Hostname: page-component-7b7567c8c-7pwfn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-11-14T11:20:33.452Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Atuot age categories and marriage

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

John W. Burton
Get accessRights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

An obvious technique to employ in assessing the age of a non-literate individual among the Atuot is to pose the question, ‘how many years do you have’ (teke yin ruon na di) which invariably results in the simple response, ‘I've really no idea at all’ (cf. also Evans-Pritchard 1939). Age classification in Atuot society as in most others is a matter of social prescription and is evidenced in the course of daily life by divergent economic and symbolic attributes which accrue to distinct age classes. Often in Nilotic societies the factor of physiological maturity is self-evident (see eg Fischer 1964). The literature includes excellent descriptions of the economic tasks which accompany growth toward adulthood in pastoral Nilotic societies of the Southern Sudan (eg Lienhardt 1963; Evans-Pritchard 1936, 1951; see also Santandrea 1977) so it is not the primary concern of this essay to contribute to an already rich body of ethnographic data. Rather, I wish to consider certain aspects of Atuot age categories and how these are related to processes leading to marriage. This discussion is prefaced by some brief comments regarding eastern-African age set systems and a synopsis of the ethnography on this topic for a number of the Nilotic speaking peoples of the Southern Sudan.

Résumé

Classes d'âge et mariage chez les Atuot

Cet article examines les données ethnographiques recueillies parmi les pasteurs Atuot, peuple Nilotique vivant au sud du Soudan, et concernant la nature et la fonction des classes d'âge. Les démarches pre-maritales, y compris l'initiation et les fiançailles officielles, sont envisagées en relation avec les normes de componement et de pensée jugées appropriées par les Atuot pour les membres des differentes classes d'âge. Dans la société Atuot, les classes d'âge, originellement, n'ont pas de signification politique ou militaire. Leur fonction, telle qui elle est décrite ici, est de répartir les individus en classes maritales. Et cet aspect a été négligé au cours des précédentes études sur les classes d'âge en Afrique.

Information

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 50 , Issue 2 , April 1980, pp. 146 - 160
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1980

