Contemporary South Sudanese Nuer prophets play powerful roles in interpreting the moral limits of lethal violence and weighing the legitimacy claims of rival government leaders. Their activities remain largely invisible to external observers investigating the making and unmaking of fragile states. Focusing on South Sudan’s tumultuous 2005–14 period, this article reveals these hidden dynamics through analysis of the two most-powerful living western Nuer prophets. Link to publication
Entries by Sharon Hutchinson
Foregrounding the historical experiences and grassroots perspectives of Nuer civilian populations in the Upper Nile region, this article (2001) shows how elite competition within the southern military has combined with the political machinations of the national Islamic government in Khartoum to create a wave of inter- and intra-ethnic factional fighting so intense and intractable that many Nuer civilians have come to define it as ‘a curse from God’. Link to publication
This article is concerned with the rapid polarization and militarization of Nuer/Dinka ethnic identities. It discusses some of the historical conditions that led to the abrupt, post-1991, abandonment of ethical restraints on Nuer/Dinka violence previously respected by both sets of combatants. Link to publication
Through the pioneering efforts of the famed British anthropologist E. E. Evans-Pritchard, the Nuer of southern Sudan have become one of anthropology’s most celebrated case studies. Now Sharon Hutchinson combines fresh ethnographic evidence and contemporary theoretical perspectives to show not only what has happened to the Nuer since their 1930s encounters with Evans-Pritchard, but, more importantly, what is to be gained from a thoroughly historicized treatment of ethnographic materials. Hutchinson’s work provides a vision for…
This article traces the emergence of different definitions of “wealth” among Nuer and analyses their centrality. Link to publication