Southern Sudan and Discussion Group
The Nuer - Cattle and Kinship in the Sudan
Directions: Read the chapter, print and answer all the questions prior to coming to class. You are required to submit your answers to all of the questions as part of your participation grade. Be prepared to present your assigned group’s answers to class, which is based on the number assigned to you on the Attendance Sheet and the corresponding numbered section of questions below.
Discussion Group 5, present questions 1 - 9:
(1) The Nuer live where? Their country borders which other countries? Which other people do they live near?
The Beginning
2) What is their cosmology story? (What are the gendered and symbolic aspects of this creation story?)
Introduction and History
3) What term do they use to refer to themselves, and what does this term mean?
4) What is their environment like?
5) Which types of animals inhabit this region?
6) What is the most important geographical feature?
7) Explain the significant role the Nuer play in the history and field of anthropology?
8) Compare/contrast an ethnocentric view of the environment the Nuer inhabit, and how the Nuer see it:
9) Which cycles create their culture core and drive their society?
Discussion Group 4, present questions 10 - 16:
Ecology: subsistence & moving with the seasons
10) Explain their economy
11) What do they eat?
12) What threatens their culture core?
13) The Nuer do not practice crop rotation, fallowing, irrigation or fertilizing, instead they ________________.
14) Explain how they move with the season (including how, when, where from/to, and why…..
Settlements:
15) Explain their season settlements in detail (compare/contrast). What do they use for construction?
16) How does their settlement relate to the climatic conditions and their seasonal diets?
Discussion Group 3, present questions 17 – 23:
Cattle:
17) ‘Their social idiom is a bovine idiom’: Explain this in detail (and know!):
18) Explain the relationship between cows
Directions: Read the chapter, print and answer all the questions prior to coming to class. You are required to submit your answers to all of the questions as part of your participation grade. Be prepared to present your assigned group’s answers to class, which is based on the number assigned to you on the Attendance Sheet and the corresponding numbered section of questions below.
Discussion Group 5, present questions 1 - 9:
(1) The Nuer live where? Their country borders which other countries? Which other people do they live near?
The Beginning
2) What is their cosmology story? (What are the gendered and symbolic aspects of this creation story?)
Introduction and History
3) What term do they use to refer to themselves, and what does this term mean?
4) What is their environment like?
5) Which types of animals inhabit this region?
6) What is the most important geographical feature?
7) Explain the significant role the Nuer play in the history and field of anthropology?
8) Compare/contrast an ethnocentric view of the environment the Nuer inhabit, and how the Nuer see it:
9) Which cycles create their culture core and drive their society?
Discussion Group 4, present questions 10 - 16:
Ecology: subsistence & moving with the seasons
10) Explain their economy
11) What do they eat?
12) What threatens their culture core?
13) The Nuer do not practice crop rotation, fallowing, irrigation or fertilizing, instead they ________________.
14) Explain how they move with the season (including how, when, where from/to, and why…..
Settlements:
15) Explain their season settlements in detail (compare/contrast). What do they use for construction?
16) How does their settlement relate to the climatic conditions and their seasonal diets?
Discussion Group 3, present questions 17 – 23:
Cattle:
17) ‘Their social idiom is a bovine idiom’: Explain this in detail (and know!):
18) Explain the relationship between cows