Anthropology_power_point GG[1].pptx

INTRODUCTION
TO
ANTHROPOLOGY
Accepted by: GERMAN DIRES
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Unit One: Introduction
 The Meaning of Anthropology
 The term anthropology is derived from two Greek words, ‘anthropos’
and ‘logos’, which can be translated as ‘human being/mankind’ and
‘reason/study/science’, respectively.
 So, anthropology means ‘reason about humans’ or ‘the science of
humankind’.
 Man has two important characteristics: biological and cultural:
 It is very important to understand that the biological and the cultural
characteristics are inseparable elements and influence each others.
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 Anthropology is the study of people—
 their origins,
 their development,
 contemporary variations of human being and its life.
 It is a broad scientific discipline dedicated to
 the comparative study of humans as a group, throughout its
evolution
 investigation of the strategies for living that are learned and
shared by groups;
 study the characteristics that human beings share as members of
one species (homo sapiens) and the diverse ways that people live
in different environments;
 analyses the products of social groups - material objects (material
cultures) and non-material creations (beliefs, social values,
institutions, practices, etc).
 Thus, it deals with culture, society and humanity. 3

It seeks to explain
 how and why people are similar and different both
physically & culturally
 why do some groups of people practice agriculture, while
others hunt for a living?
Anthropology offers theoretical knowledge and
practical interventions to understand and improve
human life.
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1.2 Scope and subject matter of anthropology
 It studies from Arctic to Desert, from Mega-polis to hunting
gathering areas, past/present, lived/died etc.
 It covers all aspects of human ways of life and existence as
humans
 It studies inter and intra-connections in societies
 Its concerned with both biological and cultural origins and
evolutionary development of the species;
 all humans, both past and present, as well as their behavior
patterns, thought systems, and material possessions.
 In short, anthropology aims to describe, in the broadest
sense, what it means to be human (Peacock, 1986).
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1.3 Unique (Basic) Features of Anthropology
 Anthropology is unique in its scope, approach, focus and method of study.
 Anthropology has a broad scope.
 No place or time is too remote to escape the anthropologist's notice.
 No dimension of human kind, from genes to art styles, is outside the anthropologist's
attention.
 Its approach is holistic, relativistic, and focused one.
 Holistic- it looks any social phenomena in different vantage points including culture,
history, language and biology essential to a complete understanding of society.
 Relativity- it tries to study and explain a certain belief, practice or institution of a group
of people in its own context.
 It does not make value judgment, i.e., declaring that this belief practice is ‘good’ or ‘bad’
 Comparatively-it helps to understand difference and similarity among human being
across time and space.
 It considers insiders' views as a primary focus of its inquiry.
 Anthropological studies give attention to
 how people perceive themselves and understand their world;
 how a particular group of people explain about their action, or
 give meaning to their behavior or cultural practices.
 This is what anthropologists call emic perspective.
 It helps to understand the logic and justification behind group behavior and cultural practices.
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 Another important unique feature is its research approach.
 Its is highly dependent on qualitative research to understand the
meaning behind any human activity.
 Extended fieldwork,
 participant observation, observation
 in-depth and key informant interviews and
 focus-group discussion are qualitative research instruments to explore
information change and continuities in human societies.
 Ethnographic fieldwork it required to spend a year or more with
research subjects and document realities occurring across time.
 Focusing more on the local than the big social processes has been
another exclusive approach in the discipline.
 Paying great attention to local or micro-social processes certainly help
us to better understand big changes in societies.
 A detailed account of an event or phenomenon discovers multiple
realities in a community.
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1.4 Misconceptions about anthropology
 It is said that anthropology is limited to the study of "primitive"
societies.
 Indeed, most of the works done by anthropologists during early
periods focused on isolated, so called "primitive", small scale
societies.
 But, anthropologists nowadays study most advanced and most
complex societies as well.
 Another misconception is that anthropologists only study the rural
people and rural areas.
 As a matter of fact, most of the studies conducted during the
formative years of the discipline focused on rural areas.
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 But now, anthropologists are also interested in the study of
urban people and urban areas.
 anthropology is the study/analysis of fossil evidences of the
proto-humans like that of Lucy/Dinkeneshe.
 It is true that anthropology is interested in the question of
the origin of modern human beings.
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1.5 The Relationship between Anthropology and Other Disciplines
 Anthropology is similar with other social sciences such as sociology, psychology,
political sciences, economics, history, etc.
 Anthropology greatly overlaps with these disciplines that study human society.
 However, anthropology differs from other social sciences and the humanities by its
broad scope, unique approach, perspective, unit of analysis and methods used.
 In its scope, anthropology studies humankind in its entirety. In its approach,
anthropology studies and analyzes human ways of life holistically, comparatively
and in a relativistic manner.
 In its perspective, according to Richard Wilk, anthropology approaches and locates
dimensions of people’s individual and communal lived experiences, their thoughts
and their feelings in terms of how these dimensions are interconnected and
interrelated to one another, yet not necessarily constrained or very orderly, whole.
 The perspective is also fundamentally empirical, naturalistic and ideographic
[particularizing] than nomothetic [universalizing] one.
 In its method of research, it is unique in that it undertakes extended fieldwork
among the studied community and develops intimate knowledge of the life and
social worlds of its study group/society through employing those ethnographic data
collection techniques such as participant observation, Key informant interview and
focus group discussions.
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1.6 The Contributions of anthropology
 By studying anthropology, we get the following benefits, among
others.
 First, the anthropological perspective-
 Through the process of contrasting and
comparing,
1. we gain a fuller understanding of other cultures
and our own.
2. better understand ourselves or our own ways of
life.
3. to understand and to be critical about the ways
of lives of our own community. 11

 But now, anthropologists are also interested in the study of
urban people and urban areas.
 anthropology is the study/analysis of fossil evidences of
the proto-humans like that of Lucy/Dinkeneshe.
 It is true that anthropology is interested in the question of
the origin of modern human beings.
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1.2 Sub-fields of anthropology
Anthropology has often categorized into four
major subfields:
Physical/Biological Anthropology,
Applied anthropology
Archeology,
Linguistic Anthropology and
Socio-Cultural Anthropology.
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1.2.1 Physical/Biological Anthropology
 They focus on
 how human biology affects or even explains some aspects
of behavior, society, and culture like marriage patterns,
sexual division of labor, gender ideology etc.
 The features of culture in turn have biological effects like
the standards of attractiveness, food preferences, and
human sexuality.
 Biological variations such as morphology/structure, color,
and size are reflections of changes in living organism.
 Human biological variations are the result of the cumulative
processes of invisible changes occurring in every fraction of second
in human life.
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 These changes have been accumulated and passed through genes.
 Physical anthropology is essentially concerned with two broad areas
of investigation: human evolution and genetics.
 Human evolution is the study of the gradual processes of simple
forms into more differentiated structures in hominid.
 Human genetic it concerns to investigate how and why the physical
traits of contemporary human population vary throughout the world.
 It can be classify in to three:-
 Paleo-anthropology it is the study of human biological evolution
through the analysis of fossil remains.
 Primatology is study about primate or current human being ancestors.
 Anthropometry it is the study of human variation with in and among
different populations in time and space.
 1.2.2 APPLIED ANTHROPOLOGY- it refers to applying
anthropological knowledge to solve societal problem. 15

1.2.1 Archaeological Anthropology
 Archaeological anthropology studies the ways of lives of past
peoples by excavating and analyzing the material
culture/physical remains (artifacts, features and eco-facts)
they left behind.
 Artifacts are material remains made and used by the past
peoples and that can be removed from the site and taken to the
laboratory for further analysis.
 Tools, ornaments, arrowheads, coins, and fragments of pottery
are examples of artifacts.
 Features are like artifacts, are made or modified by past
people, but they cannot be readily carried away from the site,
such things as house foundations, ancient buildings,
fireplaces, steles, and postholes.
 Eco-facts are non-artefactual, organic and environmental
remains such as soil, animal bones, and plant remains that
were not made or altered by humans; but were used by them.
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1.2.3 Linguistic Anthropology
 Linguistic anthropology studies human language as a cultural
resource and speaking as a cultural practice in its social and cultural
context, across space and time.
 Language is basically a system of information transmission and
reception.
 Humans communicate messages by sound (speech), by gesture
(body language), and in other visual ways such as writing.
 Linguistic anthropology can be divided into four distinct branches:
 Structural or Descriptive Linguistics:- structure of the language
 Historical Linguistics: it deals with emergence of language
 Ethno-Linguistics: it deals the relation ship between language and culture
 Socio-linguistics it deals with the variation and usage of language in
particular language.
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1.2.4 Socio-Cultural Anthropology
 It deals with human society and culture.
 Society is the group of people who have similar ways of
life, but culture is a way of life of a group of people.
 Society and culture are two sides of the same coin.
 Socio-cultural anthropology describes, analyzes,
interprets, and explains social, cultural and material life
of contemporary human societies.
 It studies the social (human relations), symbolic or
nonmaterial (religious, language, and any other symbols)
and material (all man-made objects) lives of living
peoples.
 Socio-cultural anthropologists engage in two aspects of
study: Ethnography (based on field work) and Ethnology
(based on cross-cultural comparison).
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 Ethnography
 Requires field work to collect data
 Often descriptive
 Group/community specific
 Ethnology
 Uses data collected by a series of researchers
 Usually synthetic /man made
 Comparative/cross-cultural
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Unit Two: Human Culture and Ties that Connect
2.1. Conceptualizing Culture: What Culture is and What Culture isn't
 Definition of Culture
 Anthropologists and sociologists define culture in different ways.
 According to Edward B. Tylor,
 culture is “a complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, art, morals,
law, custom, and any other capabilities and habits acquired by man as a
member of society”.
 B. Malinowski(father of Anthropology) has defined
 culture “as cumulative creation of man".
 Robert Bierstadt says,
 “Culture is the complex whole that consists of everything we think and do and
have as members of society.”
 Thus, culture is includes all things beyond nature and biology.
 It includes moral, intellectual and spiritual discipline for advancement, in
accordance with the norms and values based on accumulated heritage.
 Culture is a system of learned behavior shared by and transmitted among the
members of the group. 20

