Nuer Time-ReckoningAuthor(s): E. E. Evans-PritchardSource: Africa: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 12, No. 2 (Apr., 1939), pp.189-216Published by: Edinburgh University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1155085Accessed: 07/10/2009 10:36

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[ 89]

NUER TIME-RECKONING'

E. E. EVANS-PRITCHARD

A L Europeans who have lived among the Nuer have, I suppose, found difficulty in discussing with them any matter involving

an estimate of time. I do not refer to such a simple arrangement as meeting a Nuer at a certain hour on a certain day. The idiomatic technique necessary to effect a meeting is soon learnt, after a few disasters have taught one not to translate European time-reckoning too literally. I refer to conceptual differences more fundamental than those that give rise to such minor misunderstandings, for the Nuer have a different sense of time to ours.

The difference may, at first sight, appear to be one between a literary system of time reckoned in mathematical symbols and a verbal system not so reckoned. This is largely true when we compare the systems, but it is a misleading observation when we compare the ways in which individuals use the systems, for Nuer and European alike speak of time in terms of changing social activities and relationships; and, herein lies the difficulty of the Nuer, or the European, thinking in the other's notions of time, because the social activities and structure of the one are very different from the social activities and structure of the other. They have different interests and therefore different time-values.

In describing Nuer concepts of time we may distinguish between those that are mainly reflections of their relations to environment, which in a broad sense we may call' oecological time ', and those that are reflections of their relations to one another in the social structure, which we may describe as ' structural time '. All their time-concepts, it need hardly be said, are social notions, being man-made and referring to successions of events which are of sufficient interest to the community for them to be noted and related to each other con- ceptually. Nevertheless, those social activities which directly, or in- directly, concern the relations of men with their physical environment are of a different order to those social activities which relate men

I Acknowledgements are made to the Government of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan and to the Leverhulme Research Fellowships Committee.

I90 NUER TIME-RECKONING

structurally to one another and time has therefore two movements, an oecological, or occupational, movement and a structural, or moral, movement. As we look away from the minutiae of behaviour which compose the daily life of the individual and examine the recurrent and complex interrelations of behaviour that are sometimes referred to as institutions, the structural aspect of time becomes more apparent. The longer periods of time are almost entirely structural because the events they relate are changes in social status. Moreover, time- reckoning based on changes in nature and man's response to them is limited to an annual cycle and therefore cannot be employed to differentiate longer periods than seasons.

Both oecological time and structural time have limited and fixed notations. The seasonal and monthly changes repeat themselves year after year, so that a Nuer standing at any point of time has conceptual knowledge of what lies before him, and this knowledge enables him to predict and organize his life accordingly. Their time-reckoning is thus a value, or norm, to which activities should roughly accord. A man's structural future is likewise already fixed and is broken into different periods, so that a boy standing at the threshold of life can foresee the total changes in status he will undergo if he lives long enough. This also is a value. Just as a certain round of activities should proceed with the cycle of the months and seasons so each person should advance by regular stages on an ordered and ordained passage through the social system. Structural time is entirely pro- gressive whereas oecological time is only progressive within an annual cycle.

The oecological cycle is a year. Its distinctive rhythm is the back- wards and forwards movement from villages to camps, for the life of the Nuer, like that of other peoples in the same latitude, falls into two contrasted periods, the rains and the drought, each of which covers approximately half the year. Oecological relations follow this meteoro- logical dichotomy and the economic life of the Nuer and, to some extent, their more general social relations, are determined thereby.

The Nuer year (ruon) has two main seasons, tot and mei.I In our calendar tot is from about the middle of March to the middle of

I Occasionally Nuer speak of these two seasons as run, years. A man may thus say that an event happened ' Four run ago, two tot and two mei '. This usage is rare.

NUER TIME-RECKONING I9I

September (six months) and mei is from about the middle of September to the middle of March (six months). If one asks Nuer for a list of the months that fall into each division they generally give six to each season but they do not always give the same terminal months; one man may place a month in one season and another man may place the same month in the other season. This lack of uniformity is due to several reasons: the slight climatic variations between Eastern and Western Nuerland; the marginal character of some months which permits their inclusion in either season; and the fact that Nuer do not think of divisions of time so much in terms of physical conditions as in less precise terms of social activities, the concept of seasons being derived from the activities rather than from the climatic changes which determine the activities.

The season of tot roughly corresponds to the rise in the curve of rainfall in this latitude, but it does not cover the whole period of the rains. Rains may be very heavy in the latter half of September and in early October and the country is still flooded in these months which, nevertheless, belong to the mei half of the year, for the mei season com- mences at the decline of the rains-not at their cessation-and it roughly covers the trough of the curve. The two main seasons are therefore not quite the same as our division into dry and wet seasons but only approximate to them. The Nuer classification aptly sum- marizes their way of looking at the movement of time, direction of attention in marginal months being as significant as actual climatic conditions. In the middle of September Nuer turn, as it were, towards the life of fishing and cattle-camps and feel that village residence and the life of horticulture lie behind them. They begin to speak of camps as though they were already in being and long to be on the move. This restlessness is even more marked near the end of the dry season when, noting the cloudy skies, people turn towards the life of villages and make preparations for striking camp. The marginal months may therefore be classed as tot or mei, since they belong to one set of activities but presage the other set.

I have described elsewherex the oecological changes associated with the wet and dry seasons. In this paper I summarize them. In the tot season the rains commence and continue to their decline; the rivers

I 'Economic Life of the Nuer: Cattle ', Sudan Notes and Records, I937 and 1938.

192 NUER TIME-RECKONING

begin to rise and reach their peak; lagoons, lakes, and swamps are full of water and the whole savannah plain is more or less inundated; the temperature is cool, the sky cloudy, the winds predominantly southern and south-western; and certain stars and groups of stars (kwel and cur particularly) are no longer visible. The whole of Nuer- land is covered by tall and dense grasses; mosquitoes swarm after sunset; fish move from the main rivers up streams and lagoons and into swamps and flooded shallows; some species of birds migrate (the pelican and such regular associates of man asjaakok ma rol, the white- throated crow, kat, the kite, cuor, the vulture, Nyanglualwet, a little bird with a yellow breast and brindled beak, and another small bird, calledjohyier, being said by Nuer to spend the tot season with God); and animals move inland from the rivers. The main social activities of this season are residence in villages, horticultural labour, feasts, dances, ceremonies, warfare and, in the early part, some raiding of the Dinka.

