Strange Beliefs: Sir Edward Evans-Pritchard

Summary

This transcript takes us through the intriguing journey of Sir Edward Evans-Pritchard, a renowned British anthropologist. It delves into his exploration of various cultures, focusing on the Zande and Nuer people of Sudan. Through detailed fieldwork, Evans-Pritchard aimed to understand the beliefs, particularly witchcraft, and the social structures within these societies. His approach transformed the perception of primitive societies, asserting that these beliefs were logical within their own systems. His work highlights the importance of cultural immersion and historical context in anthropological study, challenging the scientific detachments of previous methodologies.

Highlights

• Evans-Pritchard accepted and lived by the cultural beliefs of the Zande, including witchcraft, during his fieldwork. 🌍
• He demonstrated that Zande witchcraft beliefs were logical when viewed within their cultural framework. 🌐
• His work with the Nuer revealed an 'ordered anarchy,' challenging preconceived notions of African political structures. 🏺

Key Takeaways

• Sir Edward Evans-Pritchard immersed himself in local cultures to understand their belief systems, particularly witchcraft. 🧙‍♂️
• He challenged the notion that 'primitive' societies had inferior intellect, asserting their logical coherence within their own cultural contexts. 🧠
• Evans-Pritchard emphasized the importance of historical context and anthropological immersion, shifting from seeing anthropology as a pure science to an interpretative art. ✨

Overview

Sir Edward Evans-Pritchard's anthropological journey was marked by deep cultural immersion, primarily focusing on the Azande and Nuer peoples. His work spanned various facets of their lives, from everyday practices to their profound belief systems like witchcraft. By living among these communities and learning their languages, he saw first-hand how their beliefs were systematic and logical within their cultural context.

Evans-Pritchard was a trailblazer in debunking the outdated perceptions of 'primitive mentality.' He argued that different beliefs did not imply intellectual inferiority but rather distinct cultural logics. His famous granary example illustrated this: Azandes attributed the fall to witchcraft rather than random chance—showing a unique cultural reasoning rather than mere superstition.

His work significantly influenced anthropology by advocating an interpretative approach, bringing a cultural and philosophical dimension to the discipline. He promoted the idea of understanding societies from within, as a participant rather than a detached observer, transforming anthropological methods forever.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 05:00: Introduction: Questioning Anthropological Assumptions The chapter "Introduction: Questioning Anthropological Assumptions" begins by exploring the underlying assumptions often present in anthropological studies. It emphasizes the importance of critically examining these assumptions to gain a deeper understanding of human cultures and societies. The chapter suggests that many anthropologists may unconsciously employ certain biases or preconceived notions that can influence their research and interpretations. The aim of this introduction is to urge readers to remain aware of these potential biases and to approach anthropological work with a more open and questioning mindset. The chapter sets the stage for a thorough investigation of how anthropological assumptions can shape findings and analyses.
• 05:00 - 10:00: Education and Early Influences In this chapter titled 'Education and Early Influences', the narrator discusses their experience with the ideas about witchcraft among the aande. Initially, they were resistant, but eventually, they had no choice but to accept these notions to some extent, which were in contrast to their own cultural beliefs.
• 10:00 - 15:00: Fieldwork Among the Azande The chapter titled 'Fieldwork Among the Azande' starts with a quote from Edward Evans Pritchard, a renowned British anthropologist. He talks about the integration and acceptance he experienced among the Azande people. Pritchard acknowledges the cultural understanding he developed during his time with them and reflects on his own privileged background.
• 15:00 - 20:00: Understanding Azande Witchcraft This chapter delves into the background and early life of an individual born in 1902 who attended Winchester, an English public school, and later studied at Oxford University. Although he initially pursued history at Exeter College, finding it tiresome, he eventually gravitated towards anthropology. The attraction was driven by the adventurous allure of exploring and understanding exotic cultures, setting the stage for a deeper exploration into Azande witchcraft.
• 20:00 - 25:00: Research Methods and Challenges In the chapter titled "Research Methods and Challenges," the focus is on Evan Pritchard's immersive experiences in cultures vastly different from his own. These experiences led to a deeper comprehension of behaviors and ideas that seemed irrational at first. However, the field of anthropology during his time leaned heavily towards scientific analysis. Students of the era were more interested in understanding the functions of social institutions as a way to decipher societal operations, a point that Evans grapples with as he delves into his research.
• 25:00 - 30:00: The Nupe Study: Political and Social Structures In this chapter, Pritchard's work is discussed with a focus on his unique approach to anthropology. He paid special attention to the mental lives and belief systems of the cultures studied by anthropologists, viewing them as complete systems of thought rather than isolated examples of primitive or pre-logical thinking. His approach was considered groundbreaking and challenged the way other societies' intellectual frameworks were perceived.
