E. E. Evans-Pritchard
E. E. Evans-Pritchard was an English social anthropologist whose studies of Azande witchcraft and Nuer society shaped British social anthropology.
Witchcraft, Oracles and Magic among the Azande: Evans-Pritchard’s 1937 ethnography examines Azande witchcraft, oracles, and magic as a coherent system of thought and practice. This study established his account of how Azande ideas about witchcraft explain misfortune.
Segmentary lineage: A political system in which nested descent groups unite or oppose one another according to the scale of conflict. Evans-Pritchard used lineage segmentation to explain Nuer political organization without centralized government.
Bronisław Malinowski: A Polish-born British anthropologist who helped establish long-term fieldwork as a central method of social anthropology. Malinowski’s fieldwork tradition influenced the discipline in which Evans-Pritchard trained and worked.
Rationality debate: A philosophical and anthropological debate about whether beliefs across cultures can be understood as rational by their own standards. His Azande study became a central case in disputes over cross-cultural rationality.
The Nuer: Evans-Pritchard’s 1940 ethnography describes Nuer social organization, political relations, and cattle-centered pastoral life. His account of Nuer political organization became a model of structural-functional analysis.
Nuer kinship: The relations of descent, marriage, and affiliation through which Nuer people organize family and social ties. His analysis connects kinship relations to Nuer political groupings.
Alfred Radcliffe-Brown: A British social anthropologist who developed a comparative theory of social structure and institutions. Radcliffe-Brown’s structural framework shaped Evans-Pritchard’s early approach to social organization.
Interpretive anthropology: An approach that understands culture through the meanings people give to actions, symbols, and institutions. His later emphasis on understanding religious thought helped prepare anthropology for interpretive approaches.
Nuer Religion: Evans-Pritchard’s 1956 study analyzes Nuer concepts of divinity, spirits, sacrifice, and religious experience. It extended his Nuer research from social structure to religious thought.
Azande witchcraft: A socially recognized explanation of misfortune among the Azande, attributed to an inherited substance called mangu. Evans-Pritchard showed how witchcraft interpretations fit ordinary causal reasoning and social life.