The chief physical characteristics of the mei season are the reverse of those of the tot; declining rainfall and its complete cessation for several months; fall of the main rivers, the consequent drainage of streams and lagoons, and the slow evaporation of the water of lakes and pools and swamps; high temperature, cloudless skies, a pre- dominant northerly wind, and the reappearance of certain heavenly bodies. Concomitant biological changes are the ripening of the seeds of plants and trees; the drying up of grasses; the absence of mosquitoes and variations in the abundance of other insects; rinderpest in some years; the movement of fish to the main rivers or their imprisonment in pools and lagoons; the return of migratory birds and the con- centration of animals near lakes and rivers. Social activities of this season are residence in camps, fishing, hunting, the collection of wild fruits and seeds, the herding of cattle in the pastures, economy in food, monotonous daily routine, certain camp customs such as the dompiny dance, display of oxen (rau), singing at night (twar), and main raiding of Dinka in the early part of the season.

There are thus three planes of rhythm: physical rhythm, oecological rhythm based on physical changes, and social rhythm based on oeco- logical changes. Nuer concepts of time are based primarily on the social rhythm, the outstanding quality of which is the movement from cieng (village) to wec (camp) and back again from wec to cieng.

May June July August September October November December January February March

R A I N S D R O U G H T

R I V E R S R I S E R I V E R S F A L L

H O R T I C U L T U R E Preparation of gar- dens for first millet sowing and for maize

Preparation of gar- densforsecond millet

sowing

Harvest Harvest first maize millet crop

BURN I F I BUILDING

qG OF THI S I

& REPAIRING Harvest second

millet crop

E BUSH H I N G

SCARCITY OF FOOD

V I Older Younger people people

return to return to villages villages

HUNTING A C 0 L L E C T I

PLENTY OF FOOD

N D N G

L L A G E S C A M P

> Younger people in Every one in main dry season camps early camps

Wedding, initiation, mortuary, and other ceremonies Main season for raiding Dinka

S

0

April

194 NUER TIME-RECKONING

A few words may be said about Nuer lack of interest in the move- ments of the heavenly bodies other than the sun and the moon. They have names for a number of planets and stars and groups of stars but they do not use their movements to construct a system of time- reckoning or to order their activities. The relations between the cier pitha, ' the stars of planting ', and horticultural labour is known but their position in the heavens is not a direction for sowing, which follows the first heavy rains. The appearance and disappearance of the stars, or of certain stars, at different times of the evening, night, and morning, may be of some assistance to the Nuer in telling how long the night has endured but, as far as I am aware, the movements of these bodies have little significance for them. The most important stars are probably those which are most striking to any people: lipghokpai, the evening star, which when the moon is late in rising is said to take her place and to look after her cattle, and cierrmokni, the morning star, which is said to be a sign to the buffaloes at their drinking pools that dawn is about to break and that it is time to move away from the proximity of men. Two other stars, besides those mentioned, which are named by Nuer are the Great Bear, called baro, 'the seven ', and the star which circles the moon's orbit called cek path, 'the moon's wife '. Doubtless some Nuer can name other stars.

Nuer say that the heavens are cut in two by the milky way, dar ghaua. In about June the tot side of the heavens is larger than the mei side but the milky way slowly moves across the heavens decreasing the tot side and increasing the mnei side. It finally sinks on the horizon of the tot side. When it reappears the mei side is the larger but as it moves across the heavens it increases the tot side at the expense of the mei side. In other words the milky way appears at different times in different positions of the heavens and as it moves across them to the horizon the spaces associated with the two main seasons are said to increase and decrease.

The advent of prevailing winds, like certain movements of the heavenly bodies, are observed by Nuer to occur in relation to oeco- logical changes but are not in themselves significant points in time- reckoning. The most constant wind is kaingwak, the north wind, which blows across the Nile basin from about November to March. From about April, and through the tot season, south-easterly and

NUER TIME-RECKONING I95 south-westerly rain-bearing winds prevail. These southerly winds are known as deng. Nuer say that at the beginning of the dry season (in the latter part of November) the north wind, kaingwak, starts to leave luak kwoth, 'the byre of God', while deng, the south wind, which brings rain, starts to move for his southern quarters to spend the dry season in 'the byre of God '. At the commencement of tot, deng reappears and tells the north wind that it has blown long enough and they have a struggle in which the north wind is defeated and driven to take refuge in 'the byre of God' for the duration of the rains.

This is rather a figurative account, for, actually, the winds, especially at the commencement of the rains, veer all round the compass. About March and April a hot wind called targeau, oryoiya, blows from a south to south-east direction and bends the windscreens (gedu). In the early rains, or just before them, a dust-laden wind, called thul or thul rwil, often blows from the north-east. Deng seems to be a generic term for all rain-bearing winds. In Lou country Nuer say that the chief rain- winds are jiom pam, or deng kir, which blows from the Ethiopian highlands (pam) before and during the early rains, and peelual which blows later from a westerly direction. Mr. F. D. Corfield tells me that among the Eastern Jikany the south wind which blows in the rainy season is called woowic. In different parts of Nuerland different terms are used to describe local winds. Sometimes, especially in the early rains, rain clouds arise from a westerly direction but pass over when every one expects rain to fall. These are called kanar. Nuer say that once upon a time kanar was told by his maternal uncle that he wanted rain for his millet and kanar promised to bring it on the following day but did not keep his promise. When several days had passed his uncle cursed (biit) him so that he would always be on the point of raining but never rain.

Though the different winds are noted by the Nuer and are known to occur at different times of the year they, like the stars, are not used as an index of time-reckoning. Nuer note the commencement of the north wind as part of the complex of characters which make up the mei season, just as they note the reappearance of the white-throated crow and the visibility of certain stars. But these are associated pheno- mena and not defining characteristics. The two characters by which the seasons are most clearly defined are those which control the move-

i96 NUER TIME-RECKONING

ments of the Nuer: water and vegetation. When the rains begin to fall off the country dries, the village water-supplies run low, and the grasses ripen and wither. These are the true signs of mei and the people turn towards the cattle camps which such conditions neces- sitate. When the rains recommence the village pools are replenished and the country is covered with young and tender grasses. These are the signs of tot and the people turn towards the villages which can now be occupied again. Though fishing and agriculture play an important part in this dichotomy it is the needs of the cattle which chiefly translate oecological rhythm into the social rhythm of the year.