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Baxter, P. T. W. and Almagor, U. (eds.) 1978. Age, Generation and Time. New York: St. Martins PressGoogle Scholar
Burton, J. W. 1974. Some Nuer Notions of Purity and Danger. Anthropos 69: 517–536Google Scholar
Burton, J. W. 1978a. Ghost Marriage and the Cattle Trade among the Atuot of the Southern Sudan. Africa 48: 398–405CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burton, J. W. 1978b. Ghosts, Ancestors and Individuals among the Atuot of the Southern Sudan. Man (N.S.) 13: 600-17CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burton, J. W.nd God's Ants: A Study of Atuot Religion. Doctorate Thesis S.U.N.Y. at Stony Brook (1978)Google Scholar
Burton, J. W. 1980. The Wave is My Mother's Husband: A Piscatorial Theme in Pastoral Nilotic Ethnology. Cahiers d'Etudes Africaines (in press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burton, J. W. 1980. Women and Men in Marriage: Some Atuot Texts. Anthropos (in press)Google Scholar
Burton, J. W. 1980. Atuot Totemism. Journal of Religion in Africa (in press)CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Butt, Audrey 1952. The Nilotes of the Sudan and Uganda. London: International African InstituteGoogle Scholar
Buxton, J. 1963. Girl's Courting Huts in Western Mandari. Man 56:49–51CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Buxton, J. 1975. Initiation and Bead Sets in Western Mandari. In Beattie, J. and Lienhardt, R. G. (eds.) Studies in Social Anthropology. Oxford: Clarendon PressGoogle Scholar
Crazzolara, J. P. 1933. Outlines of a Nuer Grammar. Vienna: Anthropos InstitutGoogle Scholar
Deng, F. M. 1971. Tradition and Modernization: A Challenge for Law among the Dinka of the Sudan. New Haven: Yale Univ. PressGoogle Scholar
Deng, F. M. 1972. The Dinka of the Sudan. New York: Holt, Rinehart and WinstonGoogle Scholar
Deng, F. M. 1973. The Dinka and their Songs. Oxford: Clarendon PressGoogle Scholar
Deng, F. M. 1974. Dinka Folktales. New York: Africana Publishing Co.Google Scholar
Evans-Pritchard, E. E. 1936. Daily Life of the Nuer in Dry Season Cattle Camps. In Buxton, L. H. D. (ed.) Custom is King. London: HutchinsonGoogle Scholar
Deng, F. M. 1939. Nuer Time Reckoning. Africa 12: 189–216Google Scholar
Deng, F. M. 1940a. The Nuer. Oxford: Clarendon PressGoogle Scholar
Deng, F. M. 1940b. The Political System of the Anuak of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. London: Percy Lund, Humphries & Co.Google Scholar
Deng, F. M. 1951. Kinship and Marriage among the Nuer. Oxford: Clarendon PressGoogle Scholar
Fischer, H. 1964. The Clothes of the Naked Nuer. International Archives of Ethnography 50: 60–71Google Scholar
Howell, P. P. 1948. The Ngok Dinka. Sudan Notes and Records 32:240-93Google Scholar
Deng, F. M. 1948b. The Age Set System and the Institution of Nak among the Nuer. Sudan Notes and Records 32: 40–62Google Scholar
LaFontaine, J. S. (ed.) 1978. Sex and Age as Principles of Social Differentiation. London: Academic PressGoogle Scholar
Le Vine, H. and Sangree, W. 1962. The Diffusion of Age-Group Organization in East Africa. Africa 32: 97–100CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lienhardt, R. G. 1958. The Western Dinka. In Middleton, J. and Tait, D. (eds.) Tribes without Rulers. New York: Humanities PressGoogle Scholar
Lienhardt, R. G. 1961. Divinity and Experience. Oxford: Clarendon PressGoogle Scholar
Lienhardt, R. G. 1963. Dinka Representations of the Relations Between the Sexes. In Schapera, I. (ed.) Studies in Kinship and Marriage. London: Royal Anthropological InstituteGoogle Scholar
Meillassoux, C. 1964. Anthropologie Economique des Gouro de Cote D'lvoire. Paris: MoutonGoogle Scholar
Middleton, J. and Tait, D.. 1958. Introduction. In Tribes without Rulers. New York: Humanities PressGoogle Scholar
Needham, R. 1975. Polythetic Classification: Convergences and Consequences. Man (N.S.) 10: 349–369CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Prins, A. H. J. 1953 (1970). East African Age-Class Systems. Westport, Connecticut: Negro Universities PressGoogle Scholar
Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. 1940. Preface, in Fortes, M. and Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (eds.) African Political Systems. London: Oxford Univ. PressGoogle Scholar
Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. 1950. Introduction, in Radcliffe-Brown, A. R. and Forde, D. (eds.) African Systems of Kinship and Marriage. London: Oxford Univ. PressGoogle Scholar
Rigby, P. 1967. The Structural Context of Girl's Puberty Rites. Man (N.S.) 2: 434–444CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Santandrea, S. 1977. Jur-Luo Texts and Comments: The Family. Anthropos 72: 557–609Google Scholar
Seligman, C. G. 1932. Pagan Tribes of the Nilotic Sudan. London: Routledge and Kegan PaulGoogle Scholar
Singer, A. 1973. Marriage Payments and the Exchange of People. Man (N.S.) 8: 80–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Siskind, J. 1978. Kinship and Mode of Production. American Anthropologist 80: 860–72CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spencer, P. 1965. The Samburu. Oxford: Clarendon PressCrossRefGoogle Scholar
Spencer, P. 1970. The Function of Ritual in the Socialization of the Samburu Moran. In Mayer, P. (ed.) Socialization. London: TavistockGoogle Scholar