Background
Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard was born on September 21, 1902 in Crowborough, East Sussex, England, the son of an Anglican clergyman.
(Excerpt from The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Live...)
Excerpt from The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of a Nilotic People MY study of the Nuer was undertaken at the request of, and was mainly financed by, the Government of the anglo-egyptian Sudan, which also contributed generously towards the publica tion of its results. Part of the inquiry was carried out as a Leverhulme Research Fellow. To the Sudan Government and to the Leverhulme Research Fellowships Committee I make grateful acknowledgements. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
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(This acknowledged masterpiece has been abridged to make i...)
This acknowledged masterpiece has been abridged to make it more accessible to students. In her introduction, Eva Gillies presents the case for the relevance of the book to modern anthropologists.
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(Nuer, a cattle-herding people dwelling in the swamps and ...)
Nuer, a cattle-herding people dwelling in the swamps and savannah of the southern A nglo-E gyptian Sudan: The Nuer. AD escription of theM odes of Livelihood and Political Institutions of aN ilotic People was published in 1940 and Kinship and Marriage among theN uer in 1951. The present volume, Nuer Religion, completes a study of theN uer which began in 1930. Accounts of religion in writings on theN uer are generally meagre and superficial. The only detailed treatment is in Father J. P. Crazzolara sZ ur Gesellschaft und Religion derN ueer (1953), much of which appeared earlier in volume viii ofF ather W. Schmidt sD er Ursprung der Gottesidee (1949). Those who read his account will see that it differs in many respects from what I now present, though less with regard to fact than in emphasis and interpretation. Although Nuer religious ideas and practices were a part of their way of life which greatly interested me, it was that to which I was able to give least attention during my short residence of a year inN uerland. It was necessary to learn their language and to study their manner of livelihood and their family, kinship, and political activities before giving close attention to the more difficult problems of their religious thought. These tasks, all the heavier in the arduous conditions in which they had to be carried out, left me little time to pursue anything which could be called a systematic inquiry into religious matters. What I record I witnessed myself or is information given spontaneously during talks about other and more practical affairs or in comment on some event or experience. Such observations may, however, be more valuable in a study of religious thought than those derived from purposive inquiry. This is especially so when a people lack, as theN uer do, anything which offers easy scope for such an inquiry, for they have nothing which can prope (Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)
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(Sir Edward Evans-Pritchard's classic writings on the Nuer...)
Sir Edward Evans-Pritchard's classic writings on the Nuer of southern Sudan have made them one of the most famous peoples in ethnographic literature. When the writings were first published half a century ago, they created a new agenda for social anthropology. Kinship and Marriage among the Nuer is the second of his trilogy on the society and culture of this pastoral people. It vividly portrays the experience of growing up in a Nuer community, describing daily life, marriage, sex, death, and birth. It also makes clear the essential difference between the discourse of political association and that of kinship, and shows the part played by the kinship system in Nuer society as a whole. Now published for the first time in paperback, this edition has a substantial introduction by Wendy James in which she assesses the importance of Evans-Pritchard's work and places it in the context of recent developments in social anthropology.
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(From the rear cover of this 132 page book: "In this book ...)
From the rear cover of this 132 page book: "In this book E.E. Evans-Pritchard examines the various theories which have been put forth by anthropologists to account for the religions of primitive peoples - and, by implication, religion in general. He begins by discussing some of the difficulties and problems in studies of primitive religions, and then offers a critique of intellectualist, emotionalist, and sociological theories of religion. The book is intended for those who are interested in the history of ideas about religion, and as an introductory textbook for students of anthropology and comparative religion."
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Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard was born on September 21, 1902 in Crowborough, East Sussex, England, the son of an Anglican clergyman.
Evans-Pritchard was educated at Winchester College and studied history at Exeter College, Oxford, where he was influenced by R. R. Marett, and then as a postgraduate at the London School of Economics (LSE).
His first research was from 1926 to 1932 with the Azande of the southern Sudan and the Congo. He did further fieldwork in 1935-1936 and in 1938, mainly with the Nuer and other Nilotic peoples of the southern Sudan. Acclaimed Scholar Before World War II Evans-Pritchard served on the faculties of the London School of Economics, the Egyptian University in Cairo, and Cambridge University. During this period he produced his two most famous works: Witchcraft: Oracles and Magic among the Azande (1937) and The Nuer (1940). The first is a brilliant exposition of the internal logic of a preliterate philosophy, indicating how such ideas may reasonably persist in the face of what, to an outsider, may appear to be damning discrepancies and disproofs. The second volume examines the mode of political organization of the Nuer, a society lacking any formal government. It served as a model for much of the subsequent anthropological research in the social organization of African societies. In its analysis of the blood feud, conflict, and limits set by environment on a seminomadic society, it owes much to the earlier work of William Robertson Smith. During World War II Evans-Pritchard served as an officer in military intelligence in East Africa, Ethiopia, Libya, and the Middle East, and he was able to do some anthropological fieldwork in these areas. He converted to Roman Catholicism in 1944, which may have influenced his subsequent attempts to reconcile the purported differences between social science and religious faith. In 1946 he was appointed to the chair of social anthropology at All Souls College at Oxford, which he held until his retirement in 1970. Twice he journeyed to the United States for scholarly pursuits: in 1950 he was a visiting professor at the University of Chicago, and seven years later he spent a year at Stanford University's Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences. Set a Standard for Anthropology Writing An extraordinarily prolific writer, Evans-Pritchard produced works that touch upon nearly every facet of social anthropology. In general his writings exhibit a blend of rich ethnographic detail with subtle and suggestive theoretical insights. Among his better-known books are The Sanusi of Cyrenaica (1949), Kinship and Marriage among the Nuer (1951), Social Anthropology (1951), Nuer Religion (1956), and Theories of Primitive Religion (1965). A year following his retirement, Evans-Pritchard was knighted for his contributions to science. Even after he retired from Oxford, he continued to teach and to produce influential publications in his field, including Man and Woman Among the Azande (1971). He was one of the strongest proponents of the value of historical perspective in anthropology and of recording African oral literature. Evans-Pritchard died in Oxford on September 11, 1973.
(Excerpt from The Nuer: A Description of the Modes of Live...)
(Sir Edward Evans-Pritchard's classic writings on the Nuer...)
(Nuer, a cattle-herding people dwelling in the swamps and ...)
(This acknowledged masterpiece has been abridged to make i...)
(From the rear cover of this 132 page book: "In this book ...)
(many pages underlined, cover wear)
(Nuer Religion 1971 publication)
Quotations: "Anyone can produce a new fact; the thing is to produce a new idea. "
He was father to five children with Ioma Nicholls, whom he married in 1939.