Book
Nuer prophets: a history of prophecy from the Upper Nile in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
Clarendon Press ; Oxford University Press • Oxford • Published In 1994 • Pages:
By: Johnson, Douglas H. (Douglas Hamilton).
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
An excellent monograph on Nuer prophetic tradition in which Johnson argues that Nuer prophets were first and foremost peacemakers and overseers of a moral community. They served the same role as the earth-masters, AKA leopard-skin chiefs, but appealed to a larger pan-tribal constituency. Prophets protected their people against crop failures, disease, and infertility. The most famous prophet, Ngundeng (d.1906), was possessed by the free-deity Deng, the Dinka sky god, whom Ngundeng elevated above all other divinities. Johnson shows how Ngundeng was able to organize the Nuer and Dinka by appropriating their gods and forming a pantheon under Deng. According to Johnson, the prophetic tradition was more limited among the Western Nuer on account of different ecological and frontier conditions. Johnson also discusses prophets in the recent Civil War (1955-1972, 1983-present) and Ngundeng's lingering influence.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Topography and geology
- Lineages
- Inter-community relations
- External relations
- Warfare
- Peacemaking
- Revelation and divination
- Prophets and ascetics
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Nuer
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2002
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Africa
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Eastern Africa
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- Book
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Ian Skoggard ; 2000
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1975-1991
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1870-1980
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- southern Sudan
- NotesAdditional notes
- Douglas H. Johnson
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 364-380) and index
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 93022152
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Nuer (African people)