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156-757: The Nuer people are a Nilotic ethnic group concentrated in the Greater Upper Nile region of South Sudan . They also live in the Ethiopian region of Gambella . The Nuer speak the Nuer language , which belongs to the Nilotic language family . They are the second-largest ethnic group in South Sudan and the largest ethnic group in Gambella, Ethiopia. The Nuer people are pastoralists who herd cattle for

312-437: A Darwinian evolution of institutions over time. Public choice theory , another branch of economics with a close relationship to political science, considers how government policy choices are made, and seeks to determine what the policy outputs are likely to be, given a particular political decision-making process and context. Credibility thesis purports that institutions emerge from intentional institution-building but never in

468-597: A White Army formed in 2011 to fight the Murle tribe (see 2011–2012 South Sudan tribal clashes ), as well as the Dinka and UNMISS . Cattle have historically been of the highest symbolic, religious and economic value to the Nuer. Sharon Hutchinson writes that "among Nuer people the difference between people and cattle was continually underplayed." Cattle are particularly important in their role as bride wealth, where they are given by

624-434: A bargain. Artificial implementation of institutional change has been tested in political development but can have unintended consequences. North, Wallis, and Weingast divide societies into different social orders: open access orders, which about a dozen developed countries fall into today, and limited access orders, which accounts for the rest of the countries. Open access orders and limited access orders differ fundamentally in

780-663: A central theme in most narratives recorded after the colonial period. One of the more famous accounts states: ... The Kalenjin originated from a country in the north known as Emet ab Burgei, which means, the warm country. The people are said to have traveled southwards passing through Mount Elgon or Tulwet ab Kony in Kalenjin. The Sabaot settled around the slopes of the mountain while the others travelled on in search of better land. The Keiyo and Marakwet settled in Kerio Valley and Cherangani Hills . The Pokot settled on

936-408: A cluster of institutions; the two are distinct in the sense that organizations contain internal institutions (that govern interactions between the members of the organizations). An informal institution tends to have socially shared rules, which are unwritten and yet are often known by all inhabitants of a certain country, as such they are often referred to as being an inherent part of the culture of

1092-522: A common ancestor around 28,000 years ago, perhaps somewhere in the Sahel . Most Nilotic peoples have predominant to exclusive West/East African ancestry, although some groups display varying degrees of West-Eurasian admixture, mostly mediated indirectly through pastoralists from the Horn of Africa. In 121 African populations, four African American populations, and 60 non-African populations, results indicated

1248-426: A country's constitution; or that they may evolve over time as societies evolve. In the case of institutional evolution, it is harder to see them since societal changes happen in a slow manner, despite the perception that institutional change is rapid. Furthermore, institutions change incrementally because of how embedded they are in society. North argues that the nature of these changes is complicated process because of

1404-407: A country. Legitimacy allows for there to be an incentive to comply with institutional rules and conditions, leading to a more effective institution. With political power, its centralization within a small group of individual leaders makes it easier and more effective to create rules and run an institution smoothly. However, it can be abused by individual leaders which is something that can contribute to

1560-403: A custom might call for each party to keep to their own right (or left—such a choice is arbitrary, it is only necessary that the choice be uniform and consistent). Such customs may be supposed to be the origin of rules, such as the rule, adopted in many countries, which requires driving automobiles on the right side of the road. Secondly, how do institutions affect behaviour? In this perspective,

1716-406: A given country. Informal practices are often referred to as "cultural", for example clientelism or corruption is sometimes stated as a part of the political culture in a certain place, but an informal institution itself is not cultural, it may be shaped by culture or behaviour of a given political landscape, but they should be looked at in the same way as formal institutions to understand their role in

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1872-404: A given country. The relationship between formal and informal institutions is often closely aligned and informal institutions step in to prop up inefficient institutions. However, because they do not have a centre, which directs and coordinates their actions, changing informal institutions is a slow and lengthy process. According to Geoffrey M. Hodgson , it is misleading to say that an institution

2028-434: A high degree of admixture occurred during the southward migration of southern Luo. Kalenjin groups and Maasai groups were found to have less Bantu ancestry, but significant Cushitic ancestry. Physically, Nilotes are noted for their typically very dark skin color and slender, and occasionally tall bodies. They often possess exceptionally long limbs, particularly their distal segments (fore arms, lower legs). This characteristic

2184-595: A high degree of mixed ancestry reflecting migration events. In East Africa, all population groups examined had elements of Nilotic, Cushitic and Bantu ancestry amongst others to varying degrees. By and large, genetic clusters were consistent with linguistic classification with notable exceptions including the Luo of Kenya. Despite being Nilo-Saharan speakers, the Luo cluster with the Niger-Kordofanian-speaking populations that surround them. This indicates

2340-460: A higher prestige. If one might have more than enough to provide for themselves then they also provide that to other kin that are in need, as it is a part of their role in kinship. Conflict over pastures and cattle raids have been happening between Nuer and Dinka as they battle for grazing ground for their animals. According to Jared Diamond , "...the Nuer observe few restrictions in their treatment of neighboring Dinka tribes: they regularly raid

2496-404: A husband's lineage to his wife's lineage. This exchange of cattle ensures that the children will be considered to belong to the husband's lineage. The classical Nuer institution of ghost marriage, in which a man can "father" children after his death, is based on this definition of relations of kinship and descent by cattle exchange. In their turn, cattle given over to the wife's patrilineage enable

2652-457: A living. Their cattle serve as companions and define their lifestyle. The Nuer call themselves " Naath ". The Nuer people have historically been undercounted because of the semi-nomadic lifestyle. They also have a culture of counting only older members of the family. For example, the Nuer believe that counting the number of cattle one has could result in misfortune and prefer to report fewer children than they have. Their South Sudan counterparts are

2808-411: A mental institution. To this extent, "institutionalization" may carry negative connotations regarding the treatment of, and damage caused to, vulnerable human beings by the oppressive or corrupt application of inflexible systems of social, medical, or legal controls by publicly owned, private or not-for-profit organizations. The term "institutionalization" may also be used in a political sense to apply to

2964-814: A mixed economy of cattle pastoralism, fishing, and seed cultivation. Some of the earliest archaeological findings on record, that describe a similar culture to this from the same region, are found at Kadero , 48 m north of Khartoum in Sudan and date to 3000 BC. Kadero contains the remains of a cattle pastoralist culture and a cemetery with skeletal remains featuring sub-Saharan African phenotypes. It also contains evidence of other animal domestication, artistry, long-distance trade, seed cultivation, and fish consumption. Genetic and linguistic studies have demonstrated that Nubian people in Northern Sudan and Southern Egypt are an admixed group that started off as

3120-540: A particular institutional arrangement. Other approaches see institutional development as the result of evolutionary or learning processes. For instance, Pavlović explores the way compliance and socio-economic conditions in a consolidated democratic state are important in the emergence of institutions and the compliance power they have for the rules imposed. In his work, he explains the difference between wealthy societies and non-wealthy societies; wealthy societies on one hand often have institutions that have been functioning for

3276-465: A particular time, culture and society, produced by collective human choice, though not directly by individual intention. Sociology traditionally analyzed social institutions in terms of interlocking social roles and expectations. Social institutions created and were composed of groups of roles, or expected behaviors. The social function of the institution was executed by the fulfillment of roles. Basic biological requirements, for reproduction and care of

