210 Scarcity and Surfeit
The Nuer adapted to their swampy niche, then expanded through a com-
plex of mechanisms that included assimilation and intermarriage. The Nuer
expansion was a gradual intrusion into Dinka territory, punctuated by violent
thrusts, but followed by longer periods of small-scale raiding at Dinka expense,
a kind of parasitic relationship in which the superior-fighting Nuer depended
upon nearby Dinka for the production of additional subsistence resources.
Gradually the surrounding Dinka who tired of such treatment became Nuer
through a process of assimilation. The frequency at which Dinka survived raid-
ing and were incorporated through capture or voluntary assimilation is in
sharp contrast to other patterns of Nilotic pastoral raiding, where the victims
(including women and children) are slain.30 The Dinka were both then and
even now the more prosperous party due to their more 'stable' economy. Such
a process should not be seen as deliberate 'conquest', but rather, the product
of contrasting cultural adaptations to varied ecological conditions.
In summary, the Nuer expansion represents a largely successful systemat-
ic effort to reduce population pressure and to improve living standards, or at
least to prevent their deterioration. Through competition and low-level exclu-
sion, the Nuer controlled the richest and most variable grasslands while
obtaining sufficient high ground for wet season protection and aggregation.
The Dinka, who themselves had been expanding to occupy the fringes in a
more mixed savanna-woodland environment, sacrificed some quality in
terms of pasture, but adapted (in terms of thermodynamic effectiveness)
through an increased reliance on agriculture achieved through more sophis-
ticated agricultural practices.
Population density, in the context of the flood plain, must be reckoned
according to population size per unit of area to dry land during the flood time
of the year.31 In the light of the hypothesis that the larger region's population
was approaching the saturation point designated by existing subsistence tech-
nologies, perhaps the Nuer specialised mode of eco-niche production based on
cattle represented the only option available during the final century of the pre-
colonial era. Regardless, both Dinka and Nuer populations were thermody-
namically effective in relation to exploitation of their particular habitats.
Although both groups were highly vulnerable to environmental fluctua-
tions, the more monocultural Nuer economy was especially so. Sal~man~~
underscores that the notion of "egalitarian pastoralists" reflects an economy
where there are no permanent shortfalls or surpluses; he further observes
that "when most of the productive resources are open and available to all,
and are the product of one element of production, that is livestock held as
family property, differences in accumulation are likely to he ephemeral".
Proponents of the 'new range ecology' characterise this ephemerality of
subsistence resources - shortfall as well as surplus - as a quality of disequi-
librium environments, which in turn is cited to explain East African pas-
toralists' markedly opportunistic ~rientation.~~ High levels of mobility and