Shilluk

expand_more Description

The Shilluk are a Nilotic people living in hamlets scattered along both banks of the river Nile, with the highest concentration in the western bank near the town of Malakal. They earn their living primarily from cereal cultivation and animal husbandry, supplemented by fishing and seasonal hunting. Traditional Shilluk social organization, like that of the neighboring Nuer, is a segmentary lineage system consisting of vertically connected territorial and social units. The Shilluk were historically united in a single state headed by a divine king (reth).

Identifier

Region

• Africa

Subregion

• Eastern Africa

Subsistence Type

• agro-pastoralists

Samples

• EA
• SCCS

Countries

• South Sudan

External Links

• Shilluk (Ethnographic Atlas) D-PLACE
• Shilluk (Standard Cross-Cultural Sample) D-PLACE