader, and the latter will cut his hand until blood flows. Until this sign of kin is placed, the killer must neither eat nor drink. If he fears retaliation, as is always the case, he should stay in the chief's house, because it is a sacred place. Over the next few months, the leader must extract from the killer's relatives a promise that they will accept compensation to avoid rancor and convince the victim's relatives that they must accept compensation. During this period, members of both parties do not drink or eat from the same vessel, nor are they entitled to eat, therefore, in the third party's home itself. The leader then collects the cows - until recently the compensation consisted of about forty to fifty cows - and takes them to the home of the dead man, where he performs various ritual sacrifices for purification and atonement. This is the procedure followed to settle a grudge, and before the current administration (meaning the colonial administration - Osama) this was the tradition followed, because the Nuer are a troubled people who value courage as the highest virtue and possess skill in fighting.
Such a brief description can give one the impression that the leader is arbitrating the issue and enforcing obedience to his decision. The chief is not asked to pass a ruling: it does not occur to the Nuer that such a thing is necessary. It seems that he is forcing the relatives of the dead person to accept compensation at his insistence, even if this entails threatening and cursing them, but it is agreed that he will do so, so that the relatives of the deceased will maintain their reputation. What seems to be of importance is the recognition of the communal relations between the parties involved, and thus the moral obligation to settle the matter by accepting the traditional payment, and the desire on both sides to avoid, for the time being anyway, further rancor.
The grudge directly affects the parental relatives on both sides. The individual does not seek revenge on his maternal relatives or distant paternal relatives. However, we believe that grudges have a broader social content and that is where their political importance lies. We must first acknowledge that it is easier to settle grudges the smaller the group involved. When an individual kills a relative or a close neighbour, the matter is quickly settled by paying compensation, usually at a reduced standard, which is quickly offered and accepted, for when the killing takes place within the village public opinion demands an immediate settlement, since it is clear to everyone that if blood feud is allowed, life together will become impossible. On the other side of the scale, when the killing takes place between primary or secondary sections of the tribe, there is little opportunity for a quick settlement, due to the distance, and because revenge cannot be achieved easily, and thus unresolved grudges accumulate. Such killings are usually the result of fighting within the tribe, in which many people are killed. Not only does this make it difficult to reach a settlement, but the mutual hostility between the sections that caused the fighting continues, as long as the fighting includes not only the paternal relatives of the dead person, but entire local communities. Grudge, as a choice between direct revenge and accepting compensation, without the need for immediate settlement, but requiring an eventual resolution, is a particularly common condition among the villages of the region itself. The victim's relatives are not far enough to prevent them from striking the killer's relatives, nor are they far away from them enough to allow a state of hostility to continue between the local communities to which the two parties belong. Entire societies necessarily participate in hostility, even though they are not subject to strict taboos such as those imposed on the closest parental relatives of the murderer and the murderer, nor are they threatened by revenge. However, its members usually have close matrilineal ties to these values and must provide assistance in the event of open fighting. At the same time, these communities are linked socially, such that the tiger-skin leader mechanism is ultimately used to prevent total disorder. Grudge thus takes on a political nature and expresses hostility between political factions.
The balanced opposition of the political factions, we believe, is maintained through the institution of hostility, which allows for a hidden hostility between local communities, but also allows for their fusion into a larger group. We say that hostility is hidden because even when the grudge is resolved, there is an uninterrupted desire for revenge, but the relatives of the dead person can seize any available opportunity to implement their goal. Also, even after accepting compensation, grief can spark grudges again, because the Nuer acknowledge that grudges, in terms of feeling, last forever. The tiger-skin leader does not judge or prosecute, but he acts as a mediator through whom the groups, wishing to end the open hostility, achieve an effective settlement of the grudge. Grudge, including the role played by the leader, is therefore a mechanism by which the political structure maintains itself in the form known to us.
The tiger skin leader can also act as a mediator in disputes related to ownership of cows, and he and the elders of both parties can express their point of view on the facts of the case. However, the leader does not summon the accused because he has neither a court nor judicial authorities, and, in addition, he has no means to enforce compliance with his decision. All he can do is go with the plaintiff and some elders from the plaintiff’s group to the defendant’s house and ask him and his relatives to discuss the matter. Only if both parties agree to submit to arbitration can the matter be settled. Also, although the leader, after consulting with the elders, can issue a ruling, this ruling can be reached by general agreement, and therefore, stems from the recognition of the accused group or the plaintiff group that justice is on the other side. The leader is rarely asked to act as a mediator, and no one else has the authority to intervene in disputes, which are settled by means other than legal means.
In the literal sense of the word, the Nuer have no law. No individual has legislative or judicial functions. There are traditional payments that must be made to an injured individual who has suffered certain injuries - adultery with his wife, or with his daughter, theft, etc. - but these payments do not constitute a legal system, because there is no constituted and impartial authority to decide the rightness or wrongness of the dispute, and there is no external authority that can impose such a decision if it is issued. If the right is on the side of an individual and, thanks to this, he has the support of his relatives and that they are prepared to use force, he will have a good chance of getting what he deserves, if the two parties live close to each other. The usual way for an individual to obtain his rights is to go to the borrower's barn and take his cows. Resisting the oppressor means risking death and hatred. It seems that how the conflict is settled depends to a large extent on the relative positions of the people concerned, including relatives, age groups, and the distance between their communities in the tribal structure. Theoretically, an individual can obtain compensation from any member of his tribe, but, in reality, there is little chance of doing so unless the individual is a member of a local community and a relative. The strength of the law varies according to the position of the parties in the political structure, so Nuer “law” is primarily relative, like the structure itself.
