LOTUKO. The Lotuko-speaking tribes, so far as they are known, comprise the Lotuko (hitherto commonly called Latuka), the Lokoiya and the Lango (q.v.), the last named apparently a northern section of the originally Shilluk-speaking Lango of Uganda, who have been dominated by the Lotuko and come to speak their language. All are dolichocephalic, but the Lotuko, with an average stature of about 7oin., are taller by about 2in. than the Lokoiya and Lango. The term Koriuk, sometimes regarded as a tribal designation, seems to be applied to the Lokoiya by other groups speaking Lotuko, but in the present state of knowledge it is probably safer not to define this term.
The social organization of the Lotuko, by far the best known of the group, has been described by Somerset ("The Lotuko," Sudan Notes and Records, vol. i. 1918) and by C. G. and B. Z. Seligman ("Social Organization of the Lotuko," Sudan Notes and Records, vol. viii., 1925). Each of a number of independent territorial groups, often at enmity, has at its head a rain-maker, who is its supreme chief. There is a clan organization with descent in the male line, and at death everyone becomes the animal associated with his clan. In spite of a certain feeling of sympathy or friendli ness between the clan and its animal it is not unusual for the clan animal to be killed, though it will not generally be eaten. Besides the rain-maker, there are a number of "fathers of the land," of very real power in the magico-religious sphere. There are large
stockaded villages, such as Tirangore (Tirangole), as well as hill villages, such as Logurun, with its homesteads scattered irregu larly about the hillside. In some hill villages there are megalithic stone circles, with stones up to 5 or 6f t. high, built up to the present day and used as squatting places for the men, though they seem to be of relatively little social importance and are additional to the drum-houses which occur in every village. The Lotuko have initiation ceremonies into manhood, in which the lighting of a new fire by friction is one of the essential features, and a system of age classes, which probably are of relatively little importance apart from military organization.
There is a cult of the dead, concerning which not very much is yet known, while the nature of Naijok, perhaps associated with the firmament, is even less understood. The remains of near relatives are dug up some months after burial and the bones exposed in pots under trees and in rock shelters, the reason as stated being the promotion of the fertility of their women. The bones of rain-makers are treated with considerably more cere mony and form the chief contents of the rain shrines at which the great rain ceremonies take place. The Lotuko occupy the mountainous country east of Gondokoro on the upper Nile.
(C. G. S.)