2.2 Characteristic Features of Culture
Culture is
 Learned
 Shared
 Symbolic
 All-Encompassing
 Dynamic
 Pass from generation to generation
 Adoptive/maladaptive
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1. Culture Is Learned:
 Culture is not transmitted genetically rather; it is acquired through the process of
learning or interacting with one’s environment.
 More than any other species human relies for their survival on behavior patterns that
are learned.
2. Culture Is Shared:
 For a thing, idea, or behavior pattern to qualify as being “cultural” it must have a
shared meaning by at least two people within a society.
 In order for a society to operate effectively, the guidelines must be shared by its
members.
3. Culture Is Symbolic:
 Symbolic thought is unique and crucial to humans and to cultural learning.
 A symbol is something verbal or nonverbal, within a particular language or culture
that comes to stand for something else.
4. Culture Is All-Encompassing
 Culture encompasses all aspects, which affect people in their everyday lives.
 Culture comprises countless material and non-material aspects of human lives.
 Culture is the sum total of human creation: intellectual, technical, artistic, physical,
and moral; it is the complex pattern of living that directs human social life, and which
each new generation must learn and to which they eventually add with the dynamics
of the social world and the changing environmental conditions.
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5. Culture Is Integrated:
 When we view cultures as integrated systems, we can see how
particular culture traits fit into the whole system and, consequently,
how they tend to make sense within that context.
 A culture is a system, change in one aspect will likely generate
changes in other aspects.
 The physical human body comprises a number of systems, all
functioning to maintain the overall health of the organisms, including
among others, such system as the respiratory system, the digestive
system, the skeletal system, excretory system, the reproductive
system, and lymphatic system.
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6. Culture Can Be Adaptive and Maladaptive:
 Humans have both biological and cultural ways of coping
with environmental stresses.
 Besides our biological means of adaptation, we also use
"cultural adaptive kits," which contain customary
activities and tools that aid us.
 People adapt themselves to the environment using culture.
 This ability is attributed to human’s capacity for creating
and using culture.
 Sometimes, adaptive behavior that offers short-term
benefits to particular subgroups or individuals may harm
the environment and threaten the group's long-term
survival. 24

 Example: Automobiles permit us to make a living by getting us from
home to workplace. But the by-products of such "beneficial"
technology often create new problems.
 Chemical emissions increase air pollution, deplete the ozone layer,
and contribute to global warming.
 Many cultural patterns such as overconsumption and pollution appear
to be maladaptive in the long run.
7. Culture Is Dynamic:
 There are no cultures that remain completely static year after year.
 Culture is changing constantly as new ideas and new techniques are
added as time passes modifying or changing the old ways.
 This is the characteristics of culture that stems from the culture’s
cumulative quality
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2.3 Aspects/Elements of Culture
 There are two types of culture: material and non material
2.3.1 Material culture
 Material culture consist of man-made objects such as tools,
implements, furniture, automobiles, buildings, dams, roads, bridges,
and in fact, the physical substance which has been changed and
used by man.
 It is concerned with the external, mechanical and utilitarian objects.
 It includes technical and material equipment. It is referred to as
civilization.
2.3.2 Non – Material culture
 It is something internal and intrinsically valuable, reflects the inward
nature of man.
 Non-material culture consists of the language people speak, the beliefs
they hold, values and virtues they cherish, habits they follow, rituals
and practices that they do and the ceremonies they observe.
 It also includes our customs and tastes, attitudes and outlook, in brief,
our ways of acting, feeling and thinking.
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 Some of the aspects of non-material culture listed as follows:
 Values:
 Values are the standards by which member of a society define what is good or bad,
beautiful or ugly.
 Every society develops both values and expectations regarding the right way to
reflect them.
 Values are a central aspect of the nonmaterial culture of a society and are important
because they influence the behavior of the members of a society.
 Beliefs:
 Beliefs are cultural conventions that concern true or false assumptions, specific
descriptions of the nature of the universe and humanity’s place in it.
 Values are generalized notions of what is good and bad; beliefs are more specific
and, in form at least, have more content.
 “Education is good” is a fundamental value in American society, whereas “Grading
is the best way to evaluate students” is a belief that reflects assumptions about the most
appropriate way to determine educational achievement.
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 Norms:
 Norms are shared rules or guidelines that define how people “ought”
to behave under certain circumstances.
 Norms are generally connected to the values, beliefs, and ideologies
of a society.
 Norms vary in terms of their importance to a culture, these are:
 a) Folkway: Norms guiding ordinary usages and conventions of everyday
life are known as folkways. Folkways are norms that are not strictly
enforced, such as not leaving your seat for an elderly people inside a
bus/taxi. They may result in a person getting a bad look.
 b) Mores: Mores (pronounced MOR-ays) are much stronger norms than are
folkways. Mores are norms that are believed to be essential to core values
and we insist on conformity. A person who steals, rapes, and kills has
violated some of society’s most important mores.
 People who violate mores are usually severely punished, although
punishment for the violation of mores varies from society to society.
 It may take the form of ostracism, vicious gossip, public ridicule,
exile, loss of one’s job, physical beating, imprisonment, commitment
to a mental asylum, or even execution
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2.4 Cultural Unity and Variations: Universality,
Generality and Particularity of Culture
 Certain cultural features are universal (found in every culture), others
are merely generalities (common to several but not all human groups),
other traits are particularities (unique to certain cultural traditions).
1) Universality- (found in every culture),
 Universals are cultural traits that span across all cultures.
 A great example of universality is that whether in Africa or Asia,
Australia, or Antarctica, people understand the universal concept of
family.
 Anthropologists would argue that it's just what we as humans do - we
organize ourselves into families that are based on biology.
 No matter where you choose to travel and explore, you'll find a family
system.
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2) Generality: common to several but not all human groups
 Generalities are cultural traits that occur in many societies but not all
of them.
 Societies can share same beliefs and customs because of borrowing
Domination (colonial rule) when customs and procedures are imposed
on one culture can also cause generality Independent innovation of
same cultural trait – Farming Examples: – Nuclear family Parents and
children.
3) Particularity: unique to certain cultural traditions
 Trait of a culture that is not widespread Cultural borrowing – traits
once limited are more widespread Useful traits that don’t clash with
current culture get borrowed Examples: – Food dishes Particularities
are becoming rarer in some ways but also becoming more obvious
Borrowed cultural traits are modified Marriage, parenthood, death,
puberty, birth all celebrated differently.
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2.5. Evaluating Cultural Differences: Ethnocentrism and Cultural Relativism
A. Ethnocentrism:
 The common response in all societies to other cultures is to judge
them in terms of the values and customs of their own familiar culture.
 Ethnocentrism refers to the tendency to see the behaviors, beliefs,
values, and norms of one's own group as the only right way of living
and to judge others by those standards.
 Being fond of your own way of life and having negative attitude
toward other cultures is normal for all people.
 Because of ethnocentrism, we often operate on the premise that our
own society’s ways are the correct, normal, better ways, for acting,
thinking, feeling and behaving.
 Our own group is the center or axis of everything, and we scale
and rate all others with reference to it.
 Ethnocentrism is not characteristic only of complex modern societies.
 People in small, relatively isolated societies are also ethnocentric in
their views about outsiders. 31

B. CULTRUAL RELATIVISM:
 We cannot grasp the behavior of other people if we interpret what they say
and do in the light of our values, beliefs, and motives.
 Instead, we need to examine their behavior as insiders, seeing it within the
framework of their values, beliefs and motives.
 The concept of cultural relativism states that cultures differ, so that a cultural
trait, act, or idea has no meaning but its meaning only within its cultural
setting.
 Cultural relativism suspends judgment and views about the behavior of
people from the perspective of their own culture.
 Every society has its own culture, which is more or less unique.
 Every culture contains its own unique pattern of behavior which may seem
alien to people from other cultural backgrounds.
 We cannot understand the practices and beliefs separately from the wider
culture of which they are part.
 A culture has to be studied in terms of its own meanings and values.
 Cultural relativism describes a situation where there is an attitude of respect
for cultural differences rather than condemning other people's culture as
uncivilized or backward.
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 Respect for cultural differences involves:
 Appreciating cultural diversity;
 Accepting and respecting other cultures;
 Trying to understand every culture and its elements in
terms of its own context and logic;
 Accepting that each element of custom has inherent dignity
and meaning as the way of life of one group
 Knowing that a person's own culture is only one among
many; and
 Recognizing that what is immoral, ethical, acceptable, etc,
in one culture may not be so in another culture.
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2.6 Culture Change
 Culture change can occur as a result of the following Mechanisms:
 Enculturation:- is the process of learning cultural traits at the first time
 Acculturation:- is the process of exchanging cultural traits( artfacts, customs,
beliefs) with others.
 Assimilation:- the final stage of cultural change mechanisms.
 Invention:- is the process of introducing new ideas, things, objects, devices,
and methods to the society.
 Globalization:- the process of socialization, interaction and integration of
people’s among all over the world through company, government system,
politically, socially and economically.
 Diffusion:-is the process of spreading / borrowing cultural trairts, it may be;-
 1. Direct-through direct contact( war, trade,migration)
 2.Indirect-through mass media and technology
 3.forced- through subjugate( to defeat and again control of someone)
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2.7 Ties That Connect: Marriage, Family and Kinship
2.7.1 MARRIAGE:
 Almost all known societies recognize marriage.
 The ritual of marriage marks a change in status for a man and a woman and
the acceptance by society of the new family that is formed.
 The term marriage is not an easy terms to define.
 For years, anthropologists have attempted to define these terms in such a
way to cover all known societies.
 Frequently, anthropologists have debated whether or not families and the
institutions of marriage are universals.
 One interesting case is that the Nayar of Southern India, did not have
marriage in the conventional sense of the term.
 Although teenage Nayar girls took a ritual husband in a public ceremony, the
husband took no responsibility for the women after the ceremony, and
frequently he never saw her again.
 Thus the Nayar do not have marriage according to our definition in that
there is no economic, cooperation, regulation of sexual activity,
cohabitation, or expectation of permanency. 35

2.7.1.1 Rules of Marriage
 Societies also have rules that state whom one can and cannot marry.
 The most common form of prohibition is mating with certain type of kin that
are defined by the society as being inappropriate sexual partners.
 These prohibitions on mating with certain categories of relatives known as
incest taboos.
 The most universal form of incest taboo involves mating between members
of the immediate (nuclear) family: mother-sons, father-daughters, and
brother-sisters.
 There are a few striking examples of marriage between members of the
immediate family that violate the universality of the incest taboo.
 For political, religious, or economic reasons, members of the royal families
among the ancient Egyptians, Incas and Hawaiians were permitted to mate
with and marry their siblings, although this practiced did not extended to the
ordinary members of those societies.
 Marriage is, therefore, a permanent legal union between a man and a
woman.
 It is an important institution without which the society could never be
sustained.
36

