The paradox of Nuer feud and the leopard‐skin chief: a “creative” solution to the prisoner's dilemma

Abstract

It is argued that the study of Nuer feud discloses an existential dilemma the universal aspect of which is suggested by its similarity to the so‐called prisoner's dilemma. However, out of keeping with the rationalist spirit in which the prisoner's dilemma is typically presented in Western academic discourse, the Nuer do not attempt to resolve their dilemma once and for all, but instead temporize it: through a creative (arational) move, representatively constituted by the figure of the leopard‐skin chief, the Nuer repeatedly put off the dilemma's stultifying implication. The creative twist of the Nuer solution is basically conditioned by the paradoxical constitution of Nuer “reality.” This constitution, in sharp contrast to our own considered ontology, makes logically possible movement between domains — spirit and matter — that appear to us to be perfectly separate and distinct. The resulting practice is what is called here the Nuer folk model. [Nuer feud, leopard‐skin chief, prisoner's dilemma, folk model, ontology, paradox, East Africa]