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
Encounters between foreign tourists and people of different cultural background become very common in a globalized world. The nature of this exchange in cultural terms relates questions of... Show moreEncounters between foreign tourists and people of different cultural background become very common in a globalized world. The nature of this exchange in cultural terms relates questions of identity construction and the emergence or creation of difference. This article addresses tourist-'native' encounters in a semiotic perspective, which helps to reveal its essentially contested aspects. The empirical study relates to the Suri people of southern Ethiopia, a small ethnic group of agropastoralists only recently 'discovered' by tourists and displaying notable aggression towards them. Suri reject their role in the 'tourist game' of creating a realist experience of the Other, and staunchly assert their own identity and would-be equality vis-á-vis these affluent visitors Show less
Through a study of the ceremonial stick duelling among the Surma of southern Ethiopia, this article explores the sociocultural context of ritual violence in a small-scale agropastoralist society... Show moreThrough a study of the ceremonial stick duelling among the Surma of southern Ethiopia, this article explores the sociocultural context of ritual violence in a small-scale agropastoralist society and its relation to social reproductive concerns. Surma male stick duelling ('sagine'), contained by strict rules of procedure, is a form of ritualized violence among Surma themselves, and contrasts sharply with violence against members of non-Surma neighbouring groups. 'Sagine' can be interpreted not only as the management of relations between competing territorial sections within Surma society, but also in terms of the connection between sociality and sexuality in Surma life. However, contrary to sociobiological predictions, combat success is neither valued for its own sake nor does it show itself to be reproductively advantageous in a statistical sense. Show less
This article examines recent developments of local authority and 'leadership' among the Surma of southern Ethiopia, where the author carried out field research over the years 1990-1995. The... Show moreThis article examines recent developments of local authority and 'leadership' among the Surma of southern Ethiopia, where the author carried out field research over the years 1990-1995. The intention is to analyse the nature of 'authority' in a non-State social formation, in which 'chiefs' in the proper sense of the word are absent. The author gives an overview of the three different political systems which have succeeded each other in Ethiopia since the late 19th century: Haile Selassie's feudalist monarchy (until 1974), the Dergue's centralist republic (1974-1991), and the present ethno-regional federal republic, and examines to what extent these different types of governance have had a transformative impact on traditional forms of local leadership. He argues that southern Ethiopian local administration has always been characterized by an uneasy alliance of two types of leaders: imported highland rulers and local, indigenous 'chiefs' or ritual leaders ('komoru'). The Surma 'komoru' have generally remained outside the political arena. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in French and Italian Show less
This chapter describes responses to the ecological crisis and political changes in Ethiopia in the early 1990s among the Suri, an agropastoral group in K„fa Region, southern Ethiopia. Data are... Show moreThis chapter describes responses to the ecological crisis and political changes in Ethiopia in the early 1990s among the Suri, an agropastoral group in K„fa Region, southern Ethiopia. Data are derived from fieldwork carried out in the area after the change of regime in 1991. Attention is paid to environmental conditions and the Suri subsistence system, relations between the Suri and neighbouring ethnic groups, drought and famine in the area, in particular in the 1980s, and the Suri attitude towards the interventions of outside agencies, interethnic conflict in the period 1984-1993, Suri recovery and adaptation in the early 1990s, and the effects of drought, famine, and political upheaval on Suri socioeconomic organization, local political relations, and ethnic identities and interethnic relations. Bibliogr., notes, ref Show less