• 30:00 - 35:00: Evans-Pritchard's Military Service This chapter discusses Evans-Pritchard's views on how Western societies often misunderstand tribal societies by assuming that tribal ways of thinking or beliefs are underdeveloped compared to Western norms. Evans-Pritchard believed that differences in beliefs between Western societies and tribes could be explained differently, not because tribes were less developed in mental capacities or overly emotional, but due to cultural contexts. This challenges the conventional notion of seeing tribal societies as inferior or mistaken.
• 35:00 - 40:00: Return to Academia and War Experiences In this chapter titled 'Return to Academia and War Experiences', the text discusses the influence of colonial interests on academic studies during a certain period. It highlights how anthropologists from countries like France, Germany, America, and Britain often conducted their research in regions where their own nationality had a colonial presence. This presence sometimes provided hospitality, support, and language familiarity, although it could also pose challenges. The anthropologists had to interact with colonial commercial or administrative representatives which might not always align with their academic pursuits.
• 40:00 - 45:00: Contributions to Anthropological Theory The chapter focuses on Evans Pritchard's contributions to anthropological theory, particularly in the context of missionary interests and their insensitivity towards Native cultures in northern Sudan. The chapter critiques the self-admiration and colonial attitude of the administrators in Sudan, highlighting their overconfidence and lack of cultural sensitivity.
• 45:00 - 50:00: Anthropology's Evolving Understanding Anthropology's Evolving Understanding focuses on the historical and sociopolitical dynamics observed by a narrator in the South, particularly focusing on the racial and governing structures where 'the country of blacks' is governed by 'Blues.' The chapter paints a portrait of the officials during that era, describing them as different from previous times, and revealing their more commendable qualities which allowed for mutual respect and acceptance among varying races. Additionally, it discusses the perspective and motivations of British anthropologists like Evans Pritchard, highlighting their inclination towards studying African societies due to the British colonial presence there.
• 50:00 - 55:00: Methodologies and Influence on Anthropology This chapter discusses the methodologies used in anthropology, highlighting the shift towards immersive fieldwork. Evans Pritchard exemplifies this generation of anthropologists who believed in living among the people they studied to truly understand their culture. This approach emphasized learning the language and engaging in both mundane and dramatic aspects of everyday life to gain a comprehensive insight into a society.

Strange Beliefs: Sir Edward Evans-Pritchard Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 [Music] [Music] oh
• 00:30 - 01:00 [Music] I have often been asked whether when I was among the aande I got to accept their ideas about witchcraft I suppose you can say I accepted them I had no choice in my own culture i rejected xande Notions of Wich
• 01:00 - 01:30 C in their culture I accepted them in a kind of way I believed them those words were written by Edward Evans Pritchard one of the most famous of British anthropologists in many ways his background was one of privilege
• 01:30 - 02:00 certainly as far as his education was concerned born in 1902 he went to the English Public School Winchester and then up to Oxford he read history at exor college but found it tedious however exitor also happened to be the home of Oxford anthropology and as he later admitted he was attracted by the sense of adventure involved in studying exotic cultures
• 02:00 - 02:30 Evan pritchard's experience of life among cultures very different from his own was to produce a finer understanding of apparently irrational behavior and ideas but the anthropology being taught in his day was still largely that of a subject that thought of itself as a science students were asking what certain social institutions did in order to find out how a society worked Evans
• 02:30 - 03:00 Pritchard was remarkable for focusing his attention on the mental lives of those cultures that anthropologists go off and study he ended up examining their beliefs and ideas and not just as isolated examples of some kind of pre-logical thinking but as entire systems of thought and the results were startling he was sure that it was a mistake to treat the thinking of other societies let's call them primitive atives or
• 03:00 - 03:30 tribes as if they were different from us because they were making a mistake because they hadn't got it right and because perhaps their mental functions weren't so developed as ours or because their emotions got in the way so much that they couldn't think straight so he was uh sure that there was a different solution and a different explanation of why they have different beliefs than we [Applause] have where students went and who they
• 03:30 - 04:00 studied were strongly influenced by the colonial interests of the day in the colonies you could expect hospitality and some support and rely on administrators and some of the natives to speak your own language anthropologists from France Germany America and Britain tended to go to parts of the world where their own nationality was represented but that Colonial presence wasn't always as useful as it might be for the budding Anthropologist had to deal with the type of men who represented those Colonial commercial or
• 04:00 - 04:30 missionary interests and they weren't always as sensitive to Native culture as they might have been especially in the area that Evans Pritchard was encouraged to study I never much cared for nor admired the administrators in the northern Sudan as much as they admired themselves there was too much Gordon halo around their heads and too much of the overgrown school boy about them the rowing blue and the president of the junior common room type the Sudan was