One tot and one mei, or one cieng and one wec, comprise a Nuer year (ruon). At this point it may be noted that besides the main seasons of tot and mei the Nuer have two subsidiary seasons which are included in the major divisions, being transitional periods between them. The four seasons are not sharp divisions, but overlap. Just as we speak of summer and winter as the halves of a year and speak also of the seasons of spring and autumn, the Nuer speak of tot and mei as the halves of the year and speak also of the seasons of rwil andjiom. Rwil is the season of moving from camp to village, of clearing cultivations, and of planting maize and millet, from about the middle of March to the middle of June. The rains have not yet reached their peak and for most of this season the younger people are still in camp. Rwil counts as part of the tot half of the year but is contrasted with tot in tot, the smaller or second tot, the period of full village life and of weeding and harvest, from about the middle of June to the middle of September. The two together form tot in dit, the greater or complete tot. Rwil is thus the transitional season between mei and tot. Jiom means ' wind' and refers to the period from about the middle of September to the middle of December during which the persistent north wind begins to blow. It is the season of harvesting, of fishing from dams, of the burning of the bush, and of early camps. Jiomn counts as part of mei being contrasted with mei in tot, the period from about the middle of December to the middle of March when the main cattle-camps are formed. The two together are mei in dit, the greater or complete mei. Jiom is thus the transitional season between tot and mei.

Roughly speaking therefore, the Nuer may be said to have two major seasons of six months each and four minor seasons of three

NUER TIME-RECKONING 197 months each. One must not, however, be too precise in recording these divisions for they are not for the Nuer exact units of time but rather vague conceptualizations of changes in oecological relations and social activities and as there are no sudden breaks in these relations and activities, but one state passes into another by infinitesimal changes, so there are no sharply defined seasons. The contrast between environmental conditions and modes of life at the height of

J N UAR

^ '\ ~Mei in tot

\ %%

o . I /.

% Tot i tot ' t

r Alnf 0 the rains and at the height of the drought gives the significant con- ceptual dichotomy into tot and mei. The other two seasons, being transitional, are less definite. Principally it must be remembered that Nuer have no abstract numerical system of time-reckoning based on exact astronomical observations but only descriptive divisions of a cycle of human activities. Consequently, a statement made by a man that a certain six months are tot and the other six months are mei may be contradicted by his statement in a marginal month that it is now mei or tot. The environmental context overrides the abstract classification.

In the diagram above a line drawn from the middle of March to the middle of September is the axis of the conceptual year. The axis, as I have explained, is an approximation to an actual cleavage between

i98 NUER TIME-RECKONING

two opposed sets of oecological relations and social activities and indicates the direction of attention. Tot and mei do not correspond exactly to the village life and camp life which are their focal points. In the second diagram it will be seen that Nuer are still in camp for part of the tot (greater part of the rwil season) and they are still in villages for part of the mei (the greater part of thejiot season). But in the tot proper they are always in villages and in the mei proper they are always in camps.

Pro yars

/ Part of the year spent in villages. % Part of the year spent in camps.

The words tot and mei stand for the cluster of social activities, especially economic activities, of the wet and dry seasons. They are not pure units of time-reckoning but are expressions which signify social activity. Thus while one may speak, for example, of some event having happened ' wal tot' ' last tot season ' or ' waljiom ' ' lastjiom season' one may also say ' ba wa tot', 'I am going to tot' in such and such a place, or ' ba wa mei ', ' I am going to mei' in such and such a place. One hears a Nuer say of a certain man 'He is not here. He has gone to tot with his kinsmen in Jikany country. He will mei with us on the Nyanding.' The seasons are a conception of time in terms of activities.

The Nuer year has twelve months, six in tot and six in mei, and

NUER TIME-RECKONING 199 most adult Nuer can state them in order, though boys often cannot state all of them or recite them in their correct order. In the list of Nuer months given below it has not been possible to equate each with an English month since our Roman months have no connexion with the moon, whereas the Nuer system is a lunar one. It will be found, however, that the Nuer month is usually included in two English months given opposite it and that normally it covers a greater part of the first month. Occasionally it covers part of the English month which precedes the first of those given. If the Nuer lunar reckoning were an abstract, numerical, and systematized calendar the months would, of course, circle round our Roman calendar and any month would eventually traverse every one of our months, as the lunar months of the Islamic calendar do; but they are fixed within about sixty days' limit because, the circuit of the moon being always practically the same, all Nuer have to do to keep each month in its fixed seasonal position is to change the name from the month they thought it was to the month it must be. Each month is associated with certain oecological changes and social activities and since these occur at about the same time each year the month associated with them is fixed to this period. I return to this point later. The incidence of the following months was checked on four expeditions:

Teer Sept.-Oct. 'pai kam mei kene tot', ' the month which divides the mei season from the tot season.' A transitional month.

Lath(boor) Oct.-Nov. 'nhial la ngwute ka lath ', ' the rain always ceases in lath.' In Western Nuerland this month is called labuor.

Kur Nov.-Dec. Tiop (in) dit Dec.-Jan. In this month'The new grasses spring up

everywhere and the cattle graze well and cover the earth with their dung.'

Tiop (in) tot Jan.-Feb. This month is sometimes called ugh thiangni. ' Tiang calve in this month and next month return to the herd.'

Pet Feb.-Mar. This month is sometimes called leergat. ' Be cak leer ni gwith , 'the milk sours in the milk-gourd.' No wedding dances may be held in this month, for Nuer 'respect' (thek) it.

200 NUER TIME-RECKONING

Duong Mar.-April The final ceremony of marriage and the mortuary ceremony may not be held in this month. A transitional month between the nei and the tot seasons.

Gwaak April-May Another name for this month is wan which some people say is named after the fox, which cubs during it.

Dwvat May-June ' Ce cang wangde duddr ',' the sun is over- cast by clouds.' 'After the new moon of dwat has appeared the cattle are driven to the villages.'

Kornyuot June-July Paiyatni (payiene) July-Aug. Thoor Aug.-Sept.

Since most adult Nuer know the months in their correct order and since the months are anchored to oecological and social processes the calendar is a conceptual scheme which enables Nuer to view the year as an ordered succession of changes and to calculate to some extent the relation between one event and another in abstract numer- ical symbols. Though the months are linked conceptually to natural and social changes their names are to a very limited extent descriptions of these changes. The etymology of many months is doubtful and cannot be explained by Nuer who say of such a name that it is ' cyot bang lora ',' just a name and no more '. Some of the names are possibly of Dinka origin. Nevertheless some names at once suggest outstand- ing characteristics of certain months and their meaning can at once be explained by Nuer. Paiyatni (paiyene) is the month (pai) in which, having eaten maize, people throw away the cobs with their sheaves of leaves (ba yatkienyuor piny). Pet is the month in which ci ghau pet, the world is afire, for it is the hottest period of the year and the scorched earth burns the feet. Duong is the month of breezes (duong). In this month dust-laden winds bring cool air after the great heat of the preceding month. Be ghau koc, be moc ka thuol, the world cools and produces an easterly wind. Thoor is said to be so called because during it millet stems float, after the harvest, in the water-logged gardens (be roin thoar wicpini). Lath(boor) may be so called because during it the cold north wind blows and makes people shiver (lath) in the early

NUER TIME-RECKONING 201

mornings, though this is a doubtful derivation. That certain activities are associated with each month is not only evident from some of their names but also from the fact that Nuer can, in listing the months, state what are the main activities and oecological changes which will take place in each.

