Abstract
THE RAINMAKER AMONG THE LOTUKO, S. SUDAN.—In Sudan Notes and Records, Vol. 8, No. 2, Prof. C. G. and Mrs. Seligman have published notes on material relating to social organisation collected among the Lotuko of the Southern Sudan in the winter of 1921–1922. The Lotuko are organised into a number of independent territorial groups, each including a number of villages and divided into clans. At its head is a rainmaker (Kobu, fern, nobu), who is commonly referred to as “Sultan” by any Arabic-speaking Lotuko. He is the religious as well as the temporal head of the community. Both parents of a rainmaker should “have rain,” though individuals with rain descent on the male side only have attempted to set up as rainmakers. They are not confined to any particular clan, but vary in different localities. Yet the clan gains prestige from his membership and his seat is looked upon as the headquarters of the clan. This tends to a territorial grouping of clans. A male rainmaker succeeds to the office on the death of his father, but a female cannot perform rain ceremonies until she is married to a rainmaker. A pool, Itaraba, has a sacred character and is associated with a semi-mythical rainmaker who is said to have lived five generations ago. In this pool live the crocodiles who are the deceased rainmakers of the Igago clan. A gourd of its water plays an important part in the rainmaking ceremony.
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Research Items. Nature 118, 673–675 (1926). https://doi.org/10.1038/118673a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/118673a0