• 04:30 - 05:00 described as the country of blacks governed by Blues in my day the officials when I first went to the South were of a very different type and lived in different circumstances I came to know several of these men very well and liked and respected them and they accepted me which they need not have done if they hadn't wanted to with a large Colonial presence in Africa it was natural that British anthropologists should expect to go and study there for Evans Pritchard the
• 05:00 - 05:30 peoples of the N Basin and the sedan were a logical [Music] Choice Evans Pritchard like other aspiring anthropologists of his generation had been taught that fieldwork was no longer a question of just going and visiting another people it involved living with them sharing their lives speaking their language and generally learning their culture the mundane details of everyday life were as important as the dramatic and the
• 05:30 - 06:00 ceremonial in 1926 Evans Pritchard was ready to start his own field work it was in fact the first intensive field study of an African people by a trained Anthropologist the people he came to study were the aandi who still live here in remote and Scattered homesteads in a wide region that spans Zia the Central African Republic and the Sudan early on Evans Pritchard realized that the only way to get inside zand's
• 06:00 - 06:30 social life was to live among the people so he had himself a house built just like this he intended from the start to live as far as possible as the zandi did but part of the achievement of field work in his day was actually getting to where you intended to work students of today may not realize that in 1926 it took a long time to reach the place to which one wanted to go a week by train and ship to Egypt
• 06:30 - 07:00 several days by train and boat to carum then 10 days by paddle steamer up the Nile and finally a 3-we trek by foot to the heart of Sudan xandy land in all it took some 7 weeks he spent about 20 months among the aandi and very little escaped his attention the layout of their Villages and the distribution of the Clans the way they cultivated and prepared their food their social organiz ation their
• 07:00 - 07:30 Amorous Adventures the raids they made on neighboring tribes and the stories they told each other Evans pitard was interested in more than just the facts about his Andy
• 07:30 - 08:00 life he was interested in their ideas he wanted to see if they fitted together to form a coherent system of belief and if so how did this system compare with our own he recorded their cultural Life by taking his own photographs and writing down what the natives said in their own language about the topics that they found important is Sandi thought so different from ours that we could only describe their speech in actions without
• 08:00 - 08:30 comprehending them or is it essentially like our own though expressed in an idiom to which we are unaccustomed what are the motives of xandi behavior what are their Notions of reality how are these motives and Notions expressed in custom Ive tried to keep these major sociological problems always before me so that my account may be a description rather than a bare record of fact
• 08:30 - 09:00 in Evans pritchard's day educated Europeans largely assumed that so-called primitive peoples Had A Primitive mentality one that was not just different from that of so-called civilized man but one that was probably inferior as well the evidence cited was the widespread belief among societies like the aandi of the power of Witchcraft and the practice of magic now these two words Witchcraft and Magic were rather Loosely used by Colonial administrat trors missionaries and some
• 09:00 - 09:30 anthropologists in an attempt to describe sets of ideas that they thought were ridiculous misguided frankly primitive but Evans Pritchard realized that xandi belief in witchcraft wasn't ridiculous at all xandi Notions were logical enough it was their Point of Departure their underlying assumptions that were so different from our own one of the examples that Evans Pritchard used to contrast xandi with Western systems of thought involved a
• 09:30 - 10:00 building just like this this is a granary it's used to store maze up here and underneath in the shade people generally pass the time of day it's supported by these wooden posts which in this part of the tropics like most other things gradually get eaten Away by termites what that means is that these buildings regularly collapse and sometimes when they collapse people are sitting underneath and sometimes people get hurt why a particular person person should be hurt by Falling Granary is
• 10:00 - 10:30 something that we'd call bad luck something that happened by chance an unfortunate coincidence the aandi say that that kind of Misfortune is caused by [Applause] witchcraft we must bear in mind that a serious Misfortune especially if it results in death is normally attributed by everyone to Witchcraft especially especially by the sufferer and his
• 10:30 - 11:00 [Applause] kin it is in connection with death that xande belief in witchcraft is most coherent and is most intelligible to us for it is death that answers the riddle of mystical [Music] [Applause] [Music] beliefs
• 11:00 - 11:30 this is not a happy song the words say you are dead I must cry I will not see you again last night in this Village a young woman of about 30 died she's being mourned by her friends and relatives apparently she'd been ill for some time she had the obvious signs and symptoms of some undiagnosed disease but people here aren't happy with that