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3432-446: A phenomenon called path dependence, which states that institutional patterns are persistent and endure over time. These paths are determined at critical junctures, analogous to a fork in the road, whose outcome leads to a narrowing of possible future outcomes. Once a choice is made during a critical juncture, it becomes progressively difficult to return to the initial point where the choice was made. James Mahoney studies path dependence in

3588-569: A place called Ramogi Hill, then expanded around northern Nyanza. The people of Owiny' ( Jok'Owiny ) and the people of Omolo ( Jok'Omolo ) followed soon after (1598-1625). A miscellaneous group composed of the Suba, Sakwa, Asembo, Uyoma, and Kano then followed. The Suba originally were Bantu-speaking people who assimilated into Luo culture. They fled from the Buganda Kingdom in Uganda after

3744-590: A population closely related to Nilotic people. This population later received significant gene flow from Middle Eastern and other East African populations. Nubians are considered to be descendants of the early inhabitants of the Nile valley who later formed the Kingdom of Kush , which included Kerma and Meroe and the medieval Christian kingdoms of Makuria , Nobatia , and Alodia . These studies suggest that populations closely related to Nilotic people long inhabited

3900-565: A prominent North African influence was noted. Haplogroup A was observed amongst 62% of Dinka, 53.3% of Shilluk, 46.4% of Nuba, 33.3% of Nuer, 31.3% of Fur , and 18.8% of Masalit . Haplogroup B was found in 50% of Nuer, 26.7% of Shilluk, 23% of Dinka, 14.3% of Nuba, 3.1% of Fur, and 3.1% of Masalit. The E1b1b clade was also observed in 71.9% of the Masalit, 59.4% of the Fur, 39.3% of the Nuba , 20% of

4056-417: A reflection, and departs together with the ox sacrificed, to the place of the ghosts.". In the 1940s, missionaries began to attempt to evangelize the Nuer. The book of Genesis was translated and published in 1954, with the whole New Testament following in 1968. By the 1970s, there were nearly 200 Nuer congregations established. However, reporting indicates that only around 1% of Nuer identify as Christian. In

4212-499: A snake. Garang, another deity, is believed or assumed by some Dinka to be a god suppressed by Deng. His spirits can cause most Dinka women, and some men, to scream. The term Jok refers to a group of ancestral spirits. In the Lotuko mythology , the chief God is called Ajok . He is generally seen as kind and benevolent, but can be angered. He once reportedly answered a woman's prayer for the resurrection of her son. Her husband, however,

4368-468: A society make also have lot to do in the survival and eventual evolution of an institution: they foster groups who want to maintain the set of rules of the game (as described by North), keeping a status quo impeding institutional change. People's interests play an important role in determining the direction of institutional change and emergence. Some scholars argue that institutions can emerge spontaneously without intent as individuals and groups converge on

4524-516: A study on the genetic clusters of various populations in Africa. According to the researchers, Nilotes generally form their own African genetic cluster, although relatively most closely related to other Nilo-Saharan populations, more distantly followed by Afro-Asiatic speakers and Niger-Congo speakers . The authors also found that certain Nilotic populations in the eastern Great Lakes region, such as

4680-584: A superficial form of Western government but with malfunctioning institutions. In a 2020 study, Johannes Gerschewski created a two-by-two typology of institutional change depending on the sources of change (exogenous or endogenous) and the time horizon of change (short or long). In another 2020 study, Erik Voeten created a two-by-two typology of institutional design depending on whether actors have full agency or are bound by structures, and whether institutional designs reflect historical processes or are optimal equilibriums. Institutions and economic development In

4836-405: A surplus, it is shared with neighbors. Amassing wealth is not an aim. Although a man who owns a large herd of cattle may be envied, his possession of numerous animals does not garner him any special privilege or treatment". In this tribe there is no special treatment for how one is treated because of their abundance in cattle. Just because one might have more cattle than another doesn't mean they have

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4992-441: A system of human-made, nonphysical elements – norms, beliefs, organizations, and rules – exogenous to each individual whose behavior it influences that generates behavioral regularities." Additionally, they specify that organizations "are institutional elements that influence the set of beliefs and norms that can be self-enforcing in the transaction under consideration. Rules are behavioral instructions that facilitate individuals with

5148-530: A system of rules that are complied with in practice and has a high risk of punishment. It is essential because it will create a slippery slope effect on most laws and transform the nature of once-effective institutions. Many may identify the creation of these formal institutions as a fitting way for agents to establish legitimacy in an international or domestic domain, a phenomenon identified by DiMaggio and Powell and Meyer and Rowan as "isomorphism" and that Levitsky and Murillo liken to window dressing. They describe

5304-549: A technology, institutions (in the form of law, policy, social regulations, or otherwise) can become locked into a society, which in turn can shape social or economic development. Arthur notes that although institutional lock-in can be predictable, it is often difficult to change once it is locked-in because of its deep roots in social and economic frameworks. Randall Calvert defines institution as "an equilibrium of behavior in an underlying game." This means that "it must be rational for nearly every individual to almost always adhere to

5460-707: A three-decade war with Sennar over control of the White Nile trade routes. The Cøllø allied with the Sultanate of Darfur and the Kingdom of Takali against the Funj, but the capitulation of Takali ended the war in the Funj's favour. In the later 17th century, the Cøllø and Funj allied against the Dinka, who rose to power in the border area between the Funj and Cøllø. The Cøllø political structure gradually centralized under

5616-462: A weak institution, actors cannot depend on one another to act according to the rules, which creates barriers to collective action and collaboration. Other social scientists have examined the concept of institutional lock-in. In an article entitled "Clio and the Economics of QWERTY" (1985), economist Paul A. David describes technological lock-in as the process by which a specific technology dominates

5772-643: A while, but also have a stable economy and economic development that has a direct effect in the society's democratic stability. He presents us with three scenarios in which institutions may thrive in poor societies with no democratic background. First, if electoral institutions guarantee multiple elections that are widely accepted; second, if military power is in evenly equilibrium; and third, if this institutions allow for different actors to come to power. Other scholars see institutions as being formed through social contracts or rational purposeful designs. Origin of institutional theory John Meyer and Brian Rowan were

5928-529: Is de facto (informal) institutions as opposed to de jure (formal) institutions in observing cross-country differences. For instance, Lars Feld and Stefan Voigt found that real GDP growth per capita is positively correlated with de facto , not de juri , institutions that are judicially independent. Scholars have also focused on the interaction between formal and informal institutions as well as how informal institutions may create incentives to comply with otherwise weak formal institutions. This departure from

6084-417: Is a balance between the mother and father's side that is acknowledged through particular formal occasions such as marriage. Nuer girls usually marry at 17 or 18. If a young girl gets engaged at an early age, the wedding and consummation ceremonies are essentially delayed. Women generally give birth to their first children when they are mature enough to bear them. As long as a girl marries a man with cattle, she

6240-449: Is a form of behavior. Instead, Hodgson states that institutions are "integrated systems of rules that structure social interactions." Examples of institutions include: In an extended context: While institutions tend to appear to people in society as part of the natural, unchanging landscape of their lives, the study of institutions by the social sciences tends to reveal the nature of institutions as social constructions , artifacts of

