According to Geertz, how people deal with suffering in religion isn’t necessarily how to avoid it. Except, it’s how to make suffering sufferable through the use of religious symbols. In the case of Nuer religion, Nuer interpret all misfortunes as from their god, Kwoth. The symbol of cattle, and cattle sacrifice is a way in which they control their suffering. Evidently, in response to new situations and forms of suffering, the interpretation of misfortune and how it is managed evolve.
One way Nuer interpret suffering and misfortune is as Kwoth’s will. Kwoth can be interpreted as Christianity’s equivalent to God (Evans-Pritchard, E.E. 1951). Kwoth is a spirit who reveals himself through things of the sky like the sun, rain, wind, and air. Just …show more content…
“…misfortunes may be, whether they be what the Nuer call “dung cak,” “the lot of created things,” or whether they be the result of what they call “dueri,” “faults,”.” (Evans-Pritchard, 1951, p. 7) The word duer means a fault, which can be the breaking of taboos, incest, or wronging others including spiritual beings. Special misfortunes called “dueri” are corrections from Kwoth as a result of someone committing a fault. To prevent any more misfortunes, Nuer must hope that Kwoth will listen to their prayers and accept their sacrifices. Cattle sacrifice is an extremely important way in which Nuer cope with misfortunes. As exemplified in the film by Dir. Robert Gardner & Hilary Harris (1971), The Nuer, a man’s wife was possessed with a spirit and his daughter was very sick. It was believed that the ghost of his dead brother had come back, demanding to be properly recognized. A house was built for the ghost, was filled with offerings of food and jewelry, and then was given a ghost wife to bear children in his name. Finally, a cow was sacrificed. All these things were done to right the duer that was committed by attempting to please both the ghost of the dead brother and …show more content…
During the 1980’s imported western medicine was curing sickness in a way the Nuer people never could. Soon enough most Nuer people became educated that deadly diseases, like malaria, were not caused by Kwoth, but by water sources and insects. This new understanding of disease caused Nuer people to reshape their beliefs. “…during the 1980s the question “Why is s/he ill?” was rapidly being overshadowed in some contexts by the question “of what is s/her ill?”” (Hutchinson, Sharon. 1996, p. 300). Prior to medical intervention, if someone was ill, Nuer never questioned how it was so because Kwoth was always the ultimate cause of sickness. Nuer were more importantly interested why a misfortune had occurred. Prayer and sacrificing a cow was necessary to righting their duer (fault). Nuer were now faced with the question of what they do in response to illness; was the illness a correction of Kwoth or a mosquito bite? This brought about the distinction between treatable illnesses and those from divinity. ““Foreign illnesses” were thus those that could be potentially cured with the aid of imported pharmaceuticals, whereas “illness of divinity” could not.” (p. 308) The introduction of biomedicine caused the Nuer to restructure how they treated sickness, in both a physical sense with medicine, and a spiritual sense by discerning whether it caused by Kwoth’s anger or
One way Nuer interpret suffering and misfortune is as Kwoth’s will. Kwoth can be interpreted as Christianity’s equivalent to God (Evans-Pritchard, E.E. 1951). Kwoth is a spirit who reveals himself through things of the sky like the sun, rain, wind, and air. Just …show more content…
“…misfortunes may be, whether they be what the Nuer call “dung cak,” “the lot of created things,” or whether they be the result of what they call “dueri,” “faults,”.” (Evans-Pritchard, 1951, p. 7) The word duer means a fault, which can be the breaking of taboos, incest, or wronging others including spiritual beings. Special misfortunes called “dueri” are corrections from Kwoth as a result of someone committing a fault. To prevent any more misfortunes, Nuer must hope that Kwoth will listen to their prayers and accept their sacrifices. Cattle sacrifice is an extremely important way in which Nuer cope with misfortunes. As exemplified in the film by Dir. Robert Gardner & Hilary Harris (1971), The Nuer, a man’s wife was possessed with a spirit and his daughter was very sick. It was believed that the ghost of his dead brother had come back, demanding to be properly recognized. A house was built for the ghost, was filled with offerings of food and jewelry, and then was given a ghost wife to bear children in his name. Finally, a cow was sacrificed. All these things were done to right the duer that was committed by attempting to please both the ghost of the dead brother and …show more content…
During the 1980’s imported western medicine was curing sickness in a way the Nuer people never could. Soon enough most Nuer people became educated that deadly diseases, like malaria, were not caused by Kwoth, but by water sources and insects. This new understanding of disease caused Nuer people to reshape their beliefs. “…during the 1980s the question “Why is s/he ill?” was rapidly being overshadowed in some contexts by the question “of what is s/her ill?”” (Hutchinson, Sharon. 1996, p. 300). Prior to medical intervention, if someone was ill, Nuer never questioned how it was so because Kwoth was always the ultimate cause of sickness. Nuer were more importantly interested why a misfortune had occurred. Prayer and sacrificing a cow was necessary to righting their duer (fault). Nuer were now faced with the question of what they do in response to illness; was the illness a correction of Kwoth or a mosquito bite? This brought about the distinction between treatable illnesses and those from divinity. ““Foreign illnesses” were thus those that could be potentially cured with the aid of imported pharmaceuticals, whereas “illness of divinity” could not.” (p. 308) The introduction of biomedicine caused the Nuer to restructure how they treated sickness, in both a physical sense with medicine, and a spiritual sense by discerning whether it caused by Kwoth’s anger or