• 11:30 - 12:00 explanation on its own they say that something else was involved they say she was Bewitched I had no difficulty in discovering what aand they think about witchcraft nor observing what they do to combat it these ideas and actions are on the surface of their life and are accessible to anyone who lives for a few weeks in their homesteads every xandi is
• 12:00 - 12:30 an authority on witchcraft mangu witchcraft was one of the first words I heard in xand land and I heard it uttered day by day throughout the months it was soon clear that if I could gain a full understanding of the meaning of this word I should have the key to xandi philosophy to understand more about their Notions of Witchcraft Evans Pritchard studied case histories of people who suspected that witchcraft was
• 12:30 - 13:00 being directed at them the only source of Witchcraft the zandi recognized was other human beings these people were seen as unconscious agents for this malevolent Force to find out who was the source of their Misfortune the zandi consulted oracles these were procedures which enabled them to get answers to those nagging suspicions involving witchcraft
• 13:00 - 13:30 the first step was usually the Ewa or rubbing board Oracle this is still used today in an attempt to find out who is causing Misfortune and what you can do about it guda has a sick mother and he's come to consult the Oracle but before looking into the cause of the illness the diviner first wanted to establish why a white film crew was in xandy land in the first place was
• 13:30 - 14:00 this likely to be the source of any future witchcraft
• 14:00 - 14:30 once it was established that we weren't up to any Mischief he got down to the real purpose of's visit
• 14:30 - 15:00 for
• 15:00 - 15:30 Evans Pritchard found that the world of Sandi ideas was beginning to make sense by foll up case histories just like
• 15:30 - 16:00 gagas he's asked whether she's going to die and if anyone is bewitching her he's been told she's not going to die and that it's not obvious that anyone is bewitching her but if he performs Certain Magical practices he'll be sure that she won't die in xandy land there's a hierarchy of oracles and to make absolutely sure he's Consulting the poison Oracle or the bangi now bangi is a stricking based poison that is administered to small chickens and
• 16:00 - 16:30 depending on the question asked and whether the chicken dies or not he'll have his answer
• 16:30 - 17:00 the poison Oracle has given its answer Kuda asked if his sick mother got the appropriate magic would live now the
• 17:00 - 17:30 first question was posed in such a way that if the chicken died the answer was yes the chicken has died but just to make doubly sure he asked the question again of a second chicken who was also given poison if my mother who is sick gets the appropriate medicine will she live if so the chicken itself was to live and it has so he obviously now has to get hold of the right kind of magic for the right magic Gaga has to go
• 17:30 - 18:00 to another kind of expert white Colonials named this type of ritual specialist the witch doctor and his job is to combat witchcraft to achieve this he has a large repertoire of magic at his disposal in the form of spells substances and procedures like so much medical advice around the world it's dispensed with a certain amount of ceremony the aande witch doctor is both
• 18:00 - 18:30 diviner and magician since aande believed that witches May at any time drink sickness and death upon them they are anxious to establish and maintain contact with these evil powers and by counteracting them control their own destiny aandi believed that witches can injure them by virtue of an inherent quality a witch performs no right utters no spell and possesses no medicines an
• 18:30 - 19:00 act of Witchcraft is a psychic act aand believed that witchcraft is a substance in the bodies of witches it has been described to me as an oval blackish swelling or bag attached to the edge of the liver they say when people cut open the belly they have only to pierce it and Witchcraft substance burst through with a pop as ande need not live in continual dread of witchcraft since they can enter into relations with it and therefore
• 19:00 - 19:30 control it by means of oracles and Magic by oracles they can forsee the future dispositions of Witchcraft and change them before they develop by Magic they can guard themselves against Witchcraft and destroy it the witch doctor is an important person in Sandi Society he is called on to locate and combat the everpresent Menace of Witchcraft and it's his magic that gives him the power to see the evil
• 19:30 - 20:00 intentions of [Music] [Music] others
• 20:00 - 20:30 in spite of following the witch doctor's advice and finding the right medicine Gaga's mother did die a week later but his faith is unshaken Evans Pritchard realized that the aandi didn't think of Witchcraft as ridiculous and they still don't it isn't disproved or invalidated by its failures any more than astrology Marxism or Christianity his published findings were to raise a whole series of new questions
• 20:30 - 21:00 about what could be considered rational thinking in any culture I think that in this generation with good reason we appreciate that we're not as rational as our grandfathers thought they were David pook like Evans pritchard's other students took up this new enthusiasm for other people's sets of ideas we realize perhaps we've got to live with a darker side of the human nature in order to live with it we've
• 21:00 - 21:30 got to understand it as best we can um and that witchcraft is not about um funny old women with pointed hats but it is precisely an expression it's one of the ways in which this human Envy human hate human spite um is expressed and managed before EV Pritchard started the field of African studies of religion and ing all the religious beliefs in the
