Anuak Politics, Ecology, and the Origins of Shilluk Kingship
Year: 1976
Type: article
Abstract: The cultural affinities between the Anuak and Shilluk peoples of the Upper Nile have been known for some time. The close relationship between their languages has been established beyond doubt (Westermann I912: 30-32; Tucker and Bryan I948: I2-I3, 23) and the historical traditions of both peoples tell of their common descent from two brothers who quarrelled and separated (Hofmayr I925: 62; Evans-Pritchard I94oa: 9; Crazzolara I950: 42-4). There are many other social and cultural similarities as well. Evans-Pritchard, in his I948 Frazer Lecture, and Lienhardt, in a subsequent article (I955: 32), have suggested a common historical and structural relationship between the political systems of these peoples. The purpose of this article1 is to investigate further the relationship between the Anuak and Shilluk and to give one possible explanation of how Shilluk kingship could have developed out of a political system similar to that presently found among the Anuak, with particular reference to the ecological factors involved.
Source: Ethnology
DOI: 10.2307/3773326
Author: L. Lewis Wall
Language: English
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2515666326