 In a society one cannot marry anyone whom he or she likes.
 There are certain strict rules and regulations.
 a) Exogamy:
 This is the rule by which a man is not allowed to marry someone
from his own social group.
 Such prohibited union is designated as incest. Incest is often
considered as sin.
 Different scholars had tried to find out the explanation behind this
prohibition. i.e. how incest taboo came into operation.
 In fact, there are some definite reasons for which practice of exogamy
got approval.
 They are: A conception of blood relation prevails among the members
of a group.
 Therefore, marriage within the group-members is considered a
marriage between a brother and sister
37

b) Endogamy:
 A rule of endogamy requires individuals to marry within their own group
and forbids them to marry outside it.
 Religious groups such as the Amish, Mormons, Catholics, and Jews have
rules of endogamy, though these are often violated when marriage take place
outside the group.
 Castes in India and Nepal are also endogamous.
c) Preferential Cousin Marriage:
 A common form of preferred marriage is called preferential cousin marriage
and is practiced in one form or another in most of the major regions of the
world.
 This type of marriage include;
 Cross Cousins: are children of siblings of the opposite sex- that is one’s
mother’s brothers’ children and one’s father’s sisters’ children.
 The most common form of preferential cousin marriage is between cross
cousins because it functions to strengthen and maintain ties between kin
groups established by the marriages that took place in the proceeding
generation.
 Parallel Cousins: When marriage takes place between the children of the
siblings of the same sex, it is called parallel cousin marriage. are children of
siblings of the same sex, namely the children of one’s mother’s sister and
one’s father brother.
38

d) The Levirate and Sororate
 Another form of mate selection that tends to limit individual choice
are those that require a person to marry the husband or wide of
deceased kin.
 The levirate- is the custom whereby a widow is expected to marry the
brother (or some close male relative) of her dead husband.
 Usually any children fathered by the woman’s new husband are
considered to belong legally to the dead brother rather than to the
actual genitor.
 The sororate, which comes into play when a wife dies, is the practice
of a widower’s marrying the sister (or some close female relative) of
his deceased wife.
 In the event that the deceased spouse has no sibling, the family of the
deceased is under a general obligation to supply some equivalent
relative as a substitute. 39

2.7.1.3. NUMBER OF SPOUSES
 Societies have rules regulating whom one may/may not marry; they
have rules specifying how many mates a person may/should have.
 Monogamy: the marriage of one man to one woman at a time.
 Polygamy: marriage of a man or woman with two or more mates. it
can be of two types:
 Polygyny: the marriage of a man to two or more women at a time.
 Polyandry: the marriage of a woman to two or more men at a time
 Marriage of a man with two or more sisters at a time is called sororal
polygyny. When the co-wives are not sisters, the marriage is termed
as non-sororal polygyny.
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 Advantages & Disadvantages of Polygamy marriage
 Having two/more wives is often seen as a sign of prestige.
 Having multiple wives means wealth, power, & status both for the
polygynous husband, wives and children.
 It produces more children, who are considered valuable for future
economic and political assets.
 Economic advantage: It encourages to work hard (more cows,
goats..) for more wives
 DISADVANTAGE:- The occurrence of jealous among the co-wives
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2.7.1.4 Economic Consideration of Marriage
 Most societies view as a binding contract between at least
the husband and wife and, in many cases, between their
respective families as well.
 Such a contract includes the transfer of certain rights
between the parties involved: rights of sexual access, legal
rights to children, and rights of the spouses to each other’s
economic goods and services.
 Often the transfer of rights is accompanied by the transfer of
some type of economic consideration.
42

 These transactions, which may take place either before or after the marriage can
be divided into three categories: Bride Price, Bride Service and Dowry
1.Bride Price:
 It is also known as bride wealth, is the compensation given upon marriage by the
family of the groom to the family of the bride.
2. Bride Service:
 When the groom works for his wife’s family, this is known as bride service.
 It may be recalled that in the Old Testament, Jacob labored for seven years in
order to marry Leah, and then another seven years to marry Rachel; Leah’s
younger sister, thus performed fourteen years of bride service for his father-in-law.
3. Dowry:
 A dowry involves a transfer of goods or money in the opposite direction, from the
bride's family to the groom’s family.
43

2.7.1.5 Post-Marital Residence
 Where the newly married couple lives after the marriage ritual is
governed by cultural rules, which are referred to as post-marital
residence rule.
 Patrilocal Residence: the married couple lives with or near the
relatives of the husband’s father.
 Matrilocal Residence: the married couple lives with or near the
relatives of the wife.
 Ambilocal/Bilocal Residence: The married couple has a choice of
living with relatives of the wife or relatives of the husband
 Neolocal Residence: The Married couple forms an independent
place of residence away from the relatives of either spouse.
44

2.7.2 FAMILY
 Family is universal institution and the basis of human society.
 It is the most permanent and most pervasive of all social institutions.
 There are 2 types of family structure-the nuclear family and the extended family.
1. The Nuclear Family:
 Consisting of husband and wife and their children, the nuclear family is a two-
generation family formed around the marital union.
 Generally, parents are not actively involved in mate selection for their children, in
no way legitimize the marriages of their children, in no way legitimize the marriages
of their children, and have no control over whether or not their children remain
married.
2. The Extended Family
 In societies based on extended families, blood ties are more important than ties of
marriage.
 Extended families consist of two or more families that are linked by blood ties.
 Most commonly, this takes the form of a married couple living with one or more of
their married children in a single household or homestead and under the authority of
a family head.
45

2.7.2.1 Functions Marriage and Family
 Family performs certain specific functions which can be mentioned as follows:
1. Biological Function:
 The institution of marriage and family serves biological (sexual and reproductive)
function.
 The institution of marriage regulates and socially validates long term, sexual
relations between males and females.
 Thus, husband wife relationship come into existence and become a socially
approved means to control sexual relation and a socially approved basis of the
family.
 Sexual cohabitation between spouses automatically leads to the birth of off-springs.
 The task of perpetuating the population of a society is an important function of a
family.
 Society reproduces itself through family.
2. Economic Function:
 Marriage brings economic co-operation between men and women and ensure
survival of individuals in a society.
 With the birth of off-springs the division of labor based on sex and generation come
into play.
 In small scale societies family is a self-contained economic unit of production,
consumption and distribution.
46

3. Social Function:
 Marriage is based on the desire to perpetuate one’s family line.
 In marriage one adds, not only a spouse but most of the spouse’s
relatives to one’s own group of kin.
 This means the institution of marriage brings with it the creation and
perpetuation of the family, the form of person to person relations and
linking once kin group to another kin group.
4. Educational and Socialization Function:
 The burden of socialization (via processes of enculturation and
education) of new born infants fall primarily upon the family.
 In addition, children learn an immense amount of knowledge, culture,
values prescribed by society, before they assume their place as adult
members of a society.
 The task of educating and enculturating children is distributed among
parents.
 Moreover, family behaves as an effective agent in the transmission of
social heritage.
47

2.7.3 KINSHIP
 The family in which he was born and reared is called ‘family of
orientation’.
 The other family to which he establishes relation through marriage is
called ‘family of procreation’.
 It is a structured system of relationships where individuals are bound
together by complex interlocking and ramifying ties.
 The desire for reproduction gives rise to another kind of binding
relationship.
 “This kind of bond, which arises out of a socially or legally defined
marital relationship, is called a final relationship”, and the relatives
so related are called ‘a final kin’.
 The final kinds [husband and wife] are not related to one another
through blood.
48

2.7.4 DESCENT
 Descent refers to the social recognition of the biological relationship
that exists between the individuals.
 The rule of descent refers to a set of principles by which an individual
traces his descent.
 In almost all societies kinship connections are very significant.
 An individual always possesses certain obligations towards his
kinsmen and he also expects the same from his kinsmen.
 Succession and inheritance is related to this rule of descent.
 There are three important rules of decent are follows;
49

1. Patrilineal descent
 When descent is traced solely through the male line, it is called patrilineal descent.
 A man’s sons and daughters all belong to the same descent group by birth, but it
only the sons who continue the affiliation.
 Succession and inheritance pass through the male line.
2. Matrilineal descent
 When the descent is traced solely through the female line.
 It is called matrilineal descent. At birth, children of both sexes belong to mother’s
descent group, but later only females acquire the succession and inheritance.
 Therefore, daughters carry the tradition, generation after generation.
3. Cognatic Descent
 In some society’s individuals are free to show their genealogical links either
through men or women.
 Some people of such society are therefore connected with the kin-group of father
and others with the kin group of mothers.
 There is no fixed rule to trace the succession and inheritance; any combination of
lineal link is possible in such societies. 50

Unit-Three: Human Diversity, Culture Areas and Contact in
Ethiopia
3.1. Human Beings & Being Human: What it is to be human?
 "Anthropology holds up a great mirror to man and lets him look at
himself in his infinite variety."
- Evolution is dealing with our distant origin, current stage of growth,
forms of adaptation, and predict future direction of development.
- Anthropologists tend to treat humanity as one of the biological
species in the animal kingdom.
- Human biology affects human culture; and similarly,
human culture affects human biology.
- E.g “brain size of humans has become larger over millions of years of
evolution, and this is considered biological change. Whereas, the
change in human brain has brought cultural changes in terms of
increased intelligence, language and even the emergence of writing”.
51

CON’T
 This is why anthropologists use the term biocultural to describe
the dual nature of human evolution: both biological and cultural
dimensions. Human beings are described as a biocultural animal.
 we will see the meaning of biocultural evolution with practical
examples.
 The earliest use of stone tools corresponds with increased
consumption of animal protein. More animal protein in turn
changes the hominid diet and potentially its anatomy.
 The use of clothing (itself a cultural artifact) allows human bodies
to survive in environments they wouldn’t normally survive in.
 Paleo-anthropologists are concerned with understanding how
cultural, non-cultural, and bio-cultural evolutionary factors shaped
humanity through time. 52

 Humanity stands for the human species, a group of life
forms with the following characteristics:
  Bipedalism (walking on two legs);
  Relatively small teeth for primates of our size;
  Relatively large brains for primates of our size;
  Using modern language to communicate ideas; and
  Using complex sets of ideas called culture to survive
 humanity can be applied to modern humans (Homo
sapiens sapiens) as well as some of our most recent
ancestors).
53

COSMOLOGIES VS. EVOLUTIONALLY AND
PALEO-ANTHROPOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS
Write the assumptions of some cosmologies regarding to the origin of
man and the anthologists argument?
Navajo
Toasts
Bible
Ancient Greeks
Anthropology
54

3.2.1.1 COSMOLOGIES AND HUMAN ORIGINS
 Cosmologies are conceptual frameworks that present the universe
(the cosmos) as an orderly system. They often include answers to
these basic questions about human origins and the place of human
kind in the universe, usually considered the most sacred of all
cosmological conceptions.
 These beliefs are transmitted from generation to generation
through ritual, education, laws, art, and language.
 For example, the Navajo people of the southwestern United
States believe that the Holy People, supernatural and sacred,
lived below ground in 12 lower worlds. A massive
underground flood forced the Holy People to crawl through a
hollow reed to the surface of the Earth, where they created the
universe. A deity named Changing Woman gave birth to the
Hero Twins, called Monster Slayer and Child of the
Waters. Human mortals, called Earth Surface People,
emerged, and First Man and First Woman were formed
from the ears of white and yellow corn.
55

