Suffering In Nuer Religion

Great Essays
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

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    People were treated by apothecaries who used herbal treatments or they saw their local witch doctor who gave them a “healing potion”, usually made of herbs they grew in their personal garden. People also went to their local monasteries for treatment were they knew there were herbal treatments. Although a last resort surgery was semi successful during this period. Illness was treated as a religious sickness, because the doctors were priest and such they saw illnesses as the consequences of angering the gods, treatments such as bloodletting was used to pull out the bad blood. These methods were put to test by doctors of the time who came from the fallen Roman empire or people who studied medicine in Greece.…

    • 1279 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Naciremas Research Paper

    • 531 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In society today apperance and health concerns play a vast majority in our everyday lives. Furthermore, even relugious traditions have grown rapidly and has been altered in countless different forms. Wheter it was looks or religous beliefs the Naciremas presented a abounding amount of advanced human behavior in their own unique way. From medicine men, holy-mouth-men,their ritual life, and their concern for their health, their advanced actions were displayed numerous times throghout their daily lives.…

    • 531 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the beginning there was a lot of speculation as to why people get sick and die. When diseases spread it was told to be the work of the gods and punishment for their evil deeds. One man stood against this logic and separated religion and health, and the way of living has never been the same since. “It is thus with regard divine nor more sacred than other diseases, but has a natural cause from the originates like other affections. Men regard its nature and cause as divine from ignorance and wonder...”…

    • 469 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    The first chapter is titled Pre-rational and irrational medicine in Greece and neighbouring cultures, which is about how the medical kind of writing was established. Longrigg discusses how the Greeks’ have a popular belief in supernatural causation and/or cures of diseases. He goes against the idea that the Egyptians and Babylonians led the Greeks in the development of rational medicine.…

    • 1303 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    When we see an individual suffer, we become quick to judge that individual for his or her actions; yet, we often fail to recognize our own implication on the same wrongdoings, and thus, we unintentionally become the one who extends our punishment. Suffering as a whole must be acknowledged by humanity – so that lament becomes admonition – as we all make wrong choices that implicate ourselves in pain and grief. While avoiding its gaze may subdue the pain momentarily, this denial will strip us of our chance to learn from past choices and instead will create an everlasting torment. As humans, we must face suffering as an opportunity to admit our core vulnerabilities and flaws that define us, as recognizing the punishment can only make us…

    • 1472 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    The scripture passage Genesis 25:11 gives us guidance and strength as it tells us that God is with us through our struggles and that we are blessed by him, shown in the quote "After Abraham’s death, God blessed his son Isaac". The Buddist Sacred text of the four noble truths talk about suffering, and how suffering is common to all. The text says that death cannot be avoided, and is shown through the story of Kisagotami, who was told by the Budda that death is inevitable and that it happens to everyone. This scripture is used as a source of being able to relate to the families of victims of this event and to tell them that many other people feel the same way as they…

    • 503 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    He continues to make a strong point of the suffering of God for us. Yet the question of what about those who the suffering in their lives are not turned to good remains. Perhaps God allows suffering because how one responds to suffering is a vital part of who they are. Suffering can reveal true character. It has the potential for great lessons to be learned yet also having the potential to destroy the person…

    • 596 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Eli Wiesel Night Analysis

    • 1452 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The religion I am going to talk about is the Jewish religion because they have a long history of suffering in our world. One of the greatest example of there culture suffering is during the Showa or the Holocaust. Throughout the book “Night” by Eli Wiesel you get a in-depth look on how the evil took a toll on the Jewish community. There are a couple of quotes I want to use because they kind of show how different people were dealing with the evil. The first quote is when he says “In front of us those flames.…

    • 1452 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    The extent in which humans are capable of suffering may not be within the limits of the right of God. The benefits in the end may be questionable and the control in which God has over the suffering he has allowed may also…

    • 1023 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    People believed that if they became ill, then it was because they angered the gods, so people began to search for earthly reasons from illness rather then divine ones. It had…

    • 1107 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    “Natural illnesses occur when a person fails to monitor or manipulate the bodily processes correctly” (Salimbene, 2000). One of the “natural” causes of illness is improper conduct. This is when a person becomes ill due to their wrong doings and many believe these illnesses can only be healed by prayer. Medical providers are seen as powerless since this illness is punishment from God.…

    • 2032 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Early Modern Medicine

    • 1680 Words
    • 7 Pages

    During this time, illness was viewed as an object that could be manipulated through various humoral-based treatments and mainly derived from the patient’s perspective. In Sir John Mordaunt’s letter…

    • 1680 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Great Essays

    Throughout the history the answer for this question of human suffering remained a mystery. With Adam and Eve sin and suffering entered into the world, and this evil is experienced by all human being. But now by Jesus Christ, the Son of God, human suffering takes the new dimension of redemptive meaning. Pope John Paul says, “One can say that with the Passion of Christ all human suffering has found itself in a new situation.”…

    • 2072 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Medieval Medicine Essay

    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Modern medicine has always been seen to be the only medicine that has ever worked to cure our illnesses. Medieval medicine has always been cast aside, but today historians are beginning to explore the early medieval understanding of health and medicine. In eighth and ninth century Anglo-Saxon England’s use of medicine are summarized in Life of St. Cuthbert by Bede, Bald’s Leechbook, and Herbarium by Pseudo-Apuleius. Through these texts we are able to see how early medieval people created and used concoctions that they believed cured the sick. Some of these methods of healing required rituals that were believed to help aid the recovery process of the sickened.…

    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    When analyzing suffering, we trace the circumstances back to their causes. In the hope that we look for the major causes of suffering, we often need look no further than ourselves. For one thing fair play is not simply a product of social consensus, but a divine…

    • 1316 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays