The Nuer/Beauty Knows No Pain

1. The Nuer/Beauty Knows No Pain Illustration of Basic Concepts in Anthropology

2. Basic Concepts Ethnography Participant Observation Ethnology Ethnocentrism Cultural Relativism Weltanschauung

3. Located in Upper Nile in Eastern Sudan and Western Ethiopia The Nuer are seminomadicpastoralists who represent Service’s tribal level of sociocultural integration. They are patrilineal and partially redistribute wealth through the practice of bride price. An important rite of passage, gar, marks the transition of a boy into manhood. Conflicts are mediated by a highly respected Leopard Skin Chief. Reference: Service, Elman R., Profiles in Ethnology. The Nuer "The people of Ciengach, where the film was made, are the Eastern Jikany, one of about a sixteen distinct tribes of Nuer. In 1940, E.E. Evans Pritchard estimated the total population of Nuer to be about a quarter of a million. Since then the number has undoubtedly dwindled considerably due to warfare, civil strife, sickness, drought and the general abandonment of traditional lifeways. "The Nuer call themselves Naath. Only their immediate neighbors, the Dinka, Shilluk and Arabs, call them Nuer. Most foreigners, which includes those with whom the Nuer neither fought nor traded, are called Bar which means 'almost entirely cattleless.' Those foreigners who live even more remotely and include Europeans are called Jur which means 'entirely cattleless,' a most unthinkable state indeed.

4. Kilgore College Rangerettes Located in Kilgore, Texas Gussie Nell Davis was best known for creating a "first" for Texas and the Nation. In 1975, the Houston Contemporary Museum of Art honored her for creating a "living art form." In 1929, Miss Davis started the first dancing pep squad at Greenville High School in Greenville, Texas. In 1939 Miss Gussie Nell Davis left her "Flaming Flashes" at Greenville high school and created a distinctive American phenomenon - the Kilgore College Rangerettes!

5. As we view “Beauty Knows No Pain,” imagine that you are a traditional Nuer person from that time trying to figure out what these strange people are doing.