 In the tradition of Taoism, male and female
principles known as yin and yang are the spiritual
and material sources for the origins of humans and
other living forms.
 Yin is considered the passive, negative, feminine force
or principle in the universe, the source of cold and
darkness.
 yang is the active, positive, masculine force or principle,
the source of heat and light.
 Taoists believe that the interaction of these two opposite
principles brought forth the universe and all living forms
out of chaos. These examples illustrate just two of the
highly varied origin traditions held by different people
around the world. 56

WESTERN TRADITIONS OF ORIGINS
 In Western cultural traditions, the ancient Greeks had
various mythological explanations for human origins.
One early view was that Prometheus fashioned humans
out of water and earth.
 Another had Zeus ordering Pyrrha, the inventor of fire,
to throw stones behind his back, which in turn became
men and women.
 Later Greek views considered biological evolution. The
Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus (c.636–546BC)
attempted to understand the origin and the existence of
the world without reference to mythology.
 He argued that life originated in the sea and that
humans initially were fishlike, eventually moving
onto dry land and evolving in to mammals. 57

 The most important cosmological tradition affecting
Western views of creation is narrated in the biblical Book
of Genesis, which is found in Greek texts dating back to the
3rdcentury BC. This Judaic tradition describes how God
created the cosmos.
 It begins with “In the beginning God created the heaven
and the earth” and describes how creation took six days
during which light, heaven, Earth, vegetation, Sun, Moon,
stars, birds, fish, animals, and humans originated.
 Yahweh, the Creator, made man, Adam, from “dust” and
placed him in the Garden of Eden. Woman, Eve, was
created from Adam’s rib.
 Later, as Christianity spread throughout Europe, this tradition
became the dominant cosmological explanation of human
origins.
58

EVOLUTIONARY AND PALE ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN
ORIGIN
evolution is used to describe the cumulative effects of three
independent facts. Importantly, these attributes of evolution
can be observed in nature every day. They are:
 Replication: The fact that life forms have offspring;
 Variation: The fact that each offspring is slightly different
from its parents, and its siblings; and
 Selection: The fact that not all offspring survive, and those
that do tend to be the ones best suited to their environment.
 Darwin’s ideas in the study of humans as living, evolving
creatures in many ways no different from the rest of
animal life.
 Many kinds of life forms have become extinct (like the
dinosaurs), but each of today’s living species (including
humanity) has an evolutionary ancestry that reaches far
back in time. 59

THE KINDS OF HUMANITY: HUMAN PHYSICAL
VARIATION
 “Darker skin” Negroid
 “Yellow skin” Mongoloid
 “Red skin” Caucasoid
 A look at the genes shows no significant species-level
differences — only very minor visible ones such as skin color,
shape of nose, or hair texture. Biologically speaking,
though, these differences aren’t important. For most
physical anthropologists (who’ve spent the most time
closely examining human biology), race is nearly
meaningless when applied to humanity.
 This is due to
-Adaptation is can be understood as a process (behavioural and/or
biological) that increases the likelihood of survival for an organism
- The rapid physiological changes
- Biological adaptations
- Nutrition and ecology 60

CULTURE AREA AND CULTURAL CONTACT IN
ETHIOPIA
 from the 1920s where Alfred Kroeber examining given
geographic area.
 In the context of Ethiopia, These are plough culture, Enset
culture area, pastoral societies culture area.
 A. Plough culture area
Most of highland and central
backbone of the economy is considered a plough culture. The
area often called plough culture has been a subject of
anthropological inquires over the past seven decades starting
from the 1950s. Some of the ethnographers who studied the
area that we call plough culture are Donald Levine, Allen
Hobben, Fredrick Gamst and Jack Bauer.
61

CON’T
 B. Enset culture area
 Enset culture area, on the other hand, covers a vast region in
the southern part of country. Enset cultivating regions of the
present day SNNPRS such as the Guraghe, Sidama and
Gedeo areas constitute enset culture area. In this region,
enset serves as a staple diet to the people who make use the
plant in a wide variety of forms for a living.
 William Shack, the peoples of enset, Chicago University
press, 1965.
 C. Pastoral culture area
 Pastoral culture area is found in the low land areas covering a
large section of the Afar in the northwest, Somali in the
southeast and Borena of southern of Ethiopia. As opposed ot
the above the cases, inhabitants of the pastoral culture area
rely significantly on their herds and cattle for a living. Mobility
of people and herds is a major characteristic feature of the
people occupying the pastoral culture area. 62

Unit Four: Marginalized, Minorities, and Vulnerable Groups
4.1 Definition of concepts
 What is marginalization?
 Marginalization is defined as a treatment of a person or social group
as minor, insignificant or peripheral.
 Marginalization involves exclusion of certain groups from social
interactions, marriage relations, sharing food and drinks, and working
and living together.
 Who are mostly marginalized?
 There are marginalized social groups in every society
and culture.
 Women, children, older people, and people with
disabilities are among marginalized groups across the
world. 63

 The nature and level of marginalization varies from society
to society as a result of cultural diversity.
 Religious, ethnic, and racial minorities are also among
social groups marginalized in different societies and
cultures.
 Crafts workers such as tanners, potters, weavers, and
ironsmiths are marginalized in many parts of Ethiopia.
 What is vulnerability?
 Vulnerability refers to the state of being exposed to
physical or emotional injuries.
 Vulnerable groups are people exposed to possibilities of
attack, harms or mistreatment.
64

 As a result, vulnerable persons/groups need special
attention, protection and support.
 For example, children and people with disabilities need
special support and protection as they are exposed to risks
and neglect because of their age and disabilities.
 Universities have introduced special needs education for
students with disabilities to give them special support.
 Minority groups: The phrase ‘minority group’ refers to
a small group of people within a community, region, or
country.
 In most cases, minority groups are different from the
majority population in terms of race, religion, ethnicity,
and language. 65

For example,
 black Americans are minorities in the United States of
America.
 Christians could be minorities in a Muslim majority
country.
 Muslims can be minorities in a predominantly Hindu
society.
 Hence, minority groups can be ethnic minorities,
religious minorities, or racial minorities in a given
community, region of country.
 There are different forms of marginalization.
 In this chapter we will discuss issues related to
occupational, age and gender-based marginalization. 66

4.2 Gender-based marginalization
 Gender inequality involves discrimination on a group of people based on
their gender.
 The manifestations of gender inequality varies from culture to culture.
 Girls and women face negative discrimination in societies across the world.
 Women are exposed to social and economic inequalities involving unfair
distribution of wealth, income and job opportunities.
 Gender-based marginalization is a global problem.
 It involves exclusion of girls and women from a wide range of opportunities
and social services.
 Gender disparities in education, and GBV/VAWGs are good examples.
 Girls in developing countries, especially those who live in remote and rural
areas, are excluded from formal education.
 The enrollment of girls in higher education is much lower than that of boys.
 Women do not enjoy equal employment opportunities.
 They do not have equal rights in terms of property ownership and
inheritance.
 Women and girls are also vulnerable to gender-based violence such as rape,
early/child marriage, forced marriage, domestic violence and female genital
cutting/mutilation.
67

4.3 Marginalized occupational groups
 According to anthropological findings, there are occupational marginalized
groups in many parts of Ethiopia.
 Marginalized occupational groups in Ethiopia include; tanners, potters,
weavers and ironsmiths.
 These craft-workers have different names indifferent parts of the country.
 Craft-workers such as potters and tanners are considered as impure and
excluded from social interactions, ownership of economic resources (e.g.,
land), and participation in associations and celebrations.
 They have important contributions to their communities; however, they are
marginalized by the dominant and majority groups.
 For examples, weavers produce cultural clothes highly demanded by
thousands and millions of people.
 Many people use cultural clothes during annual celebrations, religious
holidays, weddings, culture days, and mourning.
 The demand of cultural dresses has been increasing in the last three decades.
People dress cultural clothes in different occasions such as cultural festivals,
days of nations and nationalities, and religious celebrations.
 Despite their contributions, weavers are marginalized from the wider
society. 68

 Ironsmiths are among occupational groups marginalized in many
cultural setting in Ethiopia.
 Ironsmiths make and repair iron articles without using machines.
 They contribute a lot especially in rural areas. Ironsmiths serve rural
communities by producing farming tools such as plough shares,
sickles, and hoes.
 Ethiopia families widely use household utensils (e.g., knives and axes)
made by ironsmiths.
 Tanners make leather products that serve community members.
 Potters produce pottery articles essential for food processing and
serving and fetching water.
 Despite their contributions, these craft-workers are considered inferior
and marginalized from wide areas of social interactions.
69

Type of marginalization Manifestations of marginalization
Spatial marginalization
 Craft-workers settle/live on the outskirts of villages, near to forests, on poor land,
around steep slopes.
 They are segregated at market places (they sell their goods at the outskirts of
markets).
 When they walk along the road, they are expected to give way for others and walk
on the lower side of the road.
Economic marginalization
 Craft-workers are excluded from certain economic activities including production
and exchanges. In some cultures they are not allowed to cultivate crops.
 They have a limited access to land and land ownership.
Social marginalization
 Craft-workers are excluded from intermarriage, they do not share burial places with
others; they are excluded from membership of associations such as iddirs.
 When marginalized groups are allowed to participate in social events, they must sit
on the floor separately-sometimes outside the house or near the door.
Cultural marginalization
 Occupational minorities are labeled as impure and polluting; they are accused of
eating animals that have died without being slaughtered;
 Occupational minorities are also considered unreliable, lacking morality, respect and
shame.
70

4.4 Age-based vulnerability
 What is age-based vulnerability?
 Age-based vulnerability is susceptibility of people, especially children
and older people, to different forms of attack, physical injuries and
emotional harms.
 For example, children and older people (people aged 60 and above)
are exposed to possibilities of attack, harm and mistreatment because
of their age.
 As a result, vulnerable persons/groups need special attention,
protection and support.
 In this section, we discuss some example related to children and older
people.
 Sex – biological difference
 gender- social difference
71