Since the Nuer have a lunar calendar of twelve months they would soon be in difficulties if they maintained a consistent reckoning. As it is, the months adjust themselves to the annual cycle of activities. Thus I have noticed that in the event of two men naming a month differently those present have discussed the question in relation to natural con- ditions and economic labour. Seasonal changes may lag behind or be in advance of their normal time of appearance, according to the late- ness or earliness of the rains, but there are certain activities normally carried out in each month and these activities regulate the calendar instead of the calendar regulating them. Therefore a twelve months' system does not incommode the Nuer for their calendar is little more than a conceptualization of a cycle of activities which follow the cycle of environmental changes. Hence a year to a Nuer is a residence in villages and a residence in camps, a period of cieng and a period of wec, and the seasons and months are less units of time than units of activity. In the month of kur one constructs the first fishing platforms and forms the first cattle-camps. Therefore since one is fishing in the earliest cattle-camps it must be kur. In dwat one breaks camp and returns to the villages. One is so returning and it must, there- fore, be dwat. In other words, Nuer do not keep a strict tally of the succession of moons. Consequently their calendar remains fairly stable.

It follows that Nuer in one part of Nuerland may be a month ahead of, or behind, Nuer in another part. This is certainly the case between the Eastern and the Western Nuer and I found in one year that there was a difference of a month between the reckoning of the Lou and that of the Gaajok around Nasser and the Gaajok reckoning may differ from that of the Gaajak on the Ethiopian border. These differences are probably due to variations in the time of the first heavy rains. It follows also that different individuals may disagree about the name of a month, since environmental conditions and human activities overlap from one month to another. Nevertheless, people

202 NUER TIME-RECKONING

of the same community are generally agreed about the name of any month.

Some further points may here be alluded to. There seems some evidence that among the Eastern Jikany an intercalary month, 'a little month' called nyac is inserted either between dwat and kornyuot or between paiyatni and thoor. I did not inquire sufficiently into this matter while I was at Nasser and I have not heard the month men- tioned in other parts of Nuerland. I draw attention to the common East African feature of two months with the same name, tiop dit and

tiop tot, the greater and the lesser tiop. In giving me lists of the months Nuer generally placed tiop dit before tiop tot but sometimes they reversed the order. The peculiarity of having two months with the same name might be accounted for by the relative constancy and sameness of nature and of men's activities during December, January, and February. Indeed, I received the impression that Nuer when giving me a list of their months hesitated more over the dry-season months than over the wet-season ones. It cannot be said that the Nuer year begins at any particular month. In giving a list of months Nuer may start with any one of them, though they usually start with the month they are in at the time. There is no conventional or celestial point of reference at which one year is said to end and a new year to begin.

In my experience Nuer do not use the names of the months to any great extent as time-indicators. If they wish to state when an event happened they generally refer instead to one of the outstanding activities in process at the time of its occurrence. Thus people say that they have done something, or they do something, ec jiom, at the time of the early camps, wec mei, at the time of the main dry season camps, purene beel, at the time of weeding millet, ngeerene beel wic, at the time of harvesting the first millet crop, ngeerene pan, at the time of harvesting the second millet crop, &c. They may even speak of the month of doing these things e.g. pai purene beel, pai ngeerene beel wic, and so forth. It is easily understandable that they use such expressions since time is to them relations between activities.

During the rains the stages in the growth of millet and the steps taken in its cultivation enable Nuer to define time with some precision. One may do so by indicating with the hand the height of the millet

NUER TIME-RECKONING 203 when an event took place, or by referring to one of the several weed- ings of the crop, or by denoting the maturity of the millet at the time. Thus, to quote a few expressions as an example of the flexibility of one of these ways of determining time, one hears in contexts of time- reckoning such phrases as ci beel gok or ci beel a tung thiang, the grain- sheath has formed, ce beel ruit, the grain has formed in its sheath, ce beelghaar, the grain has emerged from its case of leaves, ce beeljuak, the small seeds of the grain have begun to show themselves at the mouth of their pods, ce nyinkien boi, the seeds have whitened, ci beel amoany, the grain is not quite ripe, cike ciek, they have ripened, cajong lat, the drying platform has been erected, ca beel ngeer, the heads of the millet have been cut, ca beel cec, the stalks of the millet have been cut down, ca beel nong cieng, ca ke lath junga, the millet has been brought to the village and stacked on the drying platforms, ca ke homn, the grain has been threshed. Similar expressions can be used for maize which is planted before the millet and when the first millet harvest is being reaped the second crop is growing so that an horticultural time- reckoning can be employed through the rainy season and well into the dry season. For purposes of time-reckoning the vocabulary of a dominant activity for a great part of the year may thus be used.

Pastoral activities are largely undifferentiated throughout the months and seasons and therefore do not invite their use in a similar manner, though, as will be explained, they divide the daily round into a series of events which have a temporal sequence. Horticultural activities are progressive throughout a season, pastoral activities throughout a day. In the dry season, activities vary little from month to month so that it is less easy than in the rains to find points of reference in time-reckoning. Moreover, there is, perhaps, less need to differentiate units of time because there are few or no ceremonial undertakings, in which individuals from different villages have to participate, at this season of the year. The uneventfulness of life in camps diminishes the need for relating events to other events by a system of time-reckoning.

It may, indeed, be said that time is not always the same to Nuer at different seasons. It is difficult to express this point clearly and, more- over, I cannot cite Nuer authority in making it. When time is con- sidered as relations between activities, it will, however, be understood

204 NUER TIME-RECKONING

that it has a different connotation in the rains and at the commence- ment of the drought when there is a round of varied economic and ceremonial undertakings, when raids are carried out, when food and beer are plentiful, and when, in general, the pulse of life beats faster, to the connotation it has in the middle of the dry season when the round of social activities is monotonous and undifferentiated and there is great oecological stability. There are, so to speak, fewer points on the dry-season clock than on the wet-season clock so that the hands appear to move more slowly, to an outsider at any rate and possibly to the Nuer themselves. If this is true it is saying no more than that perception of time is a function of systems of time- reckoning.

