Anthro If Anna Tsing, author of In the Realm of the Diamond Queen, were to apply her methodologies, theories, and approaches to ethnography to the Nuer people, the result would be a far different book than E.E.E. Pritchard's (1969) The Nuer. Flipping the perspective would completely alter Tsing's goals in the research, and the view the researcher takes on what the appropriate role of the ethnographer is to provide context and meaning to the work. Both Tsing and Pritchard would remain concerned about issues like kinship, lineage, and basic socio-political structures. Both would also include explication of economic institutions and processes, and might mention gender roles, norms, and hierarchies, too. However, Tsing would bring multiple dimensions to the Nuer study that Pritchard misses. Tsing starts her analysis of the Meratus people by describing how they are perceived not by the foreign ethnographer, but by the modern nation-state in which they find themselves: Indonesia. Applying this initial point of reference to the Nuer would mean that Tsing would first place and describe the Nuer in terms of their being a part of Sudanese culture. Tsing would find ways of describing the role of the traditional cattle-based economy within the framework of globalization, and would show how colonialism, nationalism, urbanization, and population migration have all impacted the Nuer before devising methods of describing kinship and social organization. Tsing might say about the Nuer something similar to what the ethnographer starts to say about the Meratus, which is that the Nuer might find themselves in the position of complex negotiations with a nation-state establishment that does not recognize or acknowledge the legitimacy of alternative worldviews, social orders, or economic institutions.

Tsing could not ignore the issues of colonization and cultural hegemony that impact Nuer life. Like Pritchard, Tsing might choose to remain an observer...

Tsing would apply rich, layered feminist critical theory to the location of the Nuer within 20th century Sudanese society, discussing the means by which social relations may need to be re-negotiated. Rather than focus on the structures and lineages alone, though, Tsing would take into account other expressions of society and culture. Tsing might introduce storytelling, shamanic ritual, and non-linear methods of understanding the Nuer. Pritchard's photography provides one means by which to gather data, and Tsing would add to that by providing some surveys and interviews as well.
Working within the alternative framework of cultural relativity, Tsing would note the ways that acculturation to the dominant Sudanese societies were going to impact the worldview and individual self-concepts of the Nuer. The impact of globalization, oil, and other issues on Nuer economy would need to be addressed within a critical framework. And there would be express derision for systematic oppression. Just as the Meratus have been marginalized, so too were the Nuer, and Tsing would point out how ethnology does not describe a culture in a vacuum at one singular point in time. Rather, the ethnographer needs to consider a broader historical and socio-political framework. Issues related to power, subjugation, and legitimacy of authority need to be taken into account when addressing the tools and objectives of the anthropologist. Nuer women would also be re-located in the society, viewed not just in terms of their relationships with men but independently. This would require interviews, surveys, and potentially a shift into the participant-observer stance. However, Tsing would acknowledge the limitations of the participant-observer stance in offering anything approaching authenticity, as the observer changes that which is being observed.

Applying his traditional ethnographic methods to the…