During the year I spent with the Nuer, I never heard of a case being conducted, either before an individual or a council of chiefs, and I had the feeling that it was extremely rare for an individual to obtain compensation except by force or threat thereof. Just as the Nuer had no law, they also lacked a government. The leopard-skin chief does not represent political authority, and the “herd man” and other ritual intermediaries (totemists, rainmakers, fetish angels, magicians, sanctifiers, etc.) have no political status or function, although they can be distinguished and feared in their area. The most influential men in a village are usually the heads of joint families, especially when they are rich in cows, have a strong personality, and are members of the aristocratic clan. But they do not occupy specific status and functions. Every Nuerian is the product of a strictly egalitarian, deeply democratic upbringing, easily provoked to violence, and considers himself as good as his neighbour; Families and joint families, while coordinating their activities with their counterparts in the village, organize their affairs according to what they see fit. Even in campaign situations, there is little organisation, and leadership is confined to the battlefield and neither institutional nor permanent. It becomes politically important only when campaigns are run by prophets and they are in control. There are no Nuer specialists who can be said to be political intermediaries who represent, or embody, the unity and specificity of local groups, and with the exception of the prophets, none possess more than mere local fame. All leaders, in this vague sense of influential individuals in the region, are of mature age, and with the exception of some occasional female prophets, all are men.
Because the Nuer prophets were the focus of opposition to the (colonial - Osama) government, they were in a state of disappearance and under persecution during my visit to Nuer land, and therefore I was not able to make an accurate observation of their behavior. The Nuer are united in saying that the appearance of the prophets did not precede the end of the last century (the nineteenth - Osama), and there is evidence indicating that their appearance was linked to the spread of Mahdism. Regardless of this, there is no doubt that influential prophets appeared during the times of Arab penetration into Nuer land and that by the time of British colonialism they had gained respect and increased their influence more than any other people. No large-scale campaigns are launched without their blessing and initiative, and they usually lead these campaigns themselves, receive a portion of the spoils, and largely supervise the distribution of the remainder. Although there seems to be evidence that the early prophets were nothing more than ritual mediators, later prophets seem to have taken to settling disputes, at least in their own areas. However, their political importance lies in another area. For the first time, a single individual embodied, even if mainly in a spiritual form, the unity of a tribe, since the prophets were necessarily tribal symbols, although - and this fact is not of political importance - their influence usually extended beyond the borders of the tribe and brought to a far greater degree of unity among neighboring tribes than had previously appeared. When we add that there was a tendency for the spirits that possessed the prophets to move - after their death - to the children of those prophets, we are right in concluding that development moved towards a higher degree of federalism among the tribes and towards the emergence of political leadership, and the explanation of these changes refers to Arab and British intervention. The opposition between the Nuer and their neighbors was always sectional (internal aggression within the framework of fanaticism in the sense of Khald and Ni-Osama). But now they are facing a common powerful enemy (an external enemy in the Khalduni sense - Osama). When the (colonial - Osama) government eliminated the prophets, this development could be curbed.
We have briefly described and analyzed what we believe to be the political system of the Nuer: the relations between the regional segments within the framework of a regional system and the relations between that and other social systems within the framework of an overall social structure. We tested intra-tribal relationships and relationships between tribal segments. These relations, along with tribal and inter-tribal connections with foreign peoples, are what we know as the political system of the Nuer. In social life, politics merges with other systems, especially the clan system and the age class system, and we discussed the relationship it establishes with the political structure. We also mentioned those ritual specializations that are of political importance. The political system has been linked to environmental conditions and lifestyles.
The Nuer constitution is very individualistic and free. It is a vertical state, lacking any legislative, judicial and executive bodies. However, it is far from chaotic. It has a continuous and coherent form that can be called “organized anarchy.” The absence of a central government and bureaucracy in the nation, in the tribe, and in the tribal strata is observed to a lesser extent in the absence of any persons representing the unity and specificity of those groups.
It is not possible from studying Nuer society alone, if that is possible at all, to explain the presence and absence of political institutions in terms of their functional relationships with other institutions. As best as we can say, specific social characteristics appear to have been compatible. Environmental conditions, lifestyle, regional distribution, and form of political fragmentation appear to be consistent. Likewise, the existence of clans, along with the structure of genealogies and a developed system of age classes, seems to be associated with the absence of political authority and class hierarchy. Only comparative studies can show whether such generalizations are true and, in addition, whether they are useful. We cannot discuss these issues here, but we will only say, in conclusion, that the harmony that we perceive in the Nuer political structure is a process of becoming rather than a morphological process. The process consists of complementary tendencies towards disintegration and fusion, which, interacting similarly in all political groups through a series of inclusions and exclusions controlled by the changing social situation, enable us to speak of a system and say that this system is distinctly defined by the relative opposition between its segments.
Theoretical trends in anthropology