We have considered the year, the seasons, and the months. Nuer have no weeks or other specific units of time between the lunar reckoning of the months and the solar reckoning of the day and night. They indicate the occurrence of events more than a day or two past either by reference to some other event, such as the birth of a calf or some horticultural activity then in progress or, if they wish to be more accurate, by counting the number of intervening ' sleeps' (nin). Some- times, though in my experience less often, they count the number of ' suns ' (cang). ' Sleeps ' and ' suns' correspond to nights and days. Thus they say 'We shall move camp after four sleeps ' or ' We shall move camp after four suns '. Distances are reckoned in the number of ' sleeps' which will be experienced before a journey is ended, e.g. a Nuer says ' It is far. We sleep two sleeps and then in the morning we arrive.'

There is no term which includes both day and night. There are terms for 'to-day ' (wala), ' to-morrow' (irun), 'the day after to-morrow' (mwalla), ' yesterday' (me pan), and 'the day before yes- terday' (pan keje), the 'day after the day after to-morrow' (mwalla mo dodien), and 'the day before the day before yesterday' (pan keje mo dodien), but there is no precision about these terms. Thus irun, 'to-morrow ', may have the general sense of 'after to-day' and ' irun me dodien', ' the day after to-morrow' is an even more indefinite expression meaning ' another to-morrow' and if one wishes to make it quite clear that one means precisely the day after to-day it is advisable to say irunpany, the true to-morrow, and if one means the day after the

NUER TIME-RECKONING 205

day after to-day one must say irun pathde irun, the to-morrow after to-morrow or enumerate the number of intervening sleeps. There is the same vagueness about me pan, yesterday.

I shall not in this paper discuss the temporal indications conveyed by grammatical variations in verbs and by tone and length in adverbial expressions, beyond saying that the prefix system allows such indi- cations and that a person may express degrees of antiquity, like degrees of great distance, by the manner in which he enunciates adverbial expressions.

When Nuer wish to define the occurrence of an event several days in advance, as in fixing the time of a dance or wedding, they do so by reference to the phases of the moon: the appearance of the new moon (pai teeth), its waxing (borde), full moon (turde), its waning (muthde) and the brightness of its second quarter (kangde). When speaking vaguely they say that a certain event will take place during the waxing or waning of a certain moon and when speaking more precisely they say on what night of the waxing or waning it will occur, e.g. on the fifth night of the waxing or on the seventh night of the waning. Nuer reckon fifteen nights to the waxing and fifteen nights to the waning, making thirty nights to the month. There are no specific terms applied to the phases of the moon on each night of the month though there are terms which describe its phases just before and in full moon (ca dityath, ce wangde boye pak, ca tur, ca lual, &c.). Nuer say that only cattle and the Anuak people in their canoes on the river can see the moon in its invisible period.

The day has many points of reference in time-reckoning, deter- mined by the course of the sun and not by the length of shadows. A common way of indicating the time of day of future or past events is by pointing with an outstretched arm to the place which the sun then occupied, or will occupy, in the heavens and by saying 'Thus the sun ' (cang enono). The striking apparent movement of the sun across the heavens invites the use of this simple mode of time- reckoning. The Nuer also have descriptive expressions which roughly indicate the positions of the sun and these expressions can be used instead of manual demonstrations or, as is often the case, in addition to it. These expressions vary in the degree of their precision. Miss Soule of the American Mission with the aid of two Nuer able to tell

20o6 NUER TIME-RECKONING

the time by the clock, Pec and Ruot, has worked out the following points of time:

4.00-4.30 potghoaa (very little light). 4.30-5 .oo keak ghoaa (more light). 5.00-5.30 ci ghou bwai (still more light). 5.30-6.oo ci piny baak or ci ghou baak (dawn).

ci cang thokde kany, the tip of the sun rises (just before full sunrise).

6.oo kany cang or cang kany (sunrise). 7.oo-8.oo thoal cang (the sun is warming up). 8.oo-i2.00 ci cang dit (the sun is big).

I 2.00 cangdar, the sun is in the centre of the heavens (noon). 13.00-14.00 buah cang (the sun is bending), some people speak of buak

cang to about 15.oo I4.00-I 5.00 ci cang thiak (the afternoon approaches). I 5.oo-I 8.oo thiang (afternoon). i8.oo kwony cang (sunset). i 8.oo-i 8. I5 riar cang, the sun is finished (just after sunset).

The clock times given as an equivalent of these expressions are approximations only and, since the sun does not rise at the same time throughout the year, are average points. In my experience most of them are little used and I have never heard some of them. The ones that one hears daily are those that refer to the more prominently differentiated movements of the sun: the first stroke of dawn, sunrise, noon, and sunset. Cang, daytime, is contrasted with war, night, and runwang, forenoon, with thiang, afternoon. One also speaks of that part of the day which is spent as mindan and of that part which lies ahead as iyoo.

It is, perhaps, significant that in Miss Soule's list a large number of terms differentiate certain parts of the day while fewer and less pre- cise terms are used to denote others parts. Thus no less than six points of reference can be used between 4.oo and 6.oo, while there are only seven points of reference for the rest of the day. This is probably due chiefly to striking contrasts caused by changes in the relations of earth to sun between 4.oo and 6.oo. It must also be pointed out, however, that time units during these two hours have greater significance in directing activities-starting on journeys, rising from sleep, tethering cattle in kraals, hunting, &c.-than do time units

NUER TIME-RECKONING 207

during the rest of the day. Dawn and sunrise may be important signs to note, whereas there is not the same significance in the move- ment of the sun at 13.oo00, I4.00, and I 5.00 hours.

Phrases which can be employed to denote times of the night after riar cang, just after sunset, are mier ghoaa, twilight, cuol ghoaa, the first darkness of night, thiang war, about zo.oo to 21.00 hours, ce war dit, about 21.00 to 23.00 hours, wardar, about 23.00 to midnight, ce war

lang dak, about midnight to I.00 (the stars are beginning to bend their backs, as it were, and to start off towards the west), ci ghou ro wul, about 1.00 to 3.00 (from the position of the stars the earth seems to be leaning as a hut when it starts to fall), dudur, about 3.oo00 to 4.00 (false dawn), liet bakka, about 4.00 (the dark time just before dawn).

The divisions of night are to a very limited extent determined by the course of the stars. Here again it will have been noted that there is a richer terminology for the transition period between day and night than during the rest of the night and the same reasons as those suggested above may again be put forward to explain this fact.