• 21:30 - 22:00 social life of the people there wasn't any study of African religions there was mythology and there was odd beliefs and there was fetishism and magic and uh such like but there was nobody ever thought that you could take uh the metaphysical ideas of a African people which were not written down and treat them with the same seriousness and same philosophical um questioning as you might the ideas of
• 22:00 - 22:30 of a great religion of one of the world religions so this was revolutionary having discovered that witchcraft was a practical way of organizing life for the aandi Evans Pritchard even tried running some of his own Affairs in the field along the lines of zandi beliefs if I wanted to go on a journey for instance no one would willingly accompany me unless I was able to produce a verdict of the poison Oracle that witchcraft did not threaten our
• 22:30 - 23:00 project and if one goes on arranging one's Affairs organizing one's life in harmony with the lives of one's hosts one must eventually give way if one must act as though one believed one ends in believing as one acts
• 23:00 - 23:30 [Music] in 1932 Evans Pritchard took up the offer of a University post in Egypt he was becoming an expert field worker but because of a personality clash with his former professor maranowski at the London School of Economics he found it
• 23:30 - 24:00 difficult to get a teaching job back home whilst here he was developing a great interest in Arab culture an enthusiasm that remained with him all his life I never got on with malanowski so on my return to England I found myself barred from the London School of economics and such was melan's influence it appeared from anywhere else however I was appointed to a chair in philosophy and sociology in the fuad
• 24:00 - 24:30 the university in Cairo this gave me a chance in addition to gaining teaching experience to improve my Arabic in Cairo Evans Pritchard took a long hard look at a topic at the center of anthropological attention primitive mentality to formulate his new ideas he looked at the history of human thought for a university unaccustomed to anthropology the lectures he gave must
• 24:30 - 25:00 have seemed particularly ambitious it was quite a good time to be away from England because manowski was holding court and it was probably difficult to get new ideas heard manowski had never been particularly impressed with how much history could contribute to anthropology Evans Pritchard who trained as a historian was and whilst he was out here he was particularly interested in one branch of history the history of ideas he'
• 25:00 - 25:30 realized that the sorts of problems that had interested anthropologists had interested other thinkers long before the course of lectures that he delivered here and developed and later expanded were to place anthropology in a much larger historical context Evans Pritchard felt that anthropology should be built on a wider historical perspective and this should include writers who had been philosophers and historians as well as the social
• 25:30 - 26:00 theorists one of his students Issa Ali remembers that Evans Pritchard took his lecturing duties very seriously I remember one day the mob came into the college and wanted to take all the students out to join the demonstration Hep stood in this room in this place and address the students anyone who dis who disturbs my lecture I knock him
• 26:00 - 26:30 down the funny thing that all of them were frightened and went away see Issa Ali went on to become an authority on the anthropology of his own people using the methods that Evans Pritchard taught at those early seminars in Cairo AP used to treat sociology as something uh based on observation participant observation going into The Villages going in the heart of the
• 26:30 - 27:00 desert which was something very new to [Music] us by now Evans Pritchard was becoming well accustomed to Arab life he relished the idea of immersing himself in another culture and his experience as an anthropologist enabled him to enter these new social worlds with a Keen Eye and a genuine interest he was indulging this interest in Islamic Culture by making Journeys out into the
• 27:00 - 27:30 desert I suppose I was very isolated in those days though I did not feel lonely and anyhow I like Solitude my happiest days have been in deserts with a couple of Arabs our camels and no footsteps but our own throughout his stay in Cairo he can continued his anthropological field trips up the Nile into xand land never
• 27:30 - 28:00 forgetting the debt he owed the people whose lives he described so extensively I have left a part of my heart in the southern Sudan my gratitude to my African friends can never be obliterated or repaid those who were my personal servants were naturally closest to me and we shared our lives in ups and downs fortunes and misfortunes Joys and laughter sickness and sorrows
• 28:00 - 28:30 Evans pritchard's work as an anthropologist in Africa had earned him a reputation as someone who could shed light on the difficulties of native Administration in 1930 the Anglo Egyptian government had asked him to transfer his attention away from the aandi and do some work in another part of the Sudan with the people who were giving them problems the people who were causing problems still live here today in the flooding marshes of the upper Nile they're called the newer to the Colonial
• 28:30 - 29:00 officers they were a warlike tribe who were strongly resisting any attempt at being governed but for Evans Pritchard they were a complex and fascinating Society newer are very prone to fighting people are frequently killed indeed it is rare that one sees a senior man who does not show marks of club or spear a will at once fight if he considers that
• 29:00 - 29:30 he has been insulted and they are very sensitive and easily take offense perhaps the most uh dramatic uh factor in all this was that the district commissioner in Western was killed this was in 1928 deliberately assassinated by uh theer with some kind of plot which was cooked up at the time and that the government wished gain control by what in fact were um ative Expeditions patrols of troops sent in uh they bombed