4.4.1 Children: Discrimination/vulnerability
 Children are among vulnerable groups exposed to harm because of their age.
 Both boys and girls are exposed to some harm and abuse in the hands of
older people.
 However, girls are exposed to double marginalization and
discrimination because of the gender.
 Child girls are exposed to various kinds of harm before they reach at the age
of maturity.
 As discussed earlier in this chapter, girls are exposed to HTPs such as
female genital cutting.
 Minor girls are also exposed to early/child marriage in many parts of
Ethiopia.
 Early/child marriage: Early marriage refers to marriage which involves girls
below the age of 18.
 The prevalence of early marriage is declining in Ethiopia and other African
countries.
 However, it is still widely practiced in different regions of Ethiopia.
 Early marriage is regarded as violation of the rights of the child.
72

 Early marriage has the following major harmful consequences:
 Young girls enter into marital relation when they are too young to give their consent
to get married.
 Early marriage inhibits girls' personal development; it hinders girls’ chance to
education and future professional development.
 Early marriage exposes young girls to sexual abuse by their older husbands.
 Early marriage leads to early pregnancies, which increases risks of diseases and
complications during delivery, fistula, and death of the mother or child.
 Child marriage is an illegal practice according to the Criminal Code of Ethiopia.
Despite this legal restrictions, however, early marriage is still practiced in different
regions of the country.
 Facts about early marriage in Ethiopia
 40% of all women who are in their early twenties married before the age of 18.
 8% of girls aged 15-19 were married before they reach at the age of 15.
73

Factors of early marriage
 Social norms: Social norms contribute a lot for the continuation of early
marriage in many parts of the world.
 Chastity(purity) of girls is one of the social norms that influence parents to
protect girls from pre-marital sex.
 The value attached to virginity is another driver of early marriage.
 Girl’s status and family social status are associated with sexual purity of
girls.
 Parents incline to marry off their daughter before the girl reach at the stage
of poverty to avoid the possibility of pre-marital sex and love affair.
 Economic factors are among the major factors that drive child
marriage.
 In many areas of Ethiopia marriage provides economic security for young
girls.
 Hence, parents, in some cases girls, support early marriage for economic
benefits such as access to land and other resources.
 Parents’ desire to get a good husband for their daughter is also another
reason. 74

4.4.2 Marginalization of older persons
 We have discussed age-based marginalization considering the
vulnerability of children.
 Age-based marginalization also affects older people.
 The phrase ‘older people’ refers to adults with the age of 60 and
above.
 The number of older people is increasing globally.
 According to the estimation of the United Nations (2009), the
number of older people will increase to 2 billion by 2050.
 Eighty percent of the 2 billion older persons would live in low and
middle-income countries.
 This means Africa would have a large number of older adults after
30 years.
 Ethiopia, the second populous country in Africa, would also have
millions of older persons after three decades.
75

 People’s attitude towards older persons is changing over time in
Ethiopia and all over the world.
 Older men and women have been respected across Ethiopian
cultures.
 Older persons have been considered as defenders of tradition,
culture, and history.
 The role of older persons crucial in mentoring younger people,
resolving disputes, and restoring peace across Ethiopian cultures.
 Situations are changing as family structures and living patterns are
changing over time.
 Rural-urban migration, changes in values and life style, education
and new employment opportunities lead to so many changes.
 Care and support for older people tend to decline as younger people
migrate to urban areas and exposed to economic pressure and new life
styles.
 Ageism is a widely observed social problem in the world.
 Ageism refer to stereotyping, bias, and discrimination against people
based on their age.
76

4.5. Religious and ethnic minorities
 We have discussed the marginalization of different social and
occupational groups in different socio-cultural contexts.
 Religious and ethnic minorities groups also face different forms of
marginalization.
 There are several examples of marginalization and discrimination
targeting religious and ethnic minorities in the world.
 Let us mention two examples.
 The Jewish people suffered from discrimination and persecution
in different parts of the world.
 They were targets of extermination in Germany and other
Western European countries because of their identity.
 Muslim Rohingyas are among the most marginalized and
persecuted people in the world.
77

 According to Abdu Hasnat Milton et al (2017), the Rohingya are
‘one of the most ill-treated and persecuted refugee groups in the
world’.
 In recent years, more than half-a-million Rohingyas fled from
their homes in Myanmar to neighboring countries such as
Bangladesh.
 As people living in refugee camps, the Rohingyas are vulnerable
to problems such as malnutrition and physical and sexual abuse.
 These are among the widely known examples of discrimination
against religious and ethnic minorities.
 The problem is not limited to specific areas, regions or countries.
 Although the level of the problem varies in different contexts,
religious and ethnic minorities face different forms of
discrimination in many parts of the world.
78

4.6. Human right approaches and inclusiveness:
Anthropological perspectives
 All forms of marginalization and discrimination against vulnerable
and minority groups contradict the principles of human rights.
 The major human rights conventions denounce discrimination against
women, children, people with disability, older people and other
minority and vulnerable groups.
 People with disabilities have the right to inclusive services and equal
opportunities.
 The human rights of women and girls include right to be free
from harmful traditional practices such as forced marriage, early
marriage, and female genital cutting.
 Any form of discrimination, exclusion, and gender-based violence
also violate the human rights girls and women. 79

 Anthropology appreciates cultural diversity and commonality.
 Do you remember the meaning of cultural relativism? It is one of the
guiding principles in social anthropology.
 It is about the importance of understanding the values, norms, customs
and practices of a particular culture in its own context.
 This requires appreciating the life styles of others including their
dressing styles, food habits, beliefs, rituals and celebrations.
 It also requires avoiding value judgments such as saying ‘this custom
is backward or primitive’.
 This does not mean that we need to appreciate every custom and
practice.
 Anthropologists do not support/appreciate cultural practices that
violate the rights and wellbeing of individuals and
80

CHAPTER FIVE: IDENTITY, ETHNICITY AND RACE
Introduction
 Human beings have the ability to think about and reflect
upon the nature of the social world and their position in
that world.
 This ability allows to develop values and norms that
characterize the culture of a society.
 The creative dimension of human consciousness enable to
impose meaning and purpose on events.
 The cultural values and norms we create reflect back upon
us.
 This shapes the way we think and act (through the general
socialization process in society).
81

 Major theoretical dilemma for social scientists.
1. Our consciousness gives us the ability to create societies
and, theoretically at least, to shape them in any way that we
choose.
 In this respect, people clearly create society.
2. On the other hand, the societies we create take on a life of
their own that is separate from each individual (that is, we
experience society as a force acting on our range and choice
of behavior).
 If we have to be socialized into becoming a recognizable human being and
this socialization process reflects the values and norms of cultures and
subcultures, then effectively society is creating us, not the other way
around.
82

Definitions
 Identity is widely used & it means many d/t things to d/t pple.
 Identity -the distinctive character belonging to any given individual, or
shared by all members of a particular social category or group.
 It emphasizes the sharing of a degree of sameness or oneness with
others of a particular characteristic
 Identity-a sense of integration of the self, in which different aspects
come together in a unified whole.
 social identity refers specifically to those aspects of a person that
are defined in terms of his or her group memberships.
 Although most people are members of many different groups, only
some of those groups are meaningful in terms of how we define
ourselves.
 our self-definition is shared with other people who also claim that
categorical membership, e.g. as a woman, as a Muslim, as a
marathon runner, or as a Democrat.
83

Korostelina (2009) defined social identity in terms of
 Membership- The meaning of this identity can be found in the
answer to the question ―Who am I as X? where X is the group
or social category.
 Role- a social group is a set of individuals who interact by
accepting different interconnected roles.
 Individuals have different social identities depending on their roles and positions
within a group.
 Collective Social Identity- collective identity can be described
through the achievement of a collective aim for which this
group has been created.
84

James D. Pearson (1999) reviewed identity as
 Is people's concepts of who they are, of what sort of people they are, and
how they relate to others" .
 describe the way individuals and groups define themselves and are defined
by others on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, language, and culture".
 the ways in which individuals and collectivities are distinguished in their
social relations with other individuals and collectivities.
 National identity describes that condition in which a mass of people have
made the same identification with national symbols {have internalized the
symbols of the nation ..." .
 Identities are relatively stable, role-specific
understandings and expectations about self" .
85

 Social identities are sets of meanings that an actor attributes
to itself while taking the perspective of others, that is, as a
social object
 The term [identity] (by convention) references mutually
constructed and evolving images of self and other" .
 Identities are prescriptive representations of political actors
themselves and of their relationships to each other"
(Kowert and Legro 1996, 453).
86

 Our identity is defined by the commitments and
identifications which provide the frame or horizon
within which we can try to determine from case to
case what is good, or valuable, or what ought to be
done, or what we endorse or oppose".
 Identity is any source of action not understandable
from biophysical regularities, and to which observers
can attribute meaning"
 Identity is objectively defined as location in a certain
world and can be subjectively appropriated only
along with that world.
87

 Identity is not a fixed point but an ambivalent point.
 Identity is also the relationship of the Other to
oneself.
 It is how one answers the question who are you?"
 My identity is how I define who I am.
 A person's identity is how the person defines who he
or she is").
 For example, an Ethiopian, sociologist, Oromo,
Somali, Muslim, protestant, adult
88

Self and identity
 Self is distinct identity that we create that sets us apart from
others.
 It changes from time to time.
 Meads identified three stages of development of self
I. Preparatory stage -children imitate the people around them especially of
family members with whom they continually interact
II. Play stage -child begins to pretend to be other people. Example to become a
doctor, captain, etc. it is the stage of role taking.
III. The game stage-the stage where children grasp their own social position
and other around them
 Thinking of your selves as a group member is social
identity while thinking yourself as a unique individual is
personal identity
89

Identity crisis
 A condition where somebody feels great anxiety, confusion and uncertainty
about his/her identity and role in life.
Types of Social Identity
Five distinct types of social identification: ethnic, religious , gender, age,
and regional.
 There are numerous types of identity, each of which reflects a
unique criterion that may be used to differentiate between
individuals or groups, or alternatively to establish or reinforce
commonality among or within them.
 D/t criteria include: sex, gender, age, generation, sexual
orientation, disability, socio-economic (class), occupation,
culture, ethnicity, race, religion, nationality, language, ideology,
and territorial allegiance, among others.
90

 The types of identities that these criteria define are all based on socially
and/or culturally relevant similarities and distinctions that are operative
in any given societal context.
 However, both their nature and relative saliency may vary from situation
to situation, culture to culture, and society to society. (e.g. age
cohort(group), tribe and lineage, moiety and clan).
 Each of these types of social identification has some unique
characteristics that make it somewhat different from another type.
 Relationship identities, in particular, have some special features.
 To be a mother, for example, can imply a sense of shared experience with
other people who are mothers.
91