Except for the commonest of the terms for division of the day they are little used in comparison with expressions which describe routine diurnal activities. The daily time-piece is the cattle-clock, the round of pastoral tasks and the time of day and the passage of time through a day are to a Nuer primarily the succession of these tasks and their relation to one another: taking of the cattle from byre to kraal, milking, display of youths with their oxen, driving of the adult herd to pasturage, milking of the goats and sheep, driving of the flocks and calves to pasture, churning, cleaning of byre and kraal, drying of dung fuel, herding in the pastures, bringing home of the flocks and calves, return of the adult herd, tethering of the cattle, evening milk-

ing, evening churning, enclosure of the beasts in their byres, singing amid the herd at night, and so forth. Usually Nuer use these points of activity, rather than concrete points in the movement of the sun across the heavens, to co-ordinate events. Thus a Nuer says 'I will return at (the time of) milking', 'I will start off (at the time) when the calves come home', ' They fought (at the time) when we were churning ', and so on.

The Nuer system of time-reckoning is thus based partly on the movements of the heavenly bodies which give them, directly or

208 NUER TIME-RECKONING

indirectly, concepts of year, season, month, day, night, and divisions of the day and night, and partly on a round of economic and other social activities the performance of which in succession makes them pay attention to the movements of the heavenly bodies and to the oecological variations they cause. The passage of time is perceived in the relation of activities to each other. Since activities are dependent on the movements of the heavenly bodies the two ways of reckoning time are really two ways of denoting the same thing. One may say ' the jiom season ', or ' the forming of early camps', ' the month of lath' or ' the return to the villages', ' thoal cang' (the sun is warming up), or ' at milking-time '. But the significance of natural time is always in its relation to social activities by reference to which Nuer select the natural points and divisions that the movements of the heavenly bodies permit them to demarcate clearly; and it is always directly or indirectly in reference to these activities that they reckon time. This is why the months are the least precise units of time in actual linguistic usage, though they are the most definite units of natural time, for the months are not clearly differentiated units of activity whereas the day and the year and its main seasons are com- plete occupational units. What we have called oecological time might better, therefore, be called occupational time.

Though I have spoken of time and units of time it must be pointed out that, strictly speaking, the Nuer have no concept of time and, consequently, no developed abstract system of time-reckoning. Much has been written about our concept of time and I do not intend to enter this debated territory. To bring out the absence of such a con- cept among the Nuer I need only remark that there is no equivalent expression in the Nuer language for our word 'time ', and that they cannot, therefore, as we can, speak of time as though it were some- thing actual, which passes, can be wasted, can be saved, and so forth. Presumably they have in consequence a different perception of time to ours. Certainly they never experience the same feeling of fighting against time, of having to co-ordinate activities with an abstract passage of time, since their points of reference are mainly the activities themselves, which are generally of a leisurely and routine character. There are no autonomous points of reference to which activities have to conform with precision.

NUER TIME-RECKONING 209

Also the Nuer has very limited means of reckoning the relative duration of periods of time intervening between events, since he has few, and not well-defined or systematized, units of time. Not having units of hours a series of undefinable periods intervene between posi- tions of the sun or daily activities. It is true that the year is divided into twelve numerical units of moons, but the Nuer do not reckon in them as fractions of a unit. They may be able to state in what month an event occurred, but it is with great difficulty that they calculate the number of months that have since intervened. They think much more easily in terms of activities and of successions of activities and, as will be explained, in terms of social structure and of structural differences, than they do in units of time.

Though I have spoken of Nuer perception of time I wish to make it clear that I have made no experiments to assess its psychological quality. Perceptions of time, in our opinion, are functions of systems of time-reckoning and hence culturally determined. The object of this paper, therefore, is simply to outline the Nuer modes of reckoning time by describing their points of reference.

In a sense all time is structural since it is a conceptualization of co-ordinated or co-operative activities: the movements of a group. Otherwise, of course, time concepts of this kind could not exist, for they must have a like meaning for every one within a group. Milking time is approximately the same for all people who normally come into contact with one another, and the movement from wec to cieng has approximately the same connotation everywhere in Nuerland, though it may have a special connotation for a special group of persons.

Properly speaking the year is the largest unit of Nuer time-reckoning. They can speak of last year (mi thar), this year (waale), next year (ithar), the year before last year, and the year after next year. Beyond the year they reckon in events and structural relationships. Events which took place in the last few years can be translated by Nuer into numbers of years, but it is a laborious business and each joint family and village and district has its own points of departure: events of significance to these groups. One of the commonest ways of dis- covering how many years ago an event took place is to count the places where the group made its dry-season camps. They say 'Last year we camped at such and such a place, before that at such and such

P

210o NUER TIME-RECKONING a place', and so on. When they have reached the camp where they were in the year in which the event happened they have ticked off the number of years which have intervened. They often count also by reference to the evils that befall their cattle: e.g. an event took place the year in which many beasts died of bovine plural pneumonia. In the following year a certain cow was killed by a lion, and so on. A joint family may reckon time from the birth of calves which have grown to adult cows in their herd. Weddings, mortuary ceremonies, ceremonies in honour of those killed by lightning, fights and raids, all give points of time, though no one knows without lengthy calcula- tions how many years have elapsed between, and since, the different events, because there is no numerical system of dating. Time in years is to Nuer an order of events of outstanding significance to the group concerned.

Each part of Nuerland, a tribe or adjacent tribes, have their own

history and therefore their own historic time. Among the Lou and the Eastern Jikany the following years are sometimes referred to in dating an event: ruon nyoac in tot, the year of the small flood (i917), ruon nyoac in dit, the year of the large flood (1919), ruon riaai nhial, the year of aeroplanes which bombed the cattle-camps (i920), ruon me nake guk Deang, the year in which the prophet Gwek was killed by Government troops (I928-9), rwon e gwol, the year of the small-pox epidemic (I929-30), ruon retha, the year of famine (I93o0-). In course of time these names of years are forgotten and all events beyond the limits of this crude historical reckoning fade into the dim vista of ne-walke, long long ago. Historical time, in this sense of an order of events, probably never goes back among the Nuer more than fifty years and the farther back from the present day the sparser and vaguer become its points of reference.