6396-495: Is a level of persistence and continuity. Laws, rules, social conventions and norms are all examples of institutions. Institutions vary in their level of formality and informality. Institutions are a principal object of study in social sciences such as political science , anthropology , economics , and sociology (the latter described by Émile Durkheim as the "science of institutions, their genesis and their functioning"). Primary or meta-institutions are institutions such as

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6552-970: Is a utilitarian argument that assumes institutions will evolve to maximize overall welfare for economic efficiency. Contrastingly, in Variation in Institutional Strength , Levitksy and Murillo acknowledge that some formal institutions are "born weak," and attribute this to the actors creating them. They argue that the strength of institutions relies on the enforcement of laws and stability, which many actors are either uninterested in or incapable of supporting. Similarly, Brian Arthur refers to these factors as properties of non-predictability and potential inefficiency in matters where increasing returns occur naturally in economics. According to Mansfield and Snyder, many transitional democracies lack state institutions that are strong and coherent enough to regulate mass political competition. According to Huntington,

6708-404: Is able to freely choose her husband, however her parents may choose a spouse for her. Kinship among the Nuer is very important to them, they refer to their blood relatives as "gol". Kinship within the Nuer is formed off of one's neighbors or their entire culture. During E. E. Evans-Pritchard 's ethnographic observation, he described the role of kinship as: "Kinship obligations include caring for

6864-470: Is eaten". Many times it may not even just be cattle that they consume, it could be any animal they have scavenged upon that has died because of natural causes. There are a few other food sources that are available for the Nuer to consume. The Nuer diet primarily consists of fish and millet. "Their staple crop is millet." Millet is formally consumed as porridge or beer. The Nuer turn to this staple product in seasons of rainfall when they move their cattle up to

7020-545: Is further exemplified in personal names." They form their children's names from the biological features of the cattle. Evans-Pritchard wrote, "I have already indicated that this obsession—for such it seems to an outsider is due not only to the great economic value of cattle but also to the fact that they are links in numerous social relationships." All their raw materials come from cattle, including drums, rugs, clothing, spears, shields, containers, and leather goods. Even daily essentials like toothpaste and mouthwash are created from

7176-432: Is important to understand what drives institutional change. Acemoglu, Johnson and Robinson assert that institutional change is endogenous. They posit a framework for institutional change that is rooted in the distribution of resources across society and preexisting political institutions. These two factors determine de jure and de facto political power, respectively, which in turn defines this period's economic institutions and

7332-619: Is indicative of substantial historic gene flow from Cushitic-speaking males into these Nilo-Saharan-speaking populations. 67% of the Alur samples possessed the E2 haplogroup . The Y-DNA of populations in the Sudan region were studied, with various local Nilotic groups included for comparison. The signature Nilotic A and B clades were the most common paternal lineages amongst the Nilo-Saharan speakers, except those inhabiting western Sudan . There,

7488-547: Is provided by Jack Knight who defines institutions as entailing "a set of rules that structure social interactions in particular ways" and that "knowledge of these rules must be shared by the members of the relevant community or society." Definitions by Knight and Randall Calvert exclude purely private idiosyncrasies and conventions. Douglass North argues that institutions are "humanly devised constraints that shape interaction". According to North, they are critical determinants of economic performance, having profound effects on

7644-505: Is the God of the sky and rain, and the ruler of all the spirits. He is believed to be present in all of creation, and to control the destiny of every human, plant, and animal on Earth. Nhialic is also known as Jaak, Juong, or Dyokin by other Nilotic groups, such as the Nuer and Shilluk. Dengdit or Deng, is the sky God of rain and fertility, empowered by Nhialic. Deng's mother is Abuk , the patron goddess of gardening and all women, represented by

7800-443: Is the mimetic process where organizations adopt other organizations' practices to resolve internal uncertainty about their own actions or strategy. Lastly, it is the normative pressure where organizations adopt changes related to the professional environment like corporate changes or cultural changes in order to be consistent. In order to understand why some institutions persist and other institutions only appear in certain contexts, it

7956-465: Is the spirit of the sky or the spirit who is in the sky" Kuoth Nhial" (God in Heaven) the creator, but Nuer believe in the coming of God through rain, lightning and thunder, and that the rainbow is the necklace of God. The sun and the moon as well as other material entities are also manifestation or sign of God, who after all is a spirit. The spirits of the air above are believed to be the most powerful of

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8112-596: Is thought to be a climatic adaptation to allow their bodies to shed heat more efficiently. Sudanese Nilotes are regarded as one of the tallest peoples in the world. Average values of 182.6 cm (5 ft 11.9 in) for height and 58.8 kg (130 lb; 9 st 4 lb) for weight were seen in a sample of Sudanese Shilluk. Another sample of Sudanese Dinka had a stature/weight ratio of 181.9 cm (5 ft 11.6 in) and 58.0 kg (127.9 lb; 9 st 1.9 lb), with an extremely ectomorphic somatotype of 1.6–3.5–6.2. In terms of facial features,

8268-687: The African Great Lakes region around the East African Rift . They make up a notable part of the population of North eastern Democratic Republic of Congo as well. Nilotic people numbered 50 million in the 21st century. The Nilotic people primarily adhere to Christianity and traditional beliefs , with the majority of them being Christians . A small minority of Nilotes practice the religion of Islam . The terms "Nilotic" and "Nilote"' were previously used as racial subclassifications, based on anthropological observations of

8424-655: The Cournot duopoly model is based on an institution involving an auctioneer who sells all goods at the market-clearing price. While it is always possible to analyze behaviour with the institutions-as-equilibria approach instead, it is much more complicated. In political science , the effect of institutions on behavior has also been considered from a meme perspective, like game theory borrowed from biology. A "memetic institutionalism" has been proposed, suggesting that institutions provide selection environments for political action, whereby differentiated retention arises and thereby

8580-945: The South Sudan and the East Africa who speak the Nilotic languages . They inhabit South Sudan and the Gambella region of Ethiopia , while also being a large minority in Kenya , Uganda , the north eastern border area of Democratic Republic of the Congo , and Tanzania . The Nilotic peoples comprise of the Dinka , the Nuer , the Shilluk , the Luo peoples ,the Alur , the Anuak , Ateker peoples , Kalenjin peoples , Karamojong people also known as

8736-507: The Sudd marshlands, which protected them from outside interference, and allowed them to remain secure without a large armed forces. The Shilluk, Azande, and Bari people had more regular conflicts with neighbouring states Most Nilotes continue to practice pastoralism, migrating on a seasonal basis with their herds of livestock. Some tribes are also known for a tradition of cattle raiding . Through lengthy interaction with neighbouring peoples,

8892-605: The family or money that are broad enough to encompass sets of related institutions. Institutions are also a central concern for law , the formal mechanism for political rule-making and enforcement. Historians study and document the founding, growth, decay and development of institutions as part of political, economic and cultural history. There are a variety of definitions of the term institution . These definitions entail varying levels of formality and organizational complexity. The most expansive definitions may include informal but regularized practices, such as handshakes, whereas

9048-472: The "lock-in" phenomenon in which adds a lot of value to a piece of technology that is used by many people. It is important for policymakers and people of higher levels within an institution to consider when looking at products that have a long term impact on markets and economic developments and stability. For example, recently the EU has banned TikTok from official devices across all three government institutions. This