Major sources of identity
A. GENDER IDENTITY
 Gender is defined in terms of the particular cultural characteristics that
people give to different biological sexes.
 Gender refers to the various ways that cultures discuss (or ascribe) all
kinds of behavioral differences to biological males and females.
 The first conscious label applied to human infants is that of sex, followed
closely and intimately by that of gender.
 These labels are significant because they will be used to tell people
things such as:
 How to raise a child appropriately in terms of its gender;
 The types of behavior/roles that a culture expects
 Gender is a very significant source of identity in our society, b/c
of the social characteristics we give to children of different
genders.
92

 Gender clearly Affect the various ways that we behave
 The rules that apparently govern (or structure if you prefer)
the roles that we play in life.
 Thus, to be male or female in our society means conforming to
various cultural rules and expectations around what it means
to be male or female.
 The first thing we need to do, therefore, is to identify the rules
of gender in our society.
 how and why these rules develop, are maintained and can be changed.
93

Gender Identities
 As should be apparent, when thinking about any form of
social identity we are talking about the way we see
ourselves and the way others see us.
 Aspects of male roles, reflecting the kinds of
assumptions we make about how men should behave,
include:
 Leadership;
 Taking control of situations;
 Making decisions; and
 Being active, worldly, unemotional and aggressive.
 Men are not supposed to be particularly emotional (crying, for
example, is generally not considered a permissible male action
 Men are allowed to be blunt(frank), loud, and sloppy (chaotic) in
their behavior and dress.
 In their sexual relationships, men are expected to openly take the
initiative and they are allowed much greater scope in their sexuality
(sexual promiscuity).
94

Aspects of female roles on the other hand,
again reflecting the kinds of assumptions we
make about how men should behave, include:
 Physical dependence (especially during pregnancy);
 Emotional behavior;
 Lack of control; and
 Being passive, motherly and family-oriented.
95

Age
 is rooted in biological development.
 All pass through various phases of physical development,
 Age group has clear cultural connotations with regard to identity.
 Thus, people are socialized into normative associations between age
and behavior.
 Four very broad cultural groupings based around age, namely:
 Childhood
 Youth
 Adulthood and
 Old Age
 Each of these groups reflects certain cultural assumptions about how it is
appropriate and/or inappropriate for people of a certain age to behave.
96

Region
 Region (or geographic location) is a further example of the way we use our
perception of physical objects (in this case, places where we were born or now live)
as a means of constructing a sense of identity (both personal and group).
 Initially we can focus on two main aspects of region:
 The Concepts of Nation and Nationality; and
 The idea of Regional Variations within different Nations.
 The concept of a Nation (and, as a consequence, the concept of nationality) relates,
geographically, to the idea of dividing the world into various States (hence the
concept of a Nation-state).
 That is, the people who are born and live within certain geographic boundaries have
a sense of belonging to or being a part of a particular Nation.
 People imagine themselves to have a specific nationality.
 The idea of nationality (related to concepts of patriotism and national identity) has
been and continue to be powerfully emotive cultural forms in modern societies.
97

ETHNIC IDENTITIES
 Ethnicity is a central element of self-definition and becomes an
important social identity.
 In the past, social scientists categorized human beings in
terms of basic racial categories, such as Asian, Caucasian,
and Negroid.
 With increasing awareness of the arbitrary nature of the social
construction of race, these categories are less frequently used.
 More common today is categorization on the basis of ethnicity,
defined in terms of culture, language, and country of origin.
 Nationality can be closely linked to ethnic identity, but it often
represents a distinct way of identifying oneself.
 Like most identities, national identities are flexible and
subjectively defined.
98

Multiplicity and Inter-sectionality of social identity
 Multiple identities & having separate identities
 Theories emanating from personality psychology focus on
the possibilities for integrating multiple identities into a
single identity.
 Within that particular tradition, the successful resolution of
potential conflicts among identities is seen as a criterion of
the healthy personality.
 There is general agreement among experts of identities that social roles
somehow provide cohesiveness for society, and promote order and
stability whichpermitindividuals toliveinrelative harmony.
99

 Besides, there is inter-sectionality among various social identities.
 Intersectionality refer to the specific conditions that exist when one
holds two or more social statuses.
 Often discussion has focused on the intersections of race and gender,
 To be a Black female as opposed to being a Black male or a White
female.
 Ethnicity may be experienced differently in terms of gender.
 Proponents of intersectionality suggest that it is not possible to clearly
distinguish between experience that is related to race and experience
that is related to gender.
 Rather, the conditions are inextricably bound together in the
individual‘s life.
100

Development and Change of identity
 Identity overlaps and intersections cannot be examined in a vacuum.
 The role played by various social actors in these identification
processes.
 Three distinct, yet intertwined and mutually reinforcing, processes:
1. Identity development/formation,
2. Identity construction, and
3. Identity negotiation.
 Identity development/formation refers to the cognitive
developmental processes that each individual undergoes throughout
the maturation process as s/he explores his or her place in the world
and develops a unique sense of self.
 Different developmental stages and variations according to age,
gender, ethnicity, race, and culture.
101

 The role of various factors in identity development
 This includes an examination of the impact of
 place of birth,
 migration experience,
 religious affiliation,
 cultural differences,
 parenting,
 socialization,
 education, the state, language, cultural forms and industries,
moral factors, value orientations, in addition to racism and
hate/bias activity.
102

SOCIAL IDENTITY: CONSTRUCTION AND DECONSTRUCTIONS
 People have multiple social identities characterized by
distinct attributes and behaviors
 Many identification processes occur
 Identity construction refers to the creation,
formulation and expression of personal and/or social
identities for the self, either by individuals or groups
 Identity negotiation refers to the political nature of
personal and social identification of self and/or other,
between or among, and by or within groups, via the
interactions of individuals.
 Identities can be ascribed, achieved, or simply
assumed both by individuals and collectivities.
103

 Consideration of identity construction and negotiation
reveals that identities are not simply ascribed or achieved
as part of the individual's socialisation and developmental
process.
 Instead, they are socially constructed and negotiated,
both by individuals and social groups.
 Thus, these two processes help to inform the very range of
socially-salient identities from which individuals can select.
 Identity construction and negotiation reveals important
identification discrepancies.
 Are indicative of both personal struggles and important
societal tensions
104

 Certainly the forces of socialization act on the individual
to define gender.
 Parents describe their newborn children differently as a
function of gender—daughters are seen as more delicate
(gentle)and sons as better coordinated.
 Teachers as early as preschool engage in behaviors that
shape the behaviors of boys and girls in different ways,
 more often asking girls to be quiet or to speak softly.
 Thus, gender identity develops not in a vacuum, but in a
social context in which representations and beliefs about
gender are well established and actively fostered.
105

 Long-term shifts in social identities develop over time
 The expression of social identities can fluctuate considerably.
 Fluctuations in identity(shift from one identity to another) provide
evidence of the ways in which people respond to their environment
and can make choices that seem most appropriate to that setting.
Factors influencing identity negotiation
 the range and importance of social identities that a person has,
 the setting in which one is located, and
 the actions and influence of other people in those settings.
106

The Notion of Ethnicity and Ethnic Identity
 Within sociology, the terms race, ethnicity, minority,
and dominant group all have very specific and
different meanings.
 Ethnicity has been best defined within Sociology,
 But it has been a debated topic
 There is no single definition or theory of how ethnic
groups are formed.
 Overall, an ethnic group or ethnicity has been defined
in numerous ways.
107

MERGER (2003) IDENTIFIED FIVE BASIC ASPECTS.
1. Unique Cultural Traits: Ethnic groups are subculture maintaining certain
behavioral characteristics that to some extent set them off from society‘s mainstream
culture.
2. Sense of community: display awareness of close associations.
 exists a we‖-feeling among members.
 sense of oneness derived from understanding of shared ancestor.
3. Ethnocentrism: is the tendency to judge other groups by the standards and values
of one’s own group.
The “we” feeling of ethnic groups produces a view of one’s own group
as superior to others.
 In group become “correct” and “natural,”
 Out - groups are seen as “odd,” “immoral,” or “unnatural. inferior or deficient
 Such inclination is a universal practice.
 In multiethnic societies, such feelings of group superiority become a basis for group
solidarity and fosters cohesiveness within one group, but also a basis of conflict
between different groups and deadly ethnic divisions
108

4) Ascribed Membership:
 Ethnic group membership is ordinarily ascribed and acquired at birth
 It is not subject to basic change but unusual circumstances.
 Change ethnic affiliation is possible e.g by changing one‘s name or
by denying group membership.
 But it is extremely difficult to divest/separate oneself completely of
one‘s ethnic heritage.
 If it is easy to resign from the group, it is not truly an ethnic
group (Hughes & Hughes).
5) Territoriality
 Ethnic groups often occupy a distinct territory within the larger
society.
 maintain a definable territory within the greater society.
 When ethnic groups occupy a definable territory, they also maintain
or aspire to some degree of political autonomy.
109

HUTCHINSON AND SMITH‘S (1996:6–7) - SIX MAIN FEATURES
1. A common proper name, to identify and express the
―essence of the community;
2. A myth of common ancestry that includes the idea of
common origin in time and place and a sense of fictive
kinship;
3. Shared historical memories, or better, shared memories of a
common past or pasts, including heroes, events, and their
commemoration
4. One or more elements of common culture include religion,
customs, and language
5. A link with a homeland, not necessarily its physical
occupation by the ethnic, only its symbolic attachment to the
ancestral land
6. A sense of solidarity on the part of at least some sections of
the ethnic's population
110

Gerald Berreman (1972, 1981) defines
 Ethnicity as one level of social stratification or social inequality that also
includes race, class, kinship, age, estate, caste, and gender.
 Berreman provides clear distinctions between ethnicity and race or class.
Ethnicity Vs Race
 Ethnicity is linked in a dichotic relationship with race.
 Racial stratification is associated with birth-ascribed status based on physical and
cultural characteristics defined by outside groups.
 Ethnicity is also ascribed at birth, but the ethnic group normally defines its
cultural characteristics itself.
 Racial categorizations are normally mixed with inaccuracies and stereotypes,
 Ethnic classification is normally more accurate of a cultural group because it is
defined by the group itself.
 Ethnic classifications used by outside groups to stereotype an ethnic community in
ways that are often oversimplified
111

Pluralism
 a condition whereby people of all ethnicities and
races remain distinct but have social equality.
Ideally, countries strive for pluralism,
As an example, the United States is exceptionally
diverse, with people representing groups from all
over the globe, but lacking in true pluralism.
the former Soviet Union with its more than 100
ethnic groups, some having more than a million
members.
112

Two views of ethnic groups
1. an objective unit that can be identified by people‘s
distinctive cultural traits and
2. ethnic group is merely a product of people‘s thinking
of and proclaiming it as ethnic group.
 Most sociologists defined ethnic group both as objective and
subjective units.
 There are some fixed features such as territories, cultural
features and common ancestors (objective) and these ethnic
boundaries are subjected to change (flexible).
 In multiethnic societies
 ethnic boundaries are not rigid
 there is much marriage across ethnic lines
 the voluntary nature of ethnicity becomes more salient.
113