The Nuer age-set system enables them to state when events took place, not in numbers of years, but in relation to groups of people. The distances between events cease to be reckoned in time concepts as we understand them, and are reckoned in terms of structural distance, being the relations of groups of people to other groups of people. Thus a Nuer may say that an event took place after the Thut age-set was born or in the initiation period of the Boiloc age-set, but no one can say how many years ago it happened. Time is here reckoned in

NUER TIME-RECKONING 2I I

sets and is therefore relative and structural. If a man of the Dangunga set tells one that an event occurred in the initiation period of the Thut age-set he is saying that it happened three sets before his set. I have discussed the Nuer age-set system elsewhere.' In the present context I need only say that, at any rate in recent times, there does not seem to have been a fixed period of years covered by each set, so that a reckoning in sets cannot accurately be translated into a reckoning in years. Nevertheless, we may hazard the opinion that there is an average period of about ten years between the commencement of any set and the commencement of the set that comes after it. There are living members of six sets, the few surviving individuals of the oldest set being over seventy, since boys are not initiated till they are over twelve years of age. The names of the sets are not repeated and cyclic. In theory, therefore, one might reckon time in sets to an indefinite period, but in fact Nuer generally know only the latest of the sets the members of which are all dead or, if they know the names of several vanished sets, are uncertain of their order and do not use them for purposes of time-reckoning. An age-set reckoning has, therefore, seven units covering a period of about ninety years. A century may be accepted as the limit of reckoning time in age-sets.

No Nuer has any idea of his age in terms of years, but only in terms of physical appearance and of status. In terms of status there are so many sets in front of him and so many behind him. It is only in early childhood that there are a large number of expressions to denote the stages of growth, or rather of activities, of an individual, e.g. he crawls, he stands erect, &c. After puberty the main changes in status are for men the passing from boyhood to manhood and for both sexes marriage and the birth of a first child. The points of age- grade reference are few between marriage and death.

The interrelations between Nuer age-sets are expressed in the idiom of family nomenclature: fathers, brothers, and sons. The six existing sets correspond to three generations or to two units of agnatic descent, a man and his father and the same man and his son. The father-son relationship is a lineage unit conceived in one dimension and repre- sented by a vertical line. Four such units or five generation steps (kath) are linguistically differentiated relations of an agnatic order:

I 'The Nuer: Age-sets,' Sudan Notes and Records, I936.

2 I 2 NUER TIME-RECKONING

gwandong (gwan gwan), grandfather', gwan, father, gat, son, and gatgat, grandson. Kinship nomenclature is the mechanism by which one indicates social differentiation between the various relationships in this line of ascent and descent, the relationships so indicated being socio-temporal points of reference in the kinship structure. There are no reference points which can be defined by specific kinship terms beyond grandfather and grandson.

Any kinship relationship must have a point of reference on a line of ascent, namely an ancestor, so that kinship relationship has always a time-connotation conceived of in structural terms. The brother- brother relationship is a lineage unit conceived in a different dimen- sion to the father-son relationship and represented by a horizontal line instead of a vertical one. The relationships are, however, inter- dependent. The point to be emphasized is that the social distance between any two existing agnates is always strictly in proportion to the social distance that separates them from a common ancestor. The depth of lineages is therefore always a function of the range to which agnatic kinship is recognized in any generation.

The concept of lineages gives a special dimension to a group of agnatic kinsmen. It gives them that depth in time which provides an explanation of their inter-relationships. Diagrammatically, the agnatic structure of a group of kinsmen is perhaps best represented, as opposite, by a triangle formed by a base line representing a given group of living agnates, and two dotted lines, representing their ghostly agnatic forebears, running from this base to a point in lineage structure, the common ancestor of every member of the group. The farther we extend the range of the group (the longer becomes the base line) the farther back in lineage structure is the common ancestor (the farther from the base line is the apex of the triangle). The dotted lines of the triangles in the diagram opposite are thus time-depths of three extensions of agnatic relationship on an existential plane and the three triangles represent major, minor, and minimal lineages. Lineage-time is thus the social distance between any persons or groups of persons on the line AB.

European time is a continuum. Whatever point we start at, each succeeding generation increases the distance from that point. Our grandfathers were nearer to io66 than our fathers and our fathers

NUER TIME-RECKONING 213 were nearer to io66 than we are. The Nuer system of lineages, on the other hand, seems to be a fixed system having a constant number of steps between living persons and the founder of their clan. Actually these steps increase from generation to generation, but structurally they do not increase. I cannot prove this assertion, but a comparative study of East African genealogies gives it a high degree of probability. I shall not cite that comparative evidence here, but I list some significant facts about Nuer lineages which point to the truth of the assertion:

(i) All the main clans have about ten to twelve generations from

/ \ / \

/ \ / \

/ \ / / \ \

/ / \ \ / / \ \

/ / / \ \

/ / / \ \ \ / / / \ \ \ / / , \ \ \

A B

the present day to the ancestors who gave rise to them. There is no reason to suppose that the Nuer came into existence ten to twelve generations ago.

(2) When a Nuer is asked his lineage he gives it by reference to an ancestor, the founder of his minimal lineage, who is from three to six, generally four to five, steps in ascent from the present day. These steps are certain and agreed upon. This is understandable, since five steps represent a man, his father, his grandfather and his grandfather's father and grandfather, and since a man instructs his children in the names of his immediate forebears. It is evident that after five or six generations the names of ancestors become lost. Young men often do not know them and there is frequent confusion and disagreement among older persons. The founder of the minor lineage must be placed somewhere between the founder of the minimal lineage and the founder of the major lineage; the founder of the major lineage must be placed somewhere between the founder of the minor lineage and

214 NUER TIME-RECKONING the founder of the maximal lineage; and the founder of the maximal lineage must be placed somewhere between the founder of the major lineage and the founder of the clan. The names of these founders of lineage-branches must go into the line of ascent somewhere, and in a definite order, because they are significant points of reference. It is im- material whether other names go in or not and their order is without significance. Consequently, some informants put them in and some leave them out, and some put them in one order and others in a different order. It is, moreover, evident that, since the minimal lineage consists of four or five actual steps in ascent, there has been telescoping of the agnatic line from the founder of the minimal lineage farther up the line of ascent to the founder of the clan, for the founder of the mini- mal lineage was himself the extremity of another minimal lineage which has, by increase in generations, become the minor lineage, and so on. Consequently, even were the supposed founder of the clan the real founder of it there ought to be at least sixteen steps from him to the present day. The length of each fork in the tree of descent ought logically to be of equal length, whereas the twig, so to speak, is longer than the branch or stem from which it springs. This argument depends for its validity on the assumption that minimal lineages have always displayed the same characteristics.

(3) There is another way in which only significant ancestors, i.e. ancestors who form the apex of a triangle of descent, are denoted in genealogical trees and irrelevant ancestors, i.e. ancestors who do not give their name to a group of descendants, are obscured and finally forgotten. Not only do links drop out of the direct line of descent but also collateral lines merge. It is clear from a study of Nuer genealogies that the descendants of one or two brothers become numerous and dominant, that descendants of others die out, and that descendants of yet others are relatively few and weak and attach themselves, by participation in local and corporate life, to a stronger and dominant collateral line. They become assimilated to this line in ordinary lineage reference and eventually are grafted on to it by misplacement of their founder, who becomes a son instead of a brother of its founder. The merging of collateral lines higher up a lineage seems to be common, and to be more frequent and necessary the higher up one proceeds.

