Description
Omnium autem rerum, ex quibus aliquid acquiritur, nihil est agri cultura melius, nihil uberius, nihil dulcius, nihil homini libero dignius. (Of all the occupations in which gain is secured, none is better than agriculture, none more profitable, none more delightful, none more becoming to a freeman.) Marcus Tullius Cicero (106-43 B.C.) We live in the society. A society made by ourselves, an adaptive mechanism which “maintains its internal harmony as a natural organism is supposed to do” (Dumond, 1968). Although, the society suffered some noticeable changes over the past years. Louis Dumond (1968) agrees that “the comparison of modern with non-modern societies turns into two contrary configurations of value”. A modern society sees a man as an individual, the individual subject as an end in himself while for a non-modern society a man “it is to a large extent the society, the collective man, to which the individual is referred to” (idem). This essay refers to the latter, namely the holistic society. First, a short introduction into anthropology will be shown. Here I will underline the new movements of the social sciences between 1895 (when Emile Durkheim set up the first European Department of Sociology and published his Rules of the Sociological Method) and 1940 (when the research about the Nuer, by Evans Pritchard was published). In this specific period of time new concepts arose on Sociology, Ethnography and Anthropology. Secondly, I will present the English scientific view among the social in that specific time (1895-1940). Lastly I will underline the work of E. Prichard. The fallowing paragraph will explore Prichard’s research about the Nuer. Here I will organize my work into another three short parts: a) Life of survival – where I will present the Nuer’s very strong bonds with the environment they live in - the animals , the time and space, ecology; b). Life organization – where I will discuss the political system, the lineage system, the age-set system, and c). Values and symbols, underlying the Nuer’s religion, the meaning of sacrifice, ornaments, domestic and war tools, and creation of songs and poetry. The next part of the essay will answer to the question: What E. Prichard understands to be the social among the Nuer? Here I will point out some information related to the division of labour inside Nuer, the structuralism of the their society, the new perspective that Prichard evoke with his research on Nuer. In the end, I will conclude the essay with some scientific criticism about Prichard’s work and my own personal point of view.| Period | 15 Jun 2013 |
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| Type of journal | Journal |
| Degree of Recognition | International |