9204-546: The 17th century had a population density similar to that of the Egyptian Nile lands. One theory is that pressure from the Cøllø drove the Funj people north, who would establish the Sultanate of Sennar . The Dinka remained in the Sudd area, maintaining their transhumance economy. While the Dinka were protected and isolated from their neighbours, the Cøllø were more involved in international affairs. The Cøllø controlled

9360-462: The 1990s, Sharon Hutchinson returned to Nuerland to update E.E. Evans-Pritchard's account. She found that the Nuer had placed strict limits on the convertibility of money and cattle in order to preserve the special status of cattle as objects of bride wealth exchange and as mediators to the divine. She also found that as a result of endemic warfare with the Sudanese state , guns had acquired much of

9516-502: The 19th century greatly halted the Nuers' aggressive territorial expansion against the Dinka and Anyuak. There are different accounts of the origin of the conflict between the Nuer and the Dinka, South Sudan's two largest ethnic groups. Anthropologist Peter J. Newcomer suggests that the Nuer and Dinka are actually similar. He argues that hundreds of years of population growth created expansion, which eventually led to raids and wars. In 2006

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9672-533: The Arabs, the South Sudanese may have obtained new breeds of humpless cattle. Archaeologist Roland Oliver notes that the period also shows an Iron Age beginning among the Nilotic. These factors may explain how the Nilotic speakers expanded to dominate the region. By the 16th century, the most powerful group among the Nilotic speakers were the Cøllø, called Shilluk by Arabs and Europeans, who spread east to

9828-473: The Central American countries. Though institutions are persistent, North states that paths can change course when external forces weaken the power of an existing organization. This allows other entrepreneurs to affect change in the institutional framework. This change can also occur as a result of gridlock between political actors produced by a lack of mediating institutions and an inability to reach

9984-517: The Dinka, steal Dinka livestock, kill Dinka men, and take home some Dinka women and children as captives while killing the others. But Nuer hostilities against other Nuer tribes consist only of sporadic cattle raids, killing of just a few men, and no killing or kidnapping of women and children." E. E. Evans-Pritchard studied the Nuer and made very detailed accounts of his interactions. He also describes Nuer cosmology and religion in his books. Nuer Online indicates that, "Nuer (Nuäär) believes that God

10140-585: The Horn peninsula's westernmost Horners. The Nuer people are said to have originally been a section of the Dinka people that migrated out of the Gezira south into a barren dry land that they called "Kwer Kwong", which was in southern Kordofan . Centuries of isolation and influence from Luo peoples caused them to be a distinct ethnic group from the Naath. The arrival of the Baggara and their subsequent slave raids in

10296-607: The Japanese people and government. Under this analysis, says Ian Lustick, Japan was stuck on a "local maxima", which it arrived at through gradual increases in its fitness level, set by the economic landscape of the 1970s and 80s. Without an accompanying change in institutional flexibility, Japan was unable to adapt to changing conditions, and even though experts may have known which changes the country needed, they would have been virtually powerless to enact those changes without instituting unpopular policies that would have been harmful in

10452-555: The Karamojong or Karimojong, Chaga people , Ngasa people , Datooga , Samburu ,and the Maa-speaking peoples . The Nilotes constitute the majority of the population in South Sudan while constituting as a substantional minority in the countries of Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. South Sudan is the area that is believed to be their original point of dispersal, they constitute the second-most numerous group of peoples inhabiting

10608-743: The Kipsigis and the Lembus Nandi moved to Rongai area. The Kipsigis and Nandi are said to have lived as a united group for a long time but eventually were forced to separate due to antagonistic environmental factors. Some of these were droughts and invasion of the Maasai from Uasin Gishu. Geographical barriers protected the southerners from Islam's advance, enabling them to retain their social and cultural heritage and their political and religious institutions. The Dinka people were especially secure in

10764-588: The Maasai, showed some additional Afro-Asiatic affinities due to repeated assimilation of Cushitic-speaking peoples over the past 5000 or so years. Overall, Nilotic people and other Nilo-Saharan groups are closely related to Afro-Asiatic speakers of North and East Africa. Both groups are inferred to have diverged from a common ancestor around 16,000 years ago. Nilotic people and other Nilo-Saharan groups are also closely related to Niger-Congo speakers of West and Central Africa. Both groups are inferred to have diverged from

10920-550: The Nandi tribe, came from a wide array of Kalenjin-speaking areas. Apparently, spatial core areas existed to which people moved and concentrated over the centuries, and in the process evolved into the individual Kalenjin communities known today by adopting migrants and assimilating original inhabitants. For various reasons, slow and multigenerational migrations of Nilotic Luo peoples occurred from South Sudan into Uganda and western Kenya from at least 1000 AD, and continuing until

11076-576: The Nile Valley as far as southern Egypt in antiquity. Language evidence indicates an initial southward expansion out of the Nilotic nursery into far southern Sudan beginning in the second millennium BC, the Southern Nilotic communities that participated in this expansion eventually reached western Kenya between 1000 and 500 BC. Their arrival occurred shortly before the introduction of iron to East Africa. Linguistic studies indicate that

11232-461: The Nilotes are often subdivided into three general groups: A proto-Nilotic unity, separate from an earlier undifferentiated Eastern Sudanic unity, is assumed to have emerged by the third millennium BC. The development of the proto-Nilotes as a group may have been connected with their domestication of livestock . The Eastern Sudanic unity must have been considerably earlier still, perhaps around

11388-461: The Nilotes in East Africa have adopted many customs and practices from Southern Cushitic groups. The latter include the age set system of social organization, circumcision , and vocabulary terms. In terms of religious beliefs, Nilotes primarily adhere to traditional faiths, Christianity and Islam. The Dinka religion has a pantheon of deities. The Supreme, Creator God is Nhialic , who

11544-582: The Nubian Nile Valley. This interaction suggests that communities in the Lower Wadi Howar were actively engaged in trade networks, exchanging livestock and resources with these established cultures, thus integrating into the broader economic and cultural landscape of ancient Nubia. The evidence of cattle burials and the presence of pottery designs reflect a synthesis of local traditions and influences from neighboring cultures, highlighting

11700-463: The Nuer and Murle were the tribes that resisted disarmament most strongly ; members of the Nuer White Army , a group of armed youths often autonomous from tribal elders' authority, refused to lay down their weapons, which led SPLA soldiers to confiscate Nuer cattle, destroying their economy. The White Army was finally put down in mid-2006, though a successor organization self-styling itself as

11856-568: The Nuer move around to ensure that their livelihood is safe. They tend to travel when heavy seasons of rainfall come to protect the cattle from hoof disease, and when resources for the cattle are scarce. British anthropologist E. E. Evans-Pritchard wrote, "They depend on the herds for their very existence...Cattle are the thread that runs through Nuer institutions , language , rites of passage , politics , economy , and allegiances ." The Nuer are able to structure their entire culture around cattle and still have what they need. Before development,

