Nuer

The Nuer are an African people who live in southern Sudan near the conjunction of the Nile and Sobat Rivers in an area that has been called the Bahr el Ghazal. They call themselves “naath.” It is an accepted fact that the Nuer cross the border into Ethiopia, and their concentrated region encompasses Lake No. The Nuer are an ancient people whose common linkages to the Atuot and the Dinka have brought about certain common customs and a mixture of traditions. Cattle are important among all three groups, and it is believed that the separation of these three peoples occurred over cosmological and religious disputes about the nature of cattle in the society. The Nuer moved more deeply away from any contact with the Western world and found that they were more protected from the interference of either the Muslims or the Christians until the 19th century. In effect, the Nuer are still believed to have resisted Westernity longer than any other people in southern Sudan.

Nuer culture revolves around cattle, which the Nuer see as representing the highest religious value among the people. Therefore, they have developed a system where wealth for all purposes is measured in cattle. The husband gives the wife's family cattle as a part of the bride wealth. A person who has lots of cattle is considered fortunate indeed. All cosmological and religious concepts relate to the holding of cattle. Cattle change hands in ways that allow the society to continue the process of marrying and prospering. For example, when a man gives cattle to his bride's family, the men in her family are then able to marry and give cattle to other matrilineages. This system ensures the continuation of the custom and the sharing of wealth.

Among the Nuer, marriage is staged. One does not get married in a single day; rather, the marriage must go through various stages before it is finalized. When the bride has given birth to a certain number of children, typically two, the marriage is said to be final. The families say that the marriage is tied, knotted, when a third child is born. Only when this happens can a wife become a full-fledged member of the husband's clan. Most Nuer women seek to have at least six children. A man may have multiple wives and many children who do not live in the same household, although they all live in the man's clan territory.

One aspect of Nuer beliefs and customs that has attracted attention is the ghost marriage. This occurs when a man dies and his lineage is able to have him father children after his death because of the ability of his lineage to make cattle exchanges to define kinship and descent. If the man's male relatives can use his cattle, then those cattle can be exchanged in a marriage relationship as a gift from the dead man. Therefore, the children of the union are considered “fathered” by the deceased. At the base of this [Page 460]idea is cattle exchange, but this is not the sum total of it; the cattle exchange is made possible and is activated by the religious beliefs the people hold about the continuity of the patrilin-eage and matrilineage.

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