PERSPECTIVES ON THE FORMATION OF ETHNIC GROUPS/IDENTITIES
Primordial theory
 Assume that ethnicity is an ascribed identity-inherited from ones
ancestor.
 It is deeply rooted to bloodline
 Ethnicity is static- exist for ever.
 People belong to an ethnic group b/c share common biological and
cultural features.
 Emphasis the role of primordial factors such as blood and cultural
ties.
 Ethnicity is an emotional tie formed at an early stage by birth.
114

The constructionist school
 Ethnicity is a socially constructed identity- created rather than
ascribed.
 Therefore, ethnic boundaries are flexible and changeable.
 Ethnic membership is determined by society ,depending on the
environment
The instrumentalist school:
 View ethnicity as an instrument/strategy for gaining resources.
 People become member of their ethnic group when their ethnicity
yields significant returns to them i.e. ethnicity exist and persists
because it is useful.
 The function of ethnicity ranges from moral and material to
political gains.
115

An integrated approach:
 Either of the theories listed above do not explain ethnicity
alone rather in integration.
 Proposition 1. Ethnicity is partly ascribed- ancestor,
kinship, cultural and emotional ties developed at early
stage are important .
 Proposition 2. Ethnicity to some extent is socially
constructed by society and individuals.
 Proposition 3. Costs and benefit related to an ethnic group
is also important to some extent in ethnic identification.
 Proposition 4. Ethnic boundaries are relatively stable but
they can change from time to time
116

Why might Ethnic Identity be dysfunctional
 Primordial ethnic loyalties may crush national
purpose;
 Ethnic dominance may permanently bias public
policy in favor of the dominant group
 Minority groups may lose out
 May operate through democratic mechanisms or
various types of dictatorships
 May disrupt democratic mechanisms with coup
d'états etc in order to maintain dominance when
challenged
 More extreme actions of domination may occur
 “Redistribution” in favour of the dominant group
may be at the expense of regional and ethnic
balance and economic growth
117

Does Ethnic Diversity Cause Civil Strife?
Recent or Current cases:
Nigeria: Ogoni and others seeking a greater share of the oil
wealth vs. Federal Government;
Somalia: clan/territorial and sub-clan divisions wreck havoc
Kenya: Luo-Kikuyu rivalry
Chad: rival groups vie for oil wealth
Collier’s conclusion:
Most conflicts have an ethnic dimension; but the real
underlying cause and motivation may be control of resource
wealth and “rents”
i.e. conflicts get patterned on ethnicity or religion, though
fundamental causes usually lie elsewhere
118

Race
 Race is one of the most misunderstood and misused concepts of the modern world.
 It is not applied dispassionately by laypeople or even, to a great extent, by social
scientists.
 Much of the confusion surrounding the idea of race stems from the fact that it has
both biological and social meanings.
 Rather, it can arouse emotions such as hate, fear, anger, loyalty, pride, and prejudice.
 It has also been used to justify some of the most appalling injustices and
mistreatments of humans by other humans.
 The idea of race has a long history, extending as far back as ancient civilizations.
 It is in the modern world, however—specifically, the last two centuries— that the
notion has taken on real significance and fundamentally affected human relations.
119

The Bases Of Racial Classification
 The basis of racial classification is that a person from one genetic population can
interbreed with a person from any other population creates a difficulty in dealing with the
notion of race.
 In answering the question, ―What are the characteristics that differentiate racial types?
 Physical anthropologists distinguish major categories of human traits as either visible
anatomical features such as skin color, hair texture, and body and facial shape—or
genotypes—genetic specifications inherited from one‘s parents.
 Races have traditionally been classified chiefly on the basis of the most easily observable
anatomical traits, like skin color; internal and blood traits have been de-emphasized or
disregarded.
 Attempts to categorize humans have proved futile b/c differences among
individuals of the same group (or ―racial type) are greater than those found between
groups. 120

Social construction of race
 Most social and biological scientists today agree that the idea of race is not
meaningful in a biological sense, though this is hardly a settled issue.
 Its importance for the study of intergroup relations, however, clearly lies in its social
meaning.
 Race is socially constructed and that premise cannot be overemphasized.
 People attach significance to the concept of race and consider it a real and important
division of humanity.
 And, as long as people believe that differences in selected physical traits are
meaningful, they will act on those beliefs, thereby affecting their interrelations with
others.
 If, for example, those classified as black are deemed inherently less intelligent than
those classified as white, people making this assumption will treat blacks
accordingly.
121

 Employers thinking so will hesitate to place blacks in important
occupational positions; school administrators thinking so will
discourage blacks from pursuing difficult courses of study; white
parents thinking so will hesitate to send their children to schools
attended by blacks; and so on.
 The creation of such categories and the beliefs attached to them
generate what sociologists have called the self-fulfilling prophecy.
 This refers to a process in which the false definition of a situation
produces behavior that, in turn, makes real the originally falsely
defined situation.
 The notion of black inferiority is reinforced, and continued
discriminatory treatment of this group is rationalized.
122

 RACE is primarily, though not exclusively, a socially constructed category.
 A race is a group that is treated as distinct in society based on certain characteristics.
 It is often a source of differential and unfair treatment.
 It is not the biological characteristics that define racial groups, but how groups have
been treated historically and socially.
 Society assigns people to racial categories (White, Black, etc.) not because of
science or fact, but because of opinion and social experience.
 Thus, how racial groups are defined is a social process (socially constructed).
 The term race refers to groups of people who have differences and
similarities in biological traits deemed by society to be socially significant, meaning
that people treat other people differently because of them.
123

 Although some scholars have attempted to establish dozens of racial groupings for
the peoples of the world, others have suggested three commonly known types of
race: mongoloid-Asians, Caucasians-Hindus, and Negroids-Africans.
 Certainly, obvious physical differences—some of which are inherited—exist
between humans.
 But how these variations form the basis for social prejudice and discrimination has
nothing to do with genetics but rather with a social phenomenon related to outward
appearances.
 Racism, then, is prejudice based on socially significant physical features. A racist
believes that certain people are superior, or inferior, to others in light of racial
differences.
 Racists approve of segregation, or the social and physical separation of classes of
people.
124

Racism
 Racist thinking involves principles that lead naturally and
inevitably to the differential treatment of members of various ethnic
groups.
 In no society are valued resources distributed equally; in all cases,
some get more than others.
 In multiethnic societies, ethnicity is used as an important basis for
determining the nature of that distribution.
 Ethnic groups are ranked in a hierarchy, and their members are
rewarded accordingly, creating a system of ethnic inequality.
 Groups at the top compound their power and maintain dominance over
those lower in the hierarchy.
125

UNIT FIVE CUSTOMARY AND LOCAL GOVERNANCE
SYSTEMS AND PEACE MAKING
5.1. Indigenous and Local Governance
The role of indigenous governance was indispensable
before the advent of the modern state system.
Anthropologists have been studying indigenous
systems of governance in Ethiopia and other parts of
Africa and they have been used to maintain social order
across Ethiopian regions.
The Oromo Gadaa
It is one of the well-studied indigenous systems of
governance and scholars including Paul Baxter, Eike
Haberland and Asmerom Legesse have been studying the
Oromo Gaada since the 1950s.
Asmerom, a famous anthropologist, is widely known for
his ethnographic studies on the Oromo political system -
the Gaada system, particularly focusing on the Borena
Oromo.
126

 Gadaa system is ‘an age grading institution of the Oromo
that has a complex system of administration, law making
and dispute settlement’.
 It is a highly celebrated institution of egalitarian
(democratic) system of governance and dispute
settlement among the Oromos.
 Political power is transferred from one generation set
(Luuba) to another every eight years.
 Gaada officials such as the Abba Gaada and Abba
Seera (father of law) serve for eight years and leave their
position to the new generation.
 Gumi gaayo, a law making assembly of the Borana
Oromo, is held every eight years to revising, adapting,
making and publicizing the customary law (seera) and
custom (aadaa).
 The system of governance also include institutions of
conflict resolution such as the Jaarsa Biyyaa (elders of
the soil/land).
127

The Gedeo Baalle
 The Gedeo have an indigenous system of governance called Baalle.
 The customary law of the Gedeo is called Seera.
 The Ya’a, the general assembly, is the highest body of governance.
 The Baalle is a complex system which has three administrative
hierarchies:
 Abba Gada, the leader of the Baalle
 Roga, traditional leader next to the Abba Gada, and
 Two levels of council of elders, Hulla Hayyicha and Songo Hayyicha.
 Conflicts are resolved by the Songo hayyicha at village level.
 When disputes are not settled at the village level, referred to first to
the Hulla Hayyicha and finally to the Abba Gada.
 In general, the Gedeo system of governance has the following major
institutions: the ya’a , the Seera, the Abba Gada, and council of elders.
 There are some similarities between the Oromo Gaada and the
Gedeo Baalle system and this is a good example of cross-cultural
similarities in Ethiopia.
128

 Both have grading system and periodic transfer of
power
 The role of religion is high in the two systems.
 Similarities are also observed in the naming of
indigenous institutions.
 For example several ethnic groups use a similar term
with slight variations to refer to their customary law:
 Seera (Oromo),
 Sera (Sidama),
 Serra (Siltie),
 Gordena Sera (Soddo Gurage),
 Senago sera (Mesqan Gurage), and
 Seera (Gedeo).
 Dere Woga of the Gamo
 They organized into several local administrations known
as deres.
129

 Based on anthropological findings, there were more
than 40 deres across the Gamo highland
 Each dere had its own ka’o (king) and halaqa
(elected leader).
 The indigenous system of governance embraces
the dere woga (customary law) and the dubusha -
the general assembly - it is the highest body and
responsible to make and revise customary laws and
resolve major disputes that cannot be solved at the
lower levels.
 The dubushas has three hierarchies:
 The dere dubusha (at the top),
 Sub-dere dubusha (at the middle), and
 Guta/neighborhood dubusha (at the village level).
Minor cases and disputes are resolved by the dere
cima, council of elders.
130

Intra and Inter-ethnic Conflict Resolution Institutions
 Conflicts and disputes exist in every society and may
arise between individuals, groups and communities
within the same or different ethnic groups.
 There are different indigenous institutions of conflict
resolution and peacemaking across regions and cultures
in Ethiopia.
 Some of them are:
 Customary dispute resolution mechanisms;
 Traditional mechanisms of conflict resolution;
 Grassroots justice systems; and
 Customary justice institutions.
 Study findings reveal variations and similarities among
indigenous institutions of conflict resolution in Ethiopi
131