NUER TIME-RECKONING 215 There are other points which emerge from a further treatment of

Nuer lineages, but enough has been said to show that not only do Nuer reckon in structural time but that this structural time is a re- flection of ranges of counting kinship. Ranges of counting kinship, are in their turn, in our opinion, functions of social structure as a whole, especially of political interrelations.

Beyond the limits of historical time one enters a plane of tradition which merges at one end into history and at the other end into myth. All tradition, however, is not on the same time-level, for tradi- tions record events which have to some extent order in time. Here again, however, there can be little doubt that the time perspective is not a true impression of actual distances in time, like that created by our dating technique, but is structurally determined. Traditions reflect actual relations between lineages and the occurrences of the events they record have, therefore, to be placed at points where the lineages concerned converge in their lines of ascent, or, looked at from a different angle, where they divide in their lines of descent. Traditions have, consequently, a position in structure but no exact position in time as we understand it.

Beyond tradition lies the horizon of myth which is always seen in the same time perspective. One mythological event did not precede another mythological event, for myths are not stratified by structure. The explanations of any qualities of nature or of culture are drawn from this intellectual ambient which imposes limits on the Nuer world and makes it self-contained and entirely intelligible to them in the relations of its parts. The world and human customs alike were created by God on an undifferentiated plane.

What strikes one most about the time dimension of this Nuer world are its narrow limits. Valid history ends a century ago and tradition, generously measured, takes us back only to the beginnings of lineages, i.e. some ten to twelve generations. If we are right in supposing that lineages never extend beyond ten to twelve generations it follows that the distance between the beginning of the world and the present day remains an unalterable distance. Consequently, even if time is perceived by Nuer as a continuum-I would not care to express an opinion on that question-it is not a cultural continuum as it is with us, but is a constant structural relationship between two points, the

zi6 NUER TIME-RECKONING

first and the last persons in lines of agnatic descent, between which there is a fixed distance. Consequently, though it astounded me, it is in no way remarkable to Nuer, that the tree under which mankind came into being was still standing in Western Nuerland a few years ago and would still be standing had it not recently been burnt down.

B. B. EVANS-PRITCHARD.

Re'sume LE COMPUT DU TEMPS CHEZ LES NUER

LEs NUER parient du temps surtout en des termes q{ui expriment le changement des activite's sociales et des relations. Nous pouvons diviser leurs idees au sujet du

temps en clistingant celles qui se rapportent principalement 'a leurs rapports avec le milieu d'une part, et de I'autre celles qui se rapportent aux relations individuelles 'a l'int6&ieur de la socie'te. Le comput du temps fonde' sur les changements dans le climat et l'attitude de 1'homme 'a leur e'gard sont inte'gr6s dans un cycle annuel 'a l'inte&ieur duquel on trouve des pe'iodes particuli'eres.

L'anne6e est divise'e en deux saisons principales, en deux saisons accessoires et en douze mois. Chaque mois a trente jours et trente nuits et chaque nuit et chaque jour a certaines appellations linguistiques. Cependant les Nuer con~oivent ces divisions momns 'a cause des changements physiques qu'ils expriment par des termes speciaux, qu'"a cause des activite's sociales qu'ils de'signent en termes momns pre6cis, notamment en ce qui touche les occupations saisonni'eres et lunaires et la vie pastorale quotidienne autour du village et en transhumances. La mani'ere de reconnai'tre le temps est en somme fonde'e en de6finitive sur les mouvements des

copsclestes qui fournissent directement ou indirectement aux Nuer l'id' d'anne's, de saisons, de mois, de jours, de nuits et des diverses parties du jour et de la nuit. Tout cela de'termnine des changements dans les activite's et c' est en se ref6rant 'a celles-ci que leur horloge et leur calendrier ont 't construits. Les anne'es sont ge6neralement de'signe'es par un ra-ppel de 1'endroit oi'i ont e'e place's les campe- ments de saison s&ehe et des diff&rentes circonstances qui se sont produites durant le seijour. C'est pourquoi il n'existe pas de syst'eme pre'cis pour dater les anne'es; chaque partie du pays Nuer a sa propre me'thode fonde'e sur des re'frences choisies dans sa propre histoire. Cependant la mani'ere la plus habituelle d'indiquer 1'epoque oui certains e'venements se sont produits est de les comparer avec 1'age des personnes et cela non pas en comptant les annees,, mais en indiquant leurs relations avec certains groupes de personnes. L'interval entre les e6venements est la relation qui existe entre les personnes d'un certain 'age et les personnes d'un autre age. On peut encore de'terminer le temps en employant le syst'eme ge'nealogique. Les e'venements s'int'earent en un certain point de la structure clanique en ce sens que chaque personne dans la ge'nealogie du clan constitue un point significatif de ref6rence. Comme la position d'un individu dans les ge'n'alogies est fonction de la parent6 agnatique entre ses descendants vivants, le temps de6compte' par les filiations indique par de6duction le degre' auquel la parente' actuelle est reconnue. L'horizon du temps est I'arri"ere-plan sur lequel se deugage le mythe; et sur ce plan tous les evenements sont apergus suivant la Meme perspective.

Article Contentsp.189p.190p.191p.192p.[193]p.194p.195p.196p.197p.198p.199p.200p.201p.202p.203p.204p.205p.206p.207p.208p.209p.210p.211p.212p.213p.214p.215p.216

Issue Table of ContentsAfrica: Journal of the International African Institute, Vol. 12, No. 2 (Apr., 1939), pp. 1-4+129-264Front Matter [pp.1-4]Government in Umor: A Study of Social Change and Problems of Indirect Rule in a Nigerian Village Community [pp.129-162]Marketing Schemes for Native-Grown Produce in African Territories [pp.163-188]Nuer Time-Reckoning [pp.189-216]Staatstypus und Verwandtschaftssystem [pp.217-232]'Science in Africa' by E. B. Worthington. A Review [pp.233-238]Notes and News [pp.239-249]untitled [pp.250-252]untitled [pp.252-253]untitled [pp.253-255]untitled [p.255]untitled [pp.255-256]untitled [pp.256-257]untitled [p.257]untitled [pp.257-258]

Bibliography of Current Literature Dealing with African Languages and Cultures [pp.259-264]Back Matter