For pastoralists, the loss of livestock implies not only economic damage but also a spiritual and moral crisis. Since South Sudan’s civil war in 2013, the Nuer people have lost a number of cattle while fleeing from armed clashes. The cattle of the Nuer constitute their way of life and identity, even in the context of social change and modernization. In this study, I describe how and by what means they resolve problems, such as marriage, murder, and incest taboos, in situations where they have lost cattle. In their practice, I observed that various media such as cash, wild cucumbers and limes bought in the Ugandan market were treated like ‘cattle’. What made these mediums ‘cattle’ was the presence of ‘blood’. In the Nuer society, blood, called riɛm, indicates human vulnerability, so people make their blood strong through practices related to cattle, which also have blood. By finding ‘blood’ in these media, people tried to achieve the authenticity of ‘cattle’ and ‘sustainable self’, which is constituted of ancestors, descendants, and divinities. The ubiquitous status of ‘blood’ reveals hidden connections between humans, animals, plants, things, and divinities and exposes the limitations of understanding the world based on the division between inside/outside, existence/non-existence, and one/multiple. This study illuminates how the Nuer people sense and experience the world beyond modern Western ontological dualism by showing how blood creates and guarantees the oneness and continuity of the self.