Alcohol can be used as a theme to belittle, patronize and differentiate people. This happens especially when different kinds of beverages are accorded a different status across social and ethnic... Show moreAlcohol can be used as a theme to belittle, patronize and differentiate people. This happens especially when different kinds of beverages are accorded a different status across social and ethnic groups in society. The case study presented in this chapter highlights cultural aspects of social inequality and ethnic stratification by tracing the ambivalent connections between alcohol, power and cultural dominance in the Maji region of southern Ethiopia, where the author carried out fieldwork in 1995/1996. Maji society's 'drinking situation' reflects the area's history of divergent ethnocultural traditions and exposure of people to State narratives of civilization and governance. Historically, the local people, among them the Dizi, Me'en and Suri, were deemed politically and culturally less civilized by the central State and the northern immigrants. The Suri, as agropastoralist lowlanders, were considered especially coarse in their mannerisms and livelihood pursuits. Alcohol (ab)use is explained by many non-Suri northerners in the neighbouring villages as another example of the Suri's 'backward' social behaviour. This chapter explores the basis of such remarks and what they reveal about hegemonic relations and group prestige. Bibliogr., notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract] Show less
Cette étude présente une première analyse de la culture matérielle des Me'en (Tishana), une ethnie de l'Éthiopie mériodionale. Il s'agit d'une société sans artisans ou artistes spécialisés. La... Show more Cette étude présente une première analyse de la culture matérielle des Me'en (Tishana), une ethnie de l'Éthiopie mériodionale. Il s'agit d'une société sans artisans ou artistes spécialisés. La question envisagée est de savoir s'il existe des critères esthétiques sous-jacents au sein d'une culture matérielle comprenant pour l'essentiel des objets d'usage quotidien, avec la perspective de dénier, dans le domaine de l'étude comparative des cultures matérielles, la distinction entre culture de 'grand art' et culture d'art 'rudimentaire'. Show less
This paper focuses on problems and dilemmas of changing alcohol use among the Surma, a group of lowland agropastoralists in Maji, southern Ethiopia. The area under discussion is inhabited by... Show moreThis paper focuses on problems and dilemmas of changing alcohol use among the Surma, a group of lowland agropastoralists in Maji, southern Ethiopia. The area under discussion is inhabited by indigenous agriculturalists, descendants of northern immigrants of mixed origin, and Surma and Me'en agropastoralists. The paper reveals the existence of a pattern of 'alcoholic hegemonism' in the area. The culturally dominant villagers want to have the best of both worlds. Their types of alcoholic drinks are 'the best' and they think they know how to use and not abuse them. The local people (the Surma, Dizi and Me'en) are 'still caught' in their traditional drinking habits involving the consumption of their local 'bord‚' beer. They are also subjected to the harsh reign of 'katikala', a strong and dangeous beverage, which they cannot handle and which thus tends to create trouble. That they themselves (the villagers and State-connected people) have introduced 'katikala' does not make them feel in any way responsible for such trouble. Bibliogr., notes, ref Show less
This essay deals with the relation between ritual behaviour and environmental conditions in an African rural society, that of the South-East Surmic (Nilo-Saharan)-speaking Me'en people, a group of... Show moreThis essay deals with the relation between ritual behaviour and environmental conditions in an African rural society, that of the South-East Surmic (Nilo-Saharan)-speaking Me'en people, a group of 'tribal' cultivators in Käfa region, Ethiopia. The study attempts to integrate 'ideational' and material-environmental elements, in order to explain how meaning in ritual is constituted in the dialectic between human action and environmental conditions. For this purpose, a text of the 'mósit', a central ritual of the Me'en, is presented and discussed. The author looks at the significance of environmental referents in the ritual acts and words, and at how the language and the context of the 'mósit' reflect social and reproductive relations within Me'en society. The aim is an explanatory account of the 'mósit' as a religious ritual system. The unifying theoretical perspective which informs this analysis is derived from the theory of E.T. Lawson and R.N. MacCauley (1990), which advocates a 'competence'-approach to religious ritual behaviour. Show less
The present article offers a descriptive survey of the most important plants used by the Southeast Surmic-speaking Me'en in southwestern K„fa, Ethiopia, based on information gathered over a period... Show moreThe present article offers a descriptive survey of the most important plants used by the Southeast Surmic-speaking Me'en in southwestern K„fa, Ethiopia, based on information gathered over a period of 14-months field research (1989-1991). Data covering the Me'en name of each plant, the scientific name, if known, and/or the Amharic equivalent and a brief description of the plant's use are presented in tabular form. The following categories are distinguished: plants used for house building and household utensils, plants used for clothing, magical plants, famine plants, medicinal plants, and ritual plants. The emphasis is on medicinal and ritual plants. Show less
This paper describes the burial ceremony of the Surma-speaking Me'en of southwest Ethiopia as a collective ritual pervaded by cattle symbolism. The author discerns four basic elements in the... Show moreThis paper describes the burial ceremony of the Surma-speaking Me'en of southwest Ethiopia as a collective ritual pervaded by cattle symbolism. The author discerns four basic elements in the ritual: cattle are the prime ritual medium because they are the epitome of Me'en sociocultural ideals and social personhood; the fertility and well-being of the family and wider lineage groups is a dominant concern underlying a proper performance of the burial; communication with and appeasement of the lineage spirit as well as the 'soul' of the deceased is indispensable to avert misfortune for the descendants; acting out and reaffirming the underlying social, ritual and economic links with the family's affines is an implicit motive of the burial ceremony. In this sense, one might see the burial ritual in terms of a socially motivated strategy to avert strain between individuals and groups. The study is based on fieldwork carried out in the K„fa region in 1989-1990. Bibliogr., notes, sum. in French and Italian Show less
This article has two purposes: 1) to provide a first historical outline of the Tishana or Me'en, a small 'tribal' group living in southwestern Ethiopia, and 2) to illustrate the importance of a... Show moreThis article has two purposes: 1) to provide a first historical outline of the Tishana or Me'en, a small 'tribal' group living in southwestern Ethiopia, and 2) to illustrate the importance of a political economy approach for the explanation of such a process. Inspiration has been derived from the historical anthropological approach of E. Wolf (1982), which postulates the interdependence of political economic factors on the one hand, and social dynamics and cultural factors on the other. The vast majority of Me'en speakers now live in highland areas west of the Omo. However, some of the people who currently speak Me'en were pastoralists who lived in the lowlands bordering the southwestern Ethiopian highlands. The problem explained here is how and why a portion of these Me'en pastoralists left the lowlands and how they successfully adapted to highland areas where cattle keeping was notoriously difficult and where the invading northerners tried to prevent them from settling. A further issue is how they were able to absorb other groups and individuals from different ethnic origins. The author argues that the very expansion of the Me'en out of the Omo Valley into the highlands - that is the reshaping of their social reproductive system in a new ecoeconomic niche - was fuelled by Me'en ideology itself, and that this ideology was activated by the confrontation of the Me'en with the expanding frontier of the Abyssinian State. Their cultural ideology, bound up with cattle, entered into the adaptation process of the Me'en groups in a period of crisis. Bibliogr., notes, ref Show less