• 29:30 - 30:00 the the newer from the air not very effectively they didn't bomb the people they bomb their cattle which is regarded and probably rightly regarded as the quickest way to aure uh reaction um uh and there were it was some people could regard it and and perhaps do regard it as a very repressive kind of policy but this in fact was what was happening m Michael who was a man of
• 30:00 - 30:30 imagination in my opinion anyway uh the head of the administration felt that if this policy was being pursued then it was only right that the government should know more about the way that Neo Society operated the way that it's what were causing these these problems more about the newer and it was for that reason that he brought Evans Pritcher in and Evans Pritcher came rather reluctant because he didn't want to abandon his work with Zandy at that particular
• 30:30 - 31:00 period in the only surviving recording of his voice made late in his life Evans Pritchard recalled some aspects of his experiences as an anthropologist among the newer government were more or less at war with the new at the time and I was dumped down there among them and there was no grammar no dictionary no interpreter and one just had to do the best one could to make friends with them and how' you go about doing that you may ask I was all by myself uh I had no
• 31:00 - 31:30 police I had no soldiers or anything the Noah saw that being intelligent and charitable people that I was all alone and helpless and they just accepted me as a guest took me some months to learn the language adequately I learned usually through the children I used to go out fishing with their little sons and so on and if the children accept you sooner or later they parents will accept you too and the
• 31:30 - 32:00 nurse slowly came along bit by bit to my tent and used to come and talk to me and I think they regarded me as rather an ative really I mean I was living in the very center of their cattle camps or their Villages and they got used to me I lived right in the middle of them you see nothing which went on could have been missed by me because I was one of them really
• 32:00 - 32:30 it's clear from his elegant description of their attitudes to life that Evans Pritchard identified closely with the newer the newer is a product of a hard and egalitarian upbringing he is deeply Democratic and is easily roused to violence his turbulent Spirit finds any restraint irksome and no man recognizes a
• 32:30 - 33:00 superior that every new considers himself as good as his neighbor is evident in their every movement they strut about like Lords of the earth which indeed they consider themselves to be there is no master and no servant in their society but only equals who regard themselves as God's noblest creation their respect for one another contrasts with their contempt for all other
• 33:00 - 33:30 peoples as with the aandi Evans Pritchard emphasized the sorts of things that constrained their existence and one was the harsh environment a people whose material is as simple as that of the nure are highly dependent on their environment at heart they are herdsmen and the only labor in which they Delight is the care of cattle they not only depend on cattle for many of life's Necessities but they
• 33:30 - 34:00 have the herdsman's outlook on the world cattle are their dearest possession and they gladly risk their lives to defend their herds or to pillage those of their neighbors the newer are involved with their cattle in a detailed and elaborate fashion certainly their lives depend on their livestock but they enjoy their cattle in an intellectual and emotional way as well young boys for example take the names of their favorite Bulls and
• 34:00 - 34:30 the names the cattle are given themselves are taken from a vast vocab of terms used to describe type of color pattern of marking shape of horns and so on songs are composed about the beauty of particular beasts and actually sung to the animals themselves and of course new folklore is full of stories about Splendid cattle the newer love their cattle cattle can also be seen as links in
• 34:30 - 35:00 certain social relationships they certainly trace the ties of kinship a dead man's herd for example is divided up among his sons who have tended that herd all their lives cattle are also at the center of certain social processes they're used in payment in compensation for settling certain feuds and if a man wants to marry he has to recompense his wife's family for the loss of a daughter this bride wealth as it's called consists of a gift of
• 35:00 - 35:30 cattle Evans Pritchard said that cattle were the idiom through which the newer think they stand for so many things in the lives of these people the newer like most pastoral peoples are poetic and most men and women compose songs which are sung at dances and concerts or are composed for the Creator's own pleasure and chanted by him in lonely pastures and amid the cattle in Camp crows
• 35:30 - 36:00 when they feel happy youths break into song praising their Kinsmen sweethearts and cattle wherever they may be girls of the new Air will know you only when you have the these big WS because you will enjoy life you will go around advertising chewing yourself up to the people but only only only when you have bulls that you can go around and sing your home songs or uh
• 36:00 - 36:30 you you can dance the traditional way otherwise if you don't have Bulls you cannot go around dancing in the in the C the C Camp why the boys compose songs about their cattle yeah to express their being important uh in the society importantance their importance is based of that horning these big bull and because of
