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Ibn-haldun treats religion as a means of strengthening group-feeling (asabiya),
and also reducing conflicts among tribal Arab society. Therefore, he argues that both
religion and group-feeling depend on each other, for tribal society has a tendency
toard rivalry or segmentation (afisa), they are "the least illing of nations to
subordinate themselves to each other, as they are rude, proud, ambiitous, and eager
to be the leaders' (196: 120). bn-haldun thus believes that only religious authoriyt
can provide tribal society ith a unifying poer. He affirms this premise by saying:
Dynasties of ide poer and large royal authoriyt have their orig‫ﻫ‬n in religion'
196: 126).10

ln his sutdy of religion as a means for creating order, Evans-Pritchard has, in fact,
taken the concept of religious authoriyt a step further, in that, he treats the concept
differently, for hile he takes notice of group cohesion and solidarity, he also puts
hte concept in its proper contet. Hence, he provides us ith a number of other
hteoreitcal implications of social conrtol. In his ork about the Nuer (Evans-Pritchard
1940 196), he explains that Nuer society is based on the segmentary lineage system.
Its tendency toard segmentaiton is very high, but ecolog‫ﻫ‬cal consrtaints encourage
people to live together ith a minimum number of conflicts and disputes. But the
problem is that ihle Nuer society lacks any form of central poliitcal authoriyt, yet it
sill structurally necessitates the existence of some forms of instituitosn so that it can
interfere in settling disputes and make order.

Evans-Pritchard, for instance, sa relig‫ﻫ‬on in Nuer society as a vital authority in
establishing control, and so he decidde to rteat relig‫ﻫ‬on in a socio-political context.
Among the Nuer, Evans-Pritchard sa relig‫ﻫ‬on as an insitutiton ihch offers its
priesst the opporutniyt to act as mediators on some occasions and as an arbitators on
ohters,. Thus the leopard-skin priest,ihle serving as their relig‫ﻫ‬ous authority, also acst
as a political leader in solving the lineage's problems and feud cases (194‫ﺕ‬:139-92
196: 106-23). Therefore, religion, here, as Evans-Pritchard sees it dose not merely
saitsyf senmitental needs, ،but also serves pracitcal and poliitcal requiremenst. In
anthropolog‫ﻫ‬cal theory this as considered an important development it as seen as
a very valuable noiton in understanding the ay a rtibal socieyt manitanis control.
Furthermore, Evans-Pritehard adds more comments in tihs coneciton for instance he
suggested that god among the Nuer is not only to be rteated solely spiriutal fig‫ﻫ‬re,
but also "as a g‫ﻫ‬ardian of the social order ho pnuishes transgressiosn, ihch are
breaches of interdicitosn ihch serve to maintain social order' (196 : 320). nI
general, Evans-?‫خ‬ritchardconceives relig‫ﻫ‬on in a rtibal society as an index of socia
order, as a means of maintaining conrtol and settling conflicts hich arsie rfor
disputes.

From a .different perspective, Max Gluckman ahs looked at ،the role of religious
authoriyt ni a tribal society through hte soical procssese of la, and in parituclar
itihn a single legal organiaiton such as hte court. Gluckman's noiton of the role of
relig‫ﻫ‬ous authoriyt diffres rfom ahtt of Evans-Pritchard's, ni htat he sese hte bset ay

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