1991 No. 1 CONTENTS - Institute of Social and Cultural ...

JASO 22/1 (1991): 19-39
THE POLITICS AND PHILOSOPHICAL GENEALOGY
OF EV ANS·PRITCHARD'S THE NUER
TONYFREE
IN an earlier article (Free 1990), I noted how contemporary views of anthropology
as writing-exemplified in Clifford and Marcus's Writing Culture (1986) and
Geertz's Works and Lives (1988)--have tended to ignore the relation between
text(s) and world(s). When they do refer to any world it is a unitary, monolithic
one: for example, Geertz deals in Works and Lives with Evans-Pritchard's work
as the outcome of the world of the Oxbridge common room, while Rosaldo in his
essay in Writing Culture deals with Evans-Pritchard's The Nuer as a product solely
of colonial domination. Both gloss over the political dimension of Evans­
Pritchard's work-Geertz, by denying any politics, and Rosaldo, by stereotyping
Evans-Pritchard's political position as that of a colonial dominator. Both thus
ignore the political divisions within the colonial world and Evans-Pritchard's
position within it. Furthermore, although many of the essays in Writing Culture
I am grateful to Michael Gilsenan and Godfrey Lienhardt for reading drafts of this article. It was
written, along with Free 1990, in October-December 1988. and no attempt has been made in
either article to deal with any article or book published since then. Some additions and
afterthoughts have been made in the footnotes. Page references are to The Nuer (Evans-Pritchard
1940) unless otherwise indicated.
I have restricted myself to a critical appraisal of Evans-Pritchard's recent critics. The article
can thus be seen as a defence of Evans-Pritchard. It should not, however, be seen as a piece of
pure 'ancestor worship'. For an earlier article critical of Evans-Pritchard's Nuer ethnography, see
Free 1988.