12012-623: The Nuer tribe include beef, goat, cow's milk, mangos , and sorghum in one of three forms: "ko̱p" finely ground, handled until balled and boiled, "walwal" ground, lightly balled and boiled to a solid porridge, and injera / Yɔtyɔt , a large, pancake-like yeast -risen flatbread . In the early 1990s about 25,000 African refugees were resettled in the United States throughout different locations such as South Dakota, Tennessee and Minnesota. In particular, 4,288 refugees from Sudan were resettled among 36 different states between 1990 and 1997 with

12168-560: The Nuer used every single piece of cattle to their advantage. According to Evans-Pritchard, cattle helped evolve the Nuer culture into what it is today. They shaped the Nuer's daily duties, as they dedicate themselves to protecting the cattle. For example, each month they blow air into their cattle's rectums to relieve or prevent constipation. Cattle are no good to the Nuer if constipated because they are restricted from producing primary resources that families need to survive. Evans-Pritchard wrote, "The importance of cattle in Nuer life and thought

12324-734: The Sahara around 6,000–8,000 years ago". Similarly, Afro-Asiatic influence was seen in the Nilotic Datog of northern Tanzania, 43% of whom carried the M293 subclade of E1b1b. Unlike the paternal DNA of Nilotes, the maternal lineages of Nilotes in general show low-to-negligible amounts of Afro-Asiatic and other extraneous influences. An mtDNA study examined the maternal ancestry of various Nilotic populations in Kenya, with Turkana, Samburu, Maasai, and Luo individuals sampled. The mtDNA of almost all of

12480-531: The Shilluk, 16.7% of the Nuer, and 15% of the Dinka. The atypically high frequencies of the haplogroup in the Masalit was attributed to either a recent population bottleneck , which likely altered the community's original haplogroup diversity, or to geographical proximity to E1b1b's place of origin in North Africa. The clade "might have been brought to Sudan [...] after the progressive desertification of

12636-537: The Sudanese Nilotic peoples are the Dinka , who have as many as 25 ethnic subdivisions. The next-largest groups are the Nuer , followed by the Shilluk . Nilotic people in Uganda includes the Luo peoples ( Acholi , Alur , Adhola ), the Ateker peoples ( Iteso , Kumam , Karamojong , Lango people who despite speaking a mixture of Luo words, have Atekere origins, Sebei , and Kakwa ). In East Africa,

12792-464: The Tugen first settled in small clan groups, fleeing from war, famine, and disease, and that they arrived from western, eastern, and northern sections. Even a section among the Tugen claims to have come from Mount Kenya. The Nandi account on the settlement of Nandi displays a similar manner of occupation of the Nandi territory. The Kalenjin clans who moved into and occupied the Nandi area, thus becoming

12948-624: The United States. Furthermore, Nuer in the United States observe family obligations by sending money for those still in Africa. Some important Nuer politicians were, Böth Diew who was the first Nuer, and South Sudan Politician from 1947 followed by Gai Tut. In the Military is Bol Nyawan who fought against the Khartoum government in Bentiu ; he was killed in 1985 by the current president of Sudan. Commander Ruai and Liah Diu Deng were responsible for

13104-477: The a king or reth . The most important is Rädh Tugø (son of Rädh Dhøköödhø) who ruled from circa 1690 to 1710 and established the Cøllø capital of Fashoda . The same period had the gradual collapse of the Funj sultanate, leaving the Cøllø in complete control of the White Nile and its trade routes. The Cøllø military power was based on control of the river. Starting in the mid-19th century, European anthropologists and later Kenyan historians have been interested in

13260-400: The ability to cause change over a long period of time. For example, Levitsky and Murillo stress the importance of institutional strength in their article "Variation in Institutional Strength." They suggest that in order for an institution to maintain strength and resistance there must be legitimacy within the different political regimes, variation in political power, and political autonomy within

13416-440: The amount of freedom of a society, or the quality of life of the individuals within. The term "institutionalization" is widely used in social theory to refer to the process of embedding something (for example a concept, a social role, a particular value or mode of behavior) within an organization, social system, or society as a whole. The term may also be used to refer to committing a particular individual to an institution, such as

13572-603: The ancestors of the Nilotic peoples resided further north than their present locations. Archaeological evidence from sites in the Lower Wadi Howar reveals the presence of groups that are likely ancestral to both modern Nilotic speakers and Eastern Sudanic speakers as a whole. Scholars argue that these ancestors inhabited the Lower Wadi Howar region. The archaeological findings in the Lower Wadi Howar reveal significant evidence of cultural continuity and interaction with ancient Nubian cultures, particularly through

13728-467: The association with the herringbone culture. As aridity increased during the fourth millennium BCE, the importance of cattle in the economic and social life of the region grew, leading to the emergence of distinct cultural practices, including the adoption of pottery styles characterized by incised herringbone patterns. These patterns indicate strong contact with the A-Group and pre-Kerma cultures along

13884-416: The attack that forced Chevron to suspend activities in the oil field around 1982. Most Nuer people are nicknamed after their cattle. The boys usually chose the name of their favorite cattle based on the form and color of the ox. The girls are named after the cows that they milk. Sometimes the cow names are passed down. Oil exploration and drilling began in 1975 and 1976 by companies such as Chevron. In 1979

14040-448: The banks of the white Nile under the legendary leadership of Nyikang, who is said to have ruled Läg Cøllø c from around 1490 to 1517. The Cøllø gained control of the west bank of the river as far north as Kosti in Sudan. There they established an economy based on cattle raising, cereal farming, and fishing, with small villages located along the length of the river. The Cøllø developed an intensive system of agriculture. The Cøllø lands in

14196-443: The behavior prescriptions of the institution, given that nearly all other individuals are doing so." Robert Keohane defined institutions as "persistent and connected sets of rules (formal or informal) that prescribe behavioral roles, constrain activity, and shape expectations." Samuel P. Huntington defined institutions as "stable, valued, recurring patterns of behavior." Avner Greif and David Laitin define institutions "as

14352-421: The benefits they can derive from the change. North describes the institutional change as a process that is extremely incremental, and that works through both formal and informal institutions. North also proposes that institutional change, inefficiencies, and economic stagnation can be attributed to the differences between institutions and organizations. This is because organizations are created to take advantage of

14508-505: The cattle that are up in age or dying because of sickness. But even if they do so, they all gather together to perform rituals, dances, or songs before and after they slaughter the cattle. Never do they just kill cattle for the fun of it. "Never do Nuer slaughter animals solely because of the desire to eat meat. There is the danger of the ox’s spirit visiting a curse on any individual who would slaughter it without ritual intent, aiming only to use it for food. Any animal that dies of natural causes

14664-415: The cattle's dung and urine. The dung is chopped into pieces and left out to harden, then used for containers, toothpaste, or even to protect the cattle themselves by burning it to produce more smoke, keeping insects away to prevent disease. The Nuer people never eat cattle just because they want to. Cattle are very sacred to them, therefore when they do eat cattle they honor its ghost. They typically just eat

14820-430: The changes in rules, informal constraints, and the effectiveness of enforcement of these institutions. Levitsky and Murillo explore the way institutions are created. When it comes to institutional design, the timeframe in which these institutions are created by different actors may affect the stability the institution will have on society, because in these cases the actors may have more (or less) time to fully calculate

14976-413: The children of one’s kin and neighbors. He also observed that, "The network of kinship ties which links members of local communities is brought about by the operation of exogamous rules, often stated in terms of cattle." This is never thought to be the sole responsibility of the child's parents." Cattle are judged by how much milk they can produce which is a necessity in their culture. If possible they create

