W. Arens
Evans-Pritchard and the Prophets:
Comments on an Ethnographic Enigma
Abstract. — An overview of the ethnographic corpus on the Nuer of the Southern
Sudan by E.E. Evans-Pritchard elucidates a peculiar shortcoming with regard to his inter
pretation of the political role and function of the prophets. Subsequent reanalyses and
comparative material offered by other anthropologists are more convincing on the need
to recognize the significant political role played by these religious leaders. This essay
addresses what has implicitly been assumed to be an intellectual failing on Evans-Pritchard’s
part, and suggests in contrast that he either consciously or unconsciously sought to
deemphasize the political nature of this office for extraneous reasons when he formulated
his now celebrated model of Nuer social structure. The argument is supported by reference
to (1) the historical context within which the original fieldwork took place; (2) Evans-
Pritchard’s remarks on the nature of colonial rule in Africa; and (3) his published work on
other African societies which bear on this question. It is concluded that although his
paradigm was and continues to be valid for the interpretation of acephalous societies,
Evans-Pritchard nonetheless failed to give due credit to the political character of Nuer
prophets which he was cognizant of. [Nuer, Prophets, Colonialism, Evans-Pritchard]
Though no enemy of the Sudan administra
tion ... he [Evans-Pritchard ] was really grati
fied that the pyramid of the prophet Deng
Kur . . . could still be seen across the plain
from Akobo to Malakal, outlasting the
administration which had tried to destroy
it (Lienhardt 1974: 303)
However defined, the discipline of social anthropology rests upon
ethnography. It is perplexing, therefore, that anthropologists have had little
to say on the subject of what makes for good ethnography (see Karp and
W. Arens is Associate Professor of Anthropology at the State University of New
York at Stony Brook; Ph. D. from the University of Virginia in 1970 with a dissertation
based upon fieldwork (1968-1969) in Mto wa Mbu, a poly-ethnic rural community in
Northern Tanzania. The results of this research formed the bases of a number of articles,
essays, and the monograph, On the Frontier of Change (University of Michigan Press,
1979). He is also the editor of A Century of Change in Eastern Africa (Mouton, 1976)
Anthropos 78.1983
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