Livestock herding peoples are known for their close involvement with their animals, valuing them in multiple ways. This paper addresses the issue of the nature of emotional and moral commitment to... Show moreLivestock herding peoples are known for their close involvement with their animals, valuing them in multiple ways. This paper addresses the issue of the nature of emotional and moral commitment to livestock animals, particularly cattle, among a group of livestock herders in southwest Ethiopia, the Suri. From certain cases of cattle and sheep sacrifice it could be concluded that the Suri exercise particular cruelty towards their animals on ritual occasions. How do Suri themselves see the issue of 'affection vs cruelty' towards livestock animals? How do Suri attitudes toward animals relate to their attitudes toward humans, notably neighbouring ethnic groups with whom they are in conflict and who accuse them of using excessive violence? The paper argues that notions of affinity and equality indeed define human-animal relationships among the Suri, but that these do not resolve the tensions inherent in the fact that cattle for them has both economically useful and emotionally rewarding features. The author compares human-animal relations among the Suri with those found in industrial societies. [Journal abstract] Show less
This paper presents a preliminary genealogy of all Somali 'clans'. Somali kinship is based on patrilineal descent, but there are no equivalents in the Somali language for the words 'clan' and ... Show moreThis paper presents a preliminary genealogy of all Somali 'clans'. Somali kinship is based on patrilineal descent, but there are no equivalents in the Somali language for the words 'clan' and 'lineage'. The Somali terminology for the levels of social segmentation is complex, amongst others because of processes of territorial dispersion and social change. The present author distinguishes the following levels of descent: clan-families, clan moieties or territorial divisions, clans, subclans, lineages, and sublineages. An appendix lists the main political organizations and/or 'warrior' or 'warlord' groups and their dominant (sub)clan in 1999. [PREFERABLY USE THE ENLARGED 2nd EDITION AT http://hdl.handle.net/1887/14007] Show less
This paper examines the transformation of violence in Ethiopian society, chiefly in the context of processes of 'modernization' and political change since the turn of the century, but focusing on... Show moreThis paper examines the transformation of violence in Ethiopian society, chiefly in the context of processes of 'modernization' and political change since the turn of the century, but focusing on the most recent period (1970s-1980s). Forms and practices of violence varied in the different periods of modern Ethiopian history. The author distinguishes roughly four periods where a change of political regime initiated a different sort of performance of violence, viz. the period of expansion under Minelik II (d. 1913) and the Yasu-Zewditu era (1889-1930), the Italian intermezzo (1935-1941), the post-War Haile Selassie period (1941-1974), and the 'revolutionary' period (1974-1991). The present 'transitional' period is only marginally discussed. The most important period was that of the revolution. It can be argued that a radical break with the past occurred under the regime of the 'Dergue', the military council ruling Ethiopia after 1974. The breaking point was the period of the 'Red Terror' in the years 1976-1978. It was a period of intense physical and psychological violence which became rooted in society and had a lasting effect on the collective mind and on social relations among Ethiopians. Bibliogr., notes, ref Show less
The Suri, also known as Surma, are agropastoralists living in the semiarid lowland area of the Kafa Administrative Region of Ethiopia. The Suri language belongs to the South-East Surmic (SES)... Show moreThe Suri, also known as Surma, are agropastoralists living in the semiarid lowland area of the Kafa Administrative Region of Ethiopia. The Suri language belongs to the South-East Surmic (SES) language group within the Eastern Sudanic family of Nilo-Saharan. The Suri-English vocabulary presented here was compiled during research carried out in southwestern Ethiopia, particularly in the village of Makara, between December 1991 and June 1992, and in October 1992. It incorporates two unpublished wordlists, the 200-word list of the Institute of Language Studies of Addis Ababa University, and the 500-word list compiled by M.L. Bender. Bibliogr., notes, ref 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