15132-561: The civil strife that followed the murder of the 24th Kabaka of Buganda in the mid-18th century and settled in South Nyanza , especially at Rusinga and Mfangano islands. Luo speakers crossed Winam Gulf of Lake Victoria from northern Nyanza into South Nyanza starting in the early 17th century. Several historical narratives from the various Kalenjin subtribes point to Tulwetab/Tulwop Kony ( Mount Elgon ) as their original point of settlement in Kenya. This point of origin appears as

15288-420: The cognitive task of choosing behavior by defining the situation and coordinating behavior." All definitions of institutions generally entail that there is a level of persistence and continuity. Laws, rules, social conventions and norms are all examples of institutions. Organizations and institutions can be synonymous, but Jack Knight writes that organizations are a narrow version of institutions or represent

15444-404: The concept of a fitness landscape and local maxima only makes sense if one institution can be said to be "better" than another, and this in turn only makes sense insofar as there exists some objective measure of an institution's quality. This may be relatively simple in evaluating the economic prosperity of a society, for example, but it is difficult to see how objectively a measure can be applied to

15600-502: The context of institutions and how they are formed, North suggests that institutions ultimately work to provide social structure in society and to incentivize individuals who abide by this structure. North explains that there is in fact a difference between institutions and organizations and that organizations are "groups of people bound by some common purpose to achieve objectives." Additionally, because institutions serve as an umbrella for smaller groups such as organizations, North discusses

15756-495: The context of national regime change in Central America and finds that liberal policy choices of Central American leaders in the 19th century was the critical juncture that led to the divergent levels of development that we see in these countries today. The policy choices that leaders made in the context of liberal reform policy led to a variety of self-reinforcing institutions that created divergent development outcomes for

15912-671: The costs of exchange and production. He emphasizes that small historical and cultural features can drastically change the nature of an institution. Daron Acemoglu , Simon Johnson , and James A. Robinson agree with the analysis presented by North. They write that institutions play a crucial role in the trajectory of economic growth because economic institutions shape the opportunities and constraints of investment. Economic incentives also shape political behavior, as certain groups receive more advantages from economic outcomes than others, which allow them to gain political control. A separate paper by Acemoglu, Robinson, and Francisco A. Gallego details

16068-451: The countries with ineffective or weak institutions often have a gap between high levels of political participation and weak political institutions, which may provoke nationalism in democratizing countries. Regardless of whether the lack of enforcement and stability in institutions is intentional or not, weakly enforced institutions can create lasting ripples in a society and their way of functioning. Good enforcement of laws can be classified as

16224-430: The developing world institutions as "window-dressing institutions" that "are often a response to international demands or expectations." It also provides an effective metaphor for something that power holders have an interest in keeping on the books, but no interest in enforcing. The dependence developing countries have on international assistance for loans or political power creates incentives for state elites to establish

16380-485: The dynamic relationships that existed during this period of transformation and trade. The Nilotic expansion from Central regions of the Sudan like the Gezira into the rest of South Sudan seems to have begun between the 5th-11th centuries. Some of these kater migratiobs coincided with the collapse of the Christian Nubian kingdoms of Makuria and Alodia and the penetration of Arab traders into central Sudan. From

16536-618: The early 2000s. The struggle for oil production was not only manifested in north–south fight, but also in Nuer-Dinka and many internal conflicts among Nuer. As part of Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA), 50 percent of net revenues of southern oil fields were given to the government of southern Sudan as a solution to one of the sources of decades of civil conflict. • Katarzyna Grabska 2014 " Gender, identity home: Nuer repatriation to Southern Sudan ," James Currey: Oxford. Nilotic peoples The Nilotic people are people indigenous to

16692-447: The early 20th century. Oral history and genealogical evidence have been used to estimate timelines of Luo expansion into and within Kenya and Tanzania. Four major waves of migrations into the former Nyanza province in Kenya are discernible starting with the people of Jok ( Joka Jok ), which is estimated to have begun around 1490–1517. Joka Jok were the first and largest wave of migrants into northern Nyanza. These migrants settled at

16848-438: The excess of milk into cheese. But if a family’s herd cannot produce the amount of milk a family needs then they turn to others around them to give them what they need. It’s seen as their responsibility to step in and help the family since it’s not really their fault on how much their cattle can produce. The entire Nuer society is basically watching after each other, for example, as Evans-Pritchard noted that, "When one household has

17004-591: The extent that they are associated with changes in institutions. In European history, particular significance is attached to the long transition from the feudal institutions of the Middle Ages to the modern institutions, which govern contemporary life. Scholars have proposed different approaches to the emergence of institutions, such as spontaneous emergence, evolution and social contracts. In Institutions: Institutional Change and Economic Performance , Douglas North argues that institutions may be created, such as

17160-456: The faults of these policies. As an example, Lustick cites Amyx's analysis of the gradual rise of the Japanese economy and its seemingly sudden reversal in the so-called "Lost Decade" . According to Amyx, Japanese experts were not unaware of the possible causes of Japan's economic decline. Rather, to return Japan's economy back to the path to economic prosperity, policymakers would have had to adopt policies that would first cause short-term harm to

17316-486: The fifth millennium BC. The proposed Nilo-Saharan unity would date to the Upper Paleolithic about 15 thousand years ago. The original locus of the early Nilotic speakers was presumably east of the Nile in what is now South Sudan. The Proto-Nilotes of the third millennium BC were pastoralists , while their neighbors, the proto- Central Sudanic peoples, were mostly agriculturalists. Nilotic people practised

17472-477: The first oil production took place in the southern regions of Darfur. In the early 1980s when the north–south war was happening, Chevron was interested in the reserves in the south. In 1984 guerrillas of SPLA (Sudan People's Liberation Army) attacked the drilling site of the north at Bentiu. In return, Chevron cleared Nuer and Dinka people in the oil fields area to ensure security for their operations. The Nuer-Dinka struggle in oil fields continued in late 1990s into

17628-626: The first scholars to introduce institutional theory to inspect how organizations are shaped by their social and political environments and how they evolve in different ways. Other scholars like Paul DiMaggio and Walter Powell proposed one of the forms of institutional change shortly after: institutional isomorphism. There were three main proposals. The first one is the coercive process where organizations adopt changes consistent with their larger institution due to pressures from other organizations which they might depend on or be regulated by. Such examples include state mandates or supplier demands. The second one

17784-559: The focus is on behaviour arising from a given set of institutional rules. In these models, institutions determine the rules (i.e. strategy sets and utility functions) of games, rather than arise as equilibria out of games. Douglass North argues, the very emergence of an institution reflects behavioral adaptations through his application of increasing returns . Over time institutions develop rules that incentivize certain behaviors over others because they present less risk or induce lower cost, and establish path dependent outcomes. For example,

17940-469: The forehead with a razor, often with a dip in the lines above the nose. Dotted patterns are also common (especially among the Bul Nuer and among females). Some Nuer have begun practicing circumcision after being assimilated or partially assimilated in other ethnic groups. The Nuer are not historically known to circumcise, but sometimes circumcise people who have engaged in incest. Typical foods eaten by

