Initiating Change in Highland Ethiopia

Causes and Consequences of Cultural Transformation
Erscheinungsjahr 2012
ISBN: 978-0-521-81854-4
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 190 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 235 mm, Gewicht: 437 g

In a rural community in Southern Ethiopia, there are two types of rituals performed by the same people. Historical evidence suggests that one has shown remarkable stability over the years, while the other has undergone massive transformations. External factors are the same, so how is this to be explained? Dena Freeman focuses on ethnographical and historical data from the Gamo Highlands of Southern Ethiopia to tackle the question of cultural change and transformation. She uses a comparative perspective and contrasts the continuity in sacrificial rituals with the rapid divergence and differentiation in initiations. Freeman argues that although external change drives internal cultural transformation, the way in which it does is greatly influenced by the structural organization of the cultural systems themselves. This insight leads to a rethinking of the analytic tension between structure and agency that is at the heart of contemporary anthropological theory.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Freeman, Dena

Fachgebiete

• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften Interdisziplinär Regionalwissenschaften, Regionalstudien
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Kultur- und Sozialethnologie: Allgemeines
• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Allgemeine Psychologie Sozialpsychologie Kulturpsychologie, Ethnopsychologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Religionsethnologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Kultur- und Sozialethnologie: Politische Ethnologie, Recht, Organisation, Identität
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Kultur- und Sozialethnologie: Materielle Kultur, Wirtschaftsethnologie
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Ethnologie Umwelt und Kultur, Kulturökologie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

List of illustrations; Acknowledgements; Select glossary; 1. Introduction: theorising change; 2. The recent history of the Gamo Highlands; 3. Production and reproduction; 4. The sacrificial system; 5. The initiatory system; 6. Experiencing change; 7. Assemblies and incremental cultural change; 8. Transformation versus devolution: the organisational dynamics of change; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

Über Autor(innen)

Freeman, Dena
DENA FREEMAN is Research Fellow of Queens' College at the University of Cambridge.