• 36:30 - 37:00 their ownership of to these big bulls they are L by girls and uh they are known they are nickname nickname after them and they also um show up important occasions now you mentioned that a boy gets his bull name and his bull when he's marked are you referring to these scars on your forehead yes indeed what do they mean to know are called G meaning uh that I'm a man I'm now free
• 37:00 - 37:30 from Boyhood but I'm a man now as as a man I'm entitled to be killed by enemy side and I'm entitled to marry now a girl or to be L by a girl or to own a big bull this is what it means to New Life I cannot easily fear you because I'm a man nowaday Simon do you remember your bull song yeah can you sing it
• 37:30 - 38:00 [Music] anyway what does that mean it means um this of uh I had a girl Le in it a mark and being a man having my Bulls I fought
• 38:00 - 38:30 sever second war in it and my manhood is known by everyone here this is what how it means so I have bull to which people know me after I had girlfriends because being a man of my generation and I also face dangers with my colleagues my ear you how it means not now but sometimes ago
• 38:30 - 39:00 Evans pritchard's first study focused on the political organization of newer Society he found the lack of any easily recognizable form of government remarkable a state of affairs he called ordered Anarchy Evans Pritchard did identify a number of people who were classified as Chiefs certainly the administration talked about them as Chiefs but these
• 39:00 - 39:30 people were really spiritual experts who had a particular role to play in particular the lepid chief the lepin chief uh was a man uh who had a a role in arbitration between parties but he really didn't have the sanction of force or authority behind him he was the man who brought in to come to to compose a feud and he had carry out the processes of negotiating
• 39:30 - 40:00 for the cattle uh which were going to be handed over in compensation in order to compose the the the feud and so on uh but there were no people in Authority his writings on the new have become some of the most famous in all anthropology but what are the reasons for this success it was important at the time and because it challenged the received uh um view of of African political societies
• 40:00 - 40:30 which were derived from Hollywood and and Conrad and Kipling and and R hagard most particularly of uh abject slaves being ruled by a chief with three feathers in his head you know uh and a bon through his nose very probably and to to have this detailed account of a society which uh cohered was entirely orderly uh but had no Central institutions of government um no uh none of the institutions which we would
• 40:30 - 41:00 recognize as being legal institutions this was was important um and of course it was to the extent that the lesson was taken by um people in the Sudan political service and perhaps in the East Africa in the Colonial service this one hopes may have been a bit beneficial to the people who were being governed because it um it meant that they would have a new look at some of the other naive Notions they had about IND direct government it's 50 years since Evans
• 41:00 - 41:30 pritchard's last visit to the newer and life has changed considerably for some of the descendants of the people he studied Gabriel Jal is researching Colonial history covering the period of Evans pritchard's work in the field and he is particularly conscious of some of those changes I would say there has been a change and there has been no change because the new year has now two societies the intellectual urbanized group has
• 41:30 - 42:00 somehow changed and new in the country have changed a bit in term of uh appreciation of uh of modern ways of Health for example for human and their based for agricultural activities and so on but in term of their structure of the society and in term of the way way of their life I I don't think there has been much
• 42:00 - 42:30 change in their way of life because when s iban fishot went to the new land 30 years in 1930 uh he found them their the basic economy was the cow and the cow is still there playing the same role as described in the the in his book The in 1935 Evans pitar returned to his own University Oxford as a lecturer in African sociology when war broke out I
• 42:30 - 43:00 made attempts to join the Welsh guards but I was prevented from training by the university on the grounds pointless as it seemed to me that I was in a reserved occupation so I went to the Sudan on the excuse of continuing my ethnographical researches there and on arrival joined the Sudan auxiliary Defense Force this was just what I wanted and what I could do
• 43:00 - 43:30 the ever increasing aggressive raids by our patrols have compelled the enemy to flee almost without a struggle in spite of their superiority in numbers the fure from the Sudan to abisinia is marked by barad entanglements but these are pierced by our patrols like matchwood in their onward thrust to gain new territory the presence of British military experts in the heart of abisinia advising Patriot leaders in their Rising against the Italians lend special significance to the flaring up of British activity on this front the Deep Mountain Gorges have given
• 43:30 - 44:00 excellent daily cover for our advancing troops they have inflicted severe casualties on the enemy at incredibly low cost Evans pritchard's knowledge of the sedan in the area bordering abisinia enabled him in command of a group of anak tribesmen to cause serious disruption to the garrisons of the occupying Italian forces he got on well with the various tribesmen he served with but relations weren't always as smooth with his seniors later with the long-range desert group in Syria he fell out with his
• 44:00 - 44:30 superiors and was posted back to North Africa just at the time of L alamain he was next made governor of the siren District in Libya I was quite hopeless as an administrator and as I knew I should be happy in the tents of the bedwin I asked whether I might act as a liaison officer thus I spent over two years wandering with my camels and horses in desert and semi-desert with interludes in the forest I don't suppose I did much to assist the war effort but at least I did