18096-435: The formation of smaller groups with other goals and objectives is crucial for an institution's survival. Additionally, technological developments are important in the economic development of an institution. As detailed by Brian Arthur in "Competing Technologies, Increasing Returns, and Lock-in by Historical Events", technological advancements play a crucial role in shaping the economic stability of an institution. He talks about

18252-424: The higher ground. They might also turn to millet when the cattle are performing well enough to support their family. To a Nuer individual, his parents and siblings are not considered mar (blood relatives) kin. He doesn't refer to them as kin. To him they are considered gol which is far more intimate and significant. There are kinship categories in the Nuer society. Those categories depend on the payment to them. There

18408-519: The highest number in Texas at 17 percent of the refugee population from Sudan. The Nuer refugees in the United States and those in Africa continue to observe their social obligations to one another. They use different means ranging from letters to new technologically advanced communication methods in order to stay connected to their families in Africa. Nuer in the United States provide assistance for family members' paperwork to help their migration process to

18564-461: The impact of institutional change and the ways in which it can cause economic performance to decline or become better depending on the occurrence. This is known as "path dependence" which North explains is the idea of historical and cultural events impacting the development of institutions over time. Even though North argues that institutions due to their structure do not possess the ability to change drastically, path dependence and small differences have

18720-473: The impact of institutions on economic development in various countries, concluding that institutions in prosperous countries like the United States induced a net increase in productivity, whereas institutions in Third World countries caused a net decrease. Scholars of this period assumed that "parchment institutions" that were codified as law would largely guide the behavior of individuals as intended. On

18876-495: The impacts the institution in question will have, the way the new rules affect people's interests and their own, and the consequences of the creation of a new institution will have in society. Scholars like Christopher Kingston and Gonzalo Caballero also pose the importance of gradual societal change in the emergence of brand new institutions: these changes will determine which institutions will be successful in surviving, spreading, and becoming successful. The decisions actors within

19032-528: The importance of institutional strength can be found in Lacatus' essay on national human rights institutions in Europe, where she states that "As countries become members of GANHRI, their NHRIs are more likely to become stronger over time and show a general pattern of isomorphism regarding stronger safeguards for durability." This demonstrates that institutions running independently and further creating spaces for

19188-503: The inability of institutions to adapt as a symptom of being stuck on a local maxima within a fitness landscape does nothing to solve the problem. At the very least, however, it might add credibility to the idea that truly beneficial change might require short-term harm to institutions and their members. David Sloan Wilson notes that Lustick needs to more carefully distinguish between two concepts: multilevel selection theory and evolution on multi-peaked landscapes. Bradley Thayer points out that

19344-503: The individual actors within an institution. This can also be seen in the recent issue with Silvergate and money being moved to crypto exchanges under the SEN Platform institution, which has led the bank to "delay the filing of its annual report due to questions from its auditors." Additionally, they lost many crypto clients the next day allowing the bank's stock price to fall by 60% before it stabilized again. These examples demonstrate

19500-407: The individual liberty of a truly free society. Economics , in recent years, has used game theory to study institutions from two perspectives. Firstly, how do institutions survive and evolve? In this perspective, institutions arise from Nash equilibria of games. For example, whenever people pass each other in a corridor or thoroughfare, there is a need for customs, which avoid collisions. Such

19656-411: The institution to improve any further, it would first need to decrease its overall fitness score (e.g., adopt policies that may cause short-term harm to the institution's members). The tendency to get stuck on local maxima can explain why certain types of institutions may continue to have policies that are harmful to its members or to the institution itself, even when members and leadership are all aware of

19812-410: The late 1700s caused the Nuer to migrate from southern Kordofan into what is now Bentiu . In around 1850, further slave raids as well as flooding and overpopulation caused them to migrate even further out of Bentiu and eastwards all the way into the western fringes of Ethiopia , displacing and absorbing many Dinka, Anyuak and Burun in the process. British colonial expansion in the region during

19968-407: The lesser spirits, while there are also spirits associated with clan-spears names such as WiW, a spirit of war, associated with thunder. Nuer believe that when a man or a woman dies, the flesh, the life and the soul separate. The flesh is committed to the earth, while the breath or life goes back to God (Kuoth). The soul that signifies the human individuality and personality remains alive as a shadow or

20124-593: The male children of that patrilineage to marry and thereby ensure the continuity of her patrilineage. An infertile woman can even take a wife of her own, whose children, biologically fathered by men from other unions, then become members of her patrilineage, and she is legally and culturally their father, allowing her to metaphorically participate in reproduction. Nuer life revolves around cattle , which has made them pastoralist , but they are known to sometimes resort to horticulture as well, especially when their cattle are threatened by disease. Due to seasonal harsh weather,

20280-404: The market, even when the technology is not the most efficient of the ones available. He proceeds to explain that lock-in is a result of path-dependence, where the early choice of technology in a market forces other actors to choose that technology regardless of their natural preferences, causing that technology to "lock-in". Economist W. Brian Arthur applied David's theories to institutions. As with

20436-441: The most narrow definitions may only include institutions that are highly formalized (e.g. have specified laws, rules and complex organizational structures). According to Wolfgang Streeck and Kathleen Thelen , institutions are, in the most general sense, "building blocks of social order: they represent socially sanctioned, that is, collectively enforced expectations with respect to the behavior of specific categories of actors or to

20592-500: The nasal profile most common amongst Nilotic populations is broad, with characteristically high index values ranging from 86.9 to 92.0. Lower nasal indices are often found amongst Nilotes who inhabit the more southerly Great Lakes region, such as the Maasai, which is attributed to genetic differences. Institution An institution is a humanly devised structure of rules and norms that shape and constrain social behavior. All definitions of institutions generally entail that there

20748-426: The next period's political institutions. Finally, the current economic institutions determine next period's distribution of resources and the cycle repeats. Douglass North attributes institutional change to the work of "political entrepreneurs", who see personal opportunities to be derived from a changed institutional framework. These entrepreneurs weigh the expected costs of altering the institutional framework against

20904-534: The northern side of Mount Elgon and later spread to areas north of Lake Baringo. At Lake Baringo , the Tugen separated from the Nandi and the Kipsigis. This was during a famine known as Kemeutab Reresik, which means, famine of the bats. It is said that during this famine a bat brought blades of green grass which was taken as a sign of good omen signifying that famine could be averted through movement to greener pastures. The Tugen moved and settled around Tugen Hills while

21060-638: The opportunities created by institutions and, as organizations evolve, these institutions are then altered. Overall, according to North, this institutional change would then be shaped by a lock-in symbiotic relationship between institutions and organizations and a feedback process by which the people in a society may perceive and react to these changes. Lipscomb argues that patterns of institutional change vary according to underlying characteristics of issue areas, such as network effects. North also offers an efficiency hypothesis, stating that relative price changes create incentives to create more efficient institutions. It

21216-404: The originally intended form. Instead, institutional development is endogenous and spontaneously ordered and institutional persistence can be explained by their credibility, which is provided by the function that particular institutions serve. Political scientists have traditionally studied the causes and consequences of formal institutional design. For instance, Douglass North investigated

