This chapter discusses the dynamics of interaction between the Ethiopan political centre and the Surma or Suri people, a small group of independent agro-pastoralists located in the Maji border... Show moreThis chapter discusses the dynamics of interaction between the Ethiopan political centre and the Surma or Suri people, a small group of independent agro-pastoralists located in the Maji border area of South-West Ethiopia, from 1974 to 1998. In this period the Suri provide an example of how allegedly 'marginal' populations were challenged, if not forced, to break out of their peripheral condition into one of engagement and co-optation that necessitated indigenous responses to an encroaching 'modernity'. Notes. [ASC Leiden abstract] Show less
There is, as yet, still no adequate theoretical idiom to conceptualize, in an accepted, conventional manner, the processes conditioning ethnic naming and the political-economic embeddedness of... Show moreThere is, as yet, still no adequate theoretical idiom to conceptualize, in an accepted, conventional manner, the processes conditioning ethnic naming and the political-economic embeddedness of cultural complexities. The traditional primordial-mobilization dichotomy in ethnic studies, with its heuristic and descriptive advantages, remains attractive. Nonetheless, it would be advantageous for future anthropological studies of ethnic groups and relations to focus on the processes of infrastructural political-ecological conditioning of ethnic labels and their symbolic use. An explanation in terms of the psychological, affective validity of ethnicity is at most a derivative of such a process and has more to do with the individual experience rather than the collective aspects of ethnicity. The case of Maji 'awraja' (subprovince) in southwestern Ethiopia, where the author conducted fieldwork in 1988-1990, serves as illustration. The ethnonyms in use here primarily reflect a history of politico-ecological conflict between various groups of different composition and not a smooth transfer of cultural heritages within well-defined "tribes", despite a popular local image to the contrary. State discourse and policy plays a crucial role in the process. The discussion is restricted to four groups: the Dizi, the Tishana-Me'en, the Surma (or Tirma) and the Northerners (or "Amhara"). Bibliogr., notes, ref Show less
This study is a contribution to the analysis of the interplay of myth, legend, history and identity of the Beta Esra'el or Falasha of Ethiopia from a historical-anthropological perspective. The... Show moreThis study is a contribution to the analysis of the interplay of myth, legend, history and identity of the Beta Esra'el or Falasha of Ethiopia from a historical-anthropological perspective. The focus is on the issue of their ethnogenesis, or origin history, and its mythical reflection in the ideological domain. All known variations or genres of the stories presented by the Beta Esra'el to a variety of travellers, researchers and other visitors are presented, in conjunction with the relevant historical knowledge available to date. The theoretical question guiding this effort is how one might arrive at some historically plausible conclusions on the basis of a critical reflection on mythical traditions. The starting point is that Beta Esra'el stories can only be seen in their proper perspective when related ideologically to the mythical tradition of the Amhara-Tigray, who were for a long time the two politically and culturally dominant groups in the region, especially during the time of the centralizing 'Solomonic' empire (c. 1270-1975). The kind of myths considered consist of a kind of 'sacred narratives', which the author calls 'mytho-legends'. The initial hypothesis is that the Amhara-Tigray mytho-legends and the Beta Esra'el mytho-legends on their own origin and religious tradition form part of one domain of discourse. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in French (p. 539) Show less
This text of "The history of the Nkoya people" keeps as closely as possible to the original manuscript as written in the 1950s-1960s. (An English translation is included as part 3 in Wim van... Show moreThis text of "The history of the Nkoya people" keeps as closely as possible to the original manuscript as written in the 1950s-1960s. (An English translation is included as part 3 in Wim van Binsbergen's 'Tears of rain: ethnicity and history in central western Zambia', published in London in 1992 by Kegan Paul.) Show less
Using a structuralist-inspired approach the author analyses a collection of oral historical data from central western Zambia, namely 'Likota lya Bankoya', ('The history of the Nkoya people'),... Show moreUsing a structuralist-inspired approach the author analyses a collection of oral historical data from central western Zambia, namely 'Likota lya Bankoya', ('The history of the Nkoya people'), compiled by the first Nkoya Christian pastor, J. Shimunika, in the 1950s-1960s. He focuses on mutative transformations that mark two types of discontinuity: 1) deviations, in the Likota text, from contemporary Nkoya cultural practice; and 2) inconsistencies, in the text, within the pattern of oppositions by which a particular past episode is evoked. These transformations are shown to converge on the same pattern of changes in gender relations in the process of State formation. In conjunction with the contemporary ethnographic evidence on Nkoya society, these mutative transformations indicate that the 'feminist' message in the Likota text is not an historically irrelevant statement concerning a static cosmological order, but a reflection of an actual historical process relegating women in central western Zambia to inferiority in the political, ritual, economic, and kinship domains. Show less