• 44:30 - 45:00 nothing to [ __ ] it though I could not conduct any serious anthropological research in the circumstances I got to know siren its peoples and their history well enough to write later my book The suusi of sanik in that book Evans Pritchard fused his two interests here was a work of historical importance with the Insight of an anthropologist into the tribal structure of the bedin when the war was over Evans
• 45:00 - 45:30 Pritchard returned to academic anthropology in many ways it had changed a great deal maranowski was now dead and there was no one holding the center of the stage a whole new generation were going to go on and take on the senior University posts Evans Pritchard became professor of social anthropology at Oxford he came to live in this house this is where he brought up his large family and this is where students Colonial administ ators and anthropologists of all kinds called on
• 45:30 - 46:00 him in the postwar Years Oxford under Evans Pritchard developed a reputation for excellence as a center for anthropological studies as with Boaz and malinowski his students went out to study cultures all over the world and then on to fill senior teaching posts themselves anthropology had an influence on
• 46:00 - 46:30 Colonial attitudes at a time when Independence was being sought all over the Empire his services to anthropology were recognized by a Knighthood but it was his style of anthropology whilst a fellow at all cells College in Oxford that was largely responsible for its influence on other university disciplines his work on witchcraft found philosophers asking what could be considered rational thinking in any society and tribal organiz ization was intriguing political theorists Evans pritchard's attention to
• 46:30 - 47:00 the sophisticated religious Sentiments of the people he studied also had a strong influence on theologians and indeed religious experience played an increasingly important part in his own life for during the war he had been converted to Catholicism a faith that he maintained till his death in 1973 I think was his genius as an anthropologist was that by opening himself to people n the zandi whoever by
• 47:00 - 47:30 letting them talk by letting uh his view of of what made their society tickle whatever um assume some Authority he um shifted Authority from the scientific Anthropologist to the the native in the field so that the the object of study now became the Authority on itself and the Anthropologist became
• 47:30 - 48:00 ideally uh a translator an interpreter the study of human social life has come a long way since Walter Baldwin Spencer searched for the origins of his own Society among the Australian Aborigines anthropology nowadays doesn't waste time on speculative theories about how societies evolved but following Spencer's example it does at least go out into the field for its own fact act s France Boaz in America emphasized that
• 48:00 - 48:30 good anthropology depended on systematically collecting every aspect of a culture and understanding it through its own language however anthropology hasn't become the science that William Rivers anticipated but because of his attention to Method it took a more scientific approach to analyzing cultural life in the field with bronislav maranowski fieldwork became a process of total sat ation immersion in the culture being studied and produced masterpieces of
• 48:30 - 49:00 anthropological description Margaret me recognized that the topics anthropologists investigated had great popular appeal and her writings gave it a relevance for a much wider public by turning anthropology away from the Search for universal laws of human behavior Edward Evans Pritchard changed its direction he emphasized the Anthropologist was to be seen as an interpreter rather than a scientist and
• 49:00 - 49:30 the task was the translation of culture one of the main Ambitions of this Series has been to show how our understanding of other societies and incidentally of our own has improved over the past hundred or so years this deeper insight has obviously not been reached by people just sitting around and exchanging ideas rather it's been gained by anthropologists going to live in remote societies often in extreme hardship but
• 49:30 - 50:00 coming back with a special kind of evidence facts which they' gathered firsthand for themselves but if anthropologists are interested in studying the workings of Human Social Life why do they need to go to such isolated communities such unfamiliar societies why you may ask don't they just stay at home and study their own culture well some anthropologists have studied their own culture but as Evans
• 50:00 - 50:30 Pritchard pointed out there are certain advantages in studying other people's firstly if anthropologists do live and work among different societies they tend to be more objective it's somehow easier to make correlations and observations in societies unlike your own secondly remote societies like the new tend to be distinct from their neighbors this means they can be studied in their entirety the whole of social life can be evaluated it was this objective study of
• 50:30 - 51:00 all aspects of social life that Evans Pritchard stressed in Social anthropology you are studying not just as an observer but also as a participant you are not just a member of the audience you are also on the stage to understand the newer you've got to learn to think as a newer to feel as a newer in a kind of way to be a new and this can't be done by any kind of
• 51:00 - 51:30 scientific technique and this is why the Anthropologist I think is in a very peculiar position because he's trying to interpret what he sees not just with the head but with his whole personality with his heart as [Applause] well
• 51:30 - 52:00 [Music] is [Music]