21372-495: The origins of human migration from various parts of Africa into East Africa. One of the more notable broad-based theories emanating from these studies includes the Bantu expansion . The main tools of study have been linguistics, archaeology and oral traditions. The significance of tracing individual clan histories in order to get an idea of Kalenjin groups formation has been shown by scholars such as B.E. Kipkorir (1978). He argued that

21528-556: The other hand, recent scholars began to study the importance of institutional strength, which Steven Levitsky and María Victoria Murillo define in terms of the level of enforcement and sustainability of an institution. Weak institutions with low enforcement or low sustainability led to the deterioration of democratic institutions in Madagascar and the erosion of economic structures in China. Another area of interest for modern scholars

21684-508: The performance of certain activities. Typically, they involve mutually related rights and obligations for actors." Sociologists and anthropologists have expansive definitions of institutions that include informal institutions. Political scientists have sometimes defined institutions in more formal ways where third parties must reliably and predictably enforce the rules governing the transactions of first and second parties. One prominent Rational Choice Institutionalist definition of institutions

21840-499: The relationships between institutions, human capital, and economic development. They argue that institutions set an equal playing field for competition, making institutional strength a key factor in economic growth. Authors Steven Levitsky and María Victoria Murillo claim that institutional strength depends on two factors: stability and enforcement. An unstable, unenforced institution is one where weak rules are ignored and actors are unable to make expectations based on their behavior. In

21996-707: The short-term. The lessons from Lustick's analysis applied to Sweden's economic situation can similarly apply to the political gridlock that often characterizes politics in the United States. For example, Lustick observes that any politician who hopes to run for elected office stands very little to no chance if they enact policies that show no short-term results. There is a mismatch between policies that bring about short-term benefits with minimal sacrifice, and those that bring about long-lasting change by encouraging institution-level adaptations. There are some criticisms to Lustick's application of natural selection theory to institutional change. Lustick himself notes that identifying

22152-504: The social sciences, particularly those with the institution as a central concept, can benefit by applying the concept of natural selection to the study of how institutions change over time. By viewing institutions as existing within a fitness landscape , Lustick argues that the gradual improvements typical of many institutions can be seen as analogous to hill-climbing within one of these fitness landscapes. This can eventually lead to institutions becoming stuck on local maxima , such that for

22308-502: The supposed distinct body morphology of many Nilotic speakers. Twentieth-century social scientists have largely discarded such efforts to classify peoples according to physical characteristics, in favor of using linguistic studies to distinguish among peoples. They formed ethnicities and cultures based on a shared language. Since the late 20th century, however, social and physical scientists are making use of data from population genetics. Nilotic and Nilote are now mainly used to refer to

22464-426: The supposed human "propensity to truck, barter and exchange". Modern feminists have criticized traditional marriage and other institutions as element of an oppressive and obsolete patriarchy . The Marxist view—which sees human nature as historically 'evolving' towards voluntary social cooperation, shared by some anarchists —is that supra-individual institutions such as the market and the state are incompatible with

22620-501: The symbolic and ritual importance previously held by cattle. The people speak the Nuer language / Thoknath which belongs to the Nilo-Saharan language phylum . The Nuer receive facial markings (called gaar ) as part of their initiation into adulthood. The pattern of Nuer scarification varies within specific subgroups. The most common initiation pattern among males consists of six parallel horizontal lines which are cut across

22776-498: The tested Nilotes belonged to various sub-Saharan macro-haplogroup L subclades, including L0 , L2 , L3 , L4 , and L5 . Low levels of maternal gene flow from North Africa and the Horn of Africa were observed in a few groups, mainly by the presence of mtDNA haplogroup M and haplogroup I lineages in about 12.5% of the Maasai and 7% of the Samburu samples, respectively. The autosomal DNA of Nilotic peoples has been examined in

22932-451: The traditional understanding of institutions reflects the scholarly recognition that a different framework of institutional analysis is necessary for studying developing economies and democracies compared to developed countries. In history, a distinction between eras or periods, implies a major and fundamental change in the system of institutions governing a society. Political and military events are judged to be of historical significance to

23088-556: The various disparate people who speak languages in the same Nilotic language family. Etymologically, the terms Nilotic and Nilote (singular nilot) derive from the Nile Valley ; specifically, the Upper Nile and its tributaries, where most Sudanese Nilo-Saharan-speaking people live. Linguistically, Nilotic people are divided into three subgroups: Nilotic people constitute the bulk of the population of South Sudan. The largest of

23244-432: The way power and influence is distributed. As a result, open access institutions placed in limited access orders face limited success and are often coopted by the powerful elite for self-enrichment. Transition to more democratic institutions is not created simply by transplanting these institutions into new contexts, but happens when it is in the interest of the dominant coalition to widen access. Ian Lustick suggests that

23400-525: The ways in which institutions and the economy interact, and how the well-being of the economy is essential for the institution's success and ability to run smoothly. North argues that because of the preexisting influence that existing organizations have over the existing framework, change that is brought about is often in the interests of these organizations. This is because organizations are created to take advantage of such opportunities and, as organizations evolve, these institutions are altered. This produces

23556-403: The weakening of an institution over time. Lastly, independence within an institution is vital because the institutions are making decisions based on expertise and norms that they have created and built over time rather than considerations from other groups or institutions. Having the ability to operate as an independent institution is crucial for its strength and resistance over time. An example of

23712-442: The west bank of the White Nile, but the other side was controlled by the Funj sultanate, with regular conflict between the two. The Cøllø had the ability to quickly raid outside areas by war canoe , and had control of the waters of the Nile. The Funj had a standing army of armoured cavalry, and this force allowed them to dominate the plains of the sahel . Cøllø traditions tell of Rädh Odak Ocollo who ruled around 1630 and led them in

23868-655: The young, are served by the institutions of marriage and family, for example, by creating, elaborating and prescribing the behaviors expected for husband/father, wife/mother, child, etc. The relationship of the institutions to human nature is a foundational question for the social sciences. Institutions can be seen as "naturally" arising from, and conforming to, human nature—a fundamentally conservative view—or institutions can be seen as artificial, almost accidental, and in need of architectural redesign, informed by expert social analysis, to better serve human needs—a fundamentally progressive view. Adam Smith anchored his economics in

24024-582: Was angry and killed the child. According to the Lotuko religion, Ajok was annoyed by the man's actions and swore never to resurrect any Lotuko again. As a result, death was said to have become permanent. A Y-chromosome study by Wood et al. (2005) tested various populations in Africa for paternal lineages, including 26 Maasai and 9 Luo from Kenya, and 9 Alur from the Democratic Republic of Congo. The signature Nilotic paternal marker Haplogroup A3b2

24180-456: Was due to "cybersecurity concerns" and data protection in regards to data collection by "third parties." This concern regarding TikTok's growing popularity demonstrates the importance of technological development within an institutional economy. Without understanding of what these products are doing or selling to the consumers, there runs a risk of it weakening an institution and causing more harm than good if not carefully considered and examined by

24336-482: Was observed in 27% of the Maasai, 22% of the Alur , and 11% of the Luo. Haplogroup B is another characteristically Nilotic paternal marker. It was found in 22% of Luo samples, 8% of Maasai, and 50% of Nuer peoples. The E1b1b haplogroup has been observed at overall frequencies around 11% among Nilo-Saharan-speaking groups in the Great Lakes area, with this influence concentrated among the Maasai (50%). This

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