Nuer Time-Reckoning

Abstract

Opening ParagraphAll Europeans who have lived among the Nuer have, I suppose, found difficulty in discussing with them any matter involving an estimate of time. I do not refer to such a simple arrangement as meeting a Nuer at a certain hour on a certain day. The idiomatic technique necessary to effect a meeting is soon learnt, after a few disasters have taught one not to translate European time-reckoning too literally. I refer to conceptual differences more fundamental than those that give rise to such minor misunderstandings, for the Nuer have a different sense of time to ours.