 Common aspects including the following:
 High involvement of elders at different stages
 Preference and respect for elders known for their qualities
including;
 Experience in dispute resolution;
 Knowledge of customary laws, procedures, norms and values
of the society;
 Impartiality, respect for rules and people;
 Ability of listening and speaking politely;
 Honesty and tolerance.
 Focus on restoring social relationships, harmony, and peaceful
coexistence.
 Indigenous justice systems also have differences in terms of
hierarchies, procedures and level of complexities.
 Customary justice institutions include three major components.
These are:
 Customary law: refers to a body of rules, norms, and a set of
moral values
132

 For example the Sera of the Sidama, the dere woga of
the Gamo, the Seera Addaa of the Oromo; Gordena
Sera of Kestane Gurage.
 Council of elders: highly respected and well-experienced
community members who have a detail knowledge of
the customary laws.
 Have personal qualities, truthfulness and experience in
settling conflicts.
 It has different names in various ethnic groups: Yehager
Shimagile (Amhara), Jaarsaa Biyyaa (Oromo), Hayyicha
(Gedeo), Dere Cima (Gamo), Deira Cimma (Wolayita),
and Cimuma (Burji).
 Customary courts: are public assemblies that serve two
major purposes:
 Hearing, discussing and settling disputes, and
 Revising, adapting, and making laws. The Three
Structures of Gamo Customary Justice System
 The Dere Woga: a comprehensive body of rules and
procedures that govern issues including inheritance,
property ownership, marriage and divorce, conflict
resolution and gender division of labor.
133

 The Dere Cima: elders of the land/country - includes
notable and respected elders experienced in resolving
disputes.
 They are expected to have a sound knowledge of the
customary laws, norms and values of the community.
 Dere dubusha: the biggest customary court and has two
major functions:
 Hearing, discussing and resolving disputes, and
 Revising and making laws.
 Dere dubusha is a sacred place where supernatural
power exists and truth prevails.
 It is a place where curses are uttered in its name; justice
is delivered; and important assemblies are held.
Strengths and Limitations of Customary Justice
Institutions
 Strengths of Customary Justice Institutions
 Incur limited cost in terms of time and resources/money;
 Conflict resolution process are held in public spaces and
different parties participate in the process. 134

 Decisions are easily enforced through community-based
sanctions
 Restoring community cohesion, social relations, collective
spirit and social solidarity
 Rely on respect for elders, the tradition of forgiveness,
transferring compensations, embedded in indigenous beliefs
 Limitations of Customary Justice Institutions
 They are dominated by men and women are excluded from
participation at customary courts and assemblies with few
exceptions.
 Their potential in resolving inter-ethnic conflicts and restoring
long-lasting peace is very limited.
 5.3. Inter-ethnic Conflict Resolution
 Most of the time indigenous institution are weak in resolving
inter-ethnic conflicts.
 But there are some examples of inter-ethnic conflict
resolution institutions in some parts of Ethiopia.
 Abbo Gereb, the father of the river Gerewo, is a dispute
resolution institution in Rayya and Wajirat district, Southern
Tigray that address inter-ethnic conflicts.
135

 Abbo Gereb serves to settle disputes between individuals or
groups from highland Tigray and lowland Afar.
 In the area conflict often arises due to dispute over grazing
land or water resources.
 When conflict arises between parties from two ethnic groups,
notable and bilingual elders from Tigray and Afar come
together to resolve the dispute and restore peaceful relations.
 Inter-ethnic conflict resolution mechanisms also exist when
conflicts arise among Afar, Issa, Tigrayans and Argobba.
 The mechanisms have different names like Xinto among the
Afar, Edible among the Issa and Gereb among the Tigrayans.
 5.4. Women’s Role in Conflict Resolution and Peacemaking
Ethiopian women participate in the process of dispute
settlement in exceptional cases. Women participate in
dispute settlement processes when cases are related to
marriage and women’s issues.
136

 They are not completely excluded from conflict resolution and
peacemaking activities.
 In some societies, women use their own institutions to
exercise power, protect their rights, and actively participate in
peacemaking activities. Three examples are; Women’s
Peacemaking Sticks
 Sidama women have two instruments of power:
 The Yakka is women’s association or unity group.
 The Siqqo is a stick that symbolizes peace and women honor
 Don Kachel: Agnuak women peacemaking institution Don
Kachel, ‘let us all live in peace’, is a peacemaking institution.
 The peace-making movement is initiated by Jaye, a group of
wise and elderly Agnuak women.
 The Jaye start a peace-making movement based on
information gathered through women’s networking.
 The Jaye call the disputing parties for a meeting to settle the
dispute.
 After examining the arguments the Jaye give their verdict.
137

 Women’s institution of reconciliation: Raya-Azebo, Tigray
 Debarte is a reconciliation institution of highly respected
Elderly women
 It is important in avoiding harms associated with the culture of
revenge.
 If a man kills another man in a fight, the incident trigger the
feeling of revenge among the relatives of the murdered man.
 In such tense situation, the wife of the killer requests the
Debarte intervention.
 The Debarte quickly start their intervention to stop the act of
revenge.
 They beg the relatives/family of the murdered man to give up
revenge and consider forgiveness
 Finally they give the way for elders to start the peace-making
process
 Legal Pluralism: Interrelations between Customary, Religious
and State Legal Systems
 Legal pluralism refers to the existence of two or more legal or
justice systems in a given society or country.
138

 It indicates the co-existence of multiple legal systems
working side-by-side in the same society. It is evident in
the Ethiopian context.
 Multiple legal institutions, including customary laws and
courts, state laws and courts, and religious laws and
courts (e.g., the Sharia Law) work side-byside in most
parts of the country.
 The FDRE Constitution provides ample space for
religious and customary laws and courts to address
personal and family cases.
 This is because a single legal system does not have a
capability to address all legal cases and maintaining
peace and order. Hence, different justice institutions
work side-by-side in most parts of the country, especially
in remote and rural areas.
 These include; state/formal justice institutions,
customary justice institutions, and religious courts.
139

Unit Seven: Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS) and Practices
7.1. Definition of concepts
7.1.1. Indigenous Knowledge Systems (IKS)
 IKS is defined as technical insight of wisdom gained and developed by
people in a particular locality through years of careful observation and
experimentation with the phenomena around them.
 IKS is not just a set of information that is in the minds of the people, which
can be simply taped and applied. It is accessible by recall and practice
(Mangetane, 2001).
 IKS is embodied in culture and is described as an integrated pattern of
human knowledge, beliefs and behavior.
 It consists of language, ideas, beliefs, customs, taboos, codes, institutions,
tools, techniques, artifacts, rituals, ceremonies, folklores and gender.
 This culture is passed down from one generation to the next generation and
generally it provides a holistic view of how to use natural resources based on
traditional ethical perspectives (Atteh,1991).
 In sum, IKS refers to “ a total of knowledge and practices, whether explicit
or implicit, used in the management of socioeconomic, ecological and
spiritual facets of life (Hoppers, 2005: 2), stored in the collective memory
and communicated orally among members of the community and to the
future generations [through, stories, myth, songs, etc].
140

7.1.2. Indigenous peoples, and Indigenous Knowledge
 Indigenous peoples
 indigenous people' refers to a specific group of people occupying a certain
geographic area for many generations (Loubser, 2005).
 Indigenous people possess, practice and protect a total sum of knowledge and skills
constitutive of their meaning, belief systems, livelihood constructions and
expression that distinguish them from other groups (Dondolo, 2005; Nel, 2005).
 However, the concept “indigenous” is a social and historical construct with high
political, social, and economic stakes.
 Definitions of indigenous in international governing organizations (IGOs), in
indigenous communities, and in the academic literature are highly contested.
 The World Bank's definition of indigenous peoples includes close attachment to
ancestral territories and the natural resources in them; presence of customary social
and political institutions; economic systems primarily oriented to subsistence
production; an indigenous language, often different from the predominant language;
and self-identification and identification by others as members of a distinct cultural
group (The world Bank in Corntassel, 2003:86).
141

 Indigenousness, as defined by indigenous peoples, focuses on the relationship
with the community in which they live.
 In each definition the distinction between the communities is cited. Both
definitions also highlight the relationship of indigenous peoples to the power
structure within the state, noting that indigenous groups are disadvantaged or lack
control.
 Territory is also essential in the definitions.
 Being indigenous is about “continuity of habitation, aboriginality, and often a
‘natural’ connection to the land” (Clifford 1997[1994]:287).
 For example, in the cosmology of Native Hawaiians the land is an ancestor who
gave birth to Hawaiians (Trask 1999). Thus, the relationship to the land is a form
of kinship.
 There is a sense of stewardship and of duty to not only use the resources that the
land gives for sustenance, but to do what each generation can to perpetuate the
health and fertility of the land.
 Academic definitions focus on the following elements of indigenous identity:
living in tradition-based cultures, having political autonomy prior to colonialism,
and seeking to preserve cultural integrity in the present (Corntassel, 2003).
 They also recognize the role of land to indigenous peoples—noting that they are
descended from inhabitants of the land they occupy (ibid). 142

 In 1986, however, a working definition of Indigenous peoples was
offered by the UN Working Group on Indigenous Issues, developed
within the comprehensive Study by Martinez Cobo J. on the problem
of discrimination against indigenous populations.
 According to this definition:Indigenous communities, peoples and
nations are those which, having a historical continuity with pre-
invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories,
consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now
prevailing on those territories, or parts of them.
 They form at present non-dominant sectors of society and are
determined to preserve, develop and transmit to future generations
their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their
continued existence as peoples, in accordance with their own cultural
patterns, social institutions and legal systems (MartinezCobo, 1982).
143

7.1.3. Special Features of Indigenous Knowledge
 Ellen and Harris (1996) identified the following special features of
indigenous knowledge that distinguish it broadly from other knowledge. As
to them IK is:
 1. Local, in that it is rooted in a particular community and situated within
broader cultural traditions; it is a set of experiences generated by people
living in those communities. Separating the technical from the non-
technical, the rational from the non-rational could be problematic.
Therefore, when transferred to other places, there is a potential risk of
dislocating IK.
 2. Tacit knowledge and, therefore, not easily codifiable.
 3. Transmitted orally, or through imitation and demonstration. Codifying it
may lead to the loss of some of its properties.
 4. Experiential rather than theoretical knowledge. Experience and trial and
error, tested in the rigorous laboratory of survival of local communities
constantly reinforce IK.
 5. Learned through repetition, which is a defining characteristic of tradition
even when new knowledge is added. Repetition aids in the retention and
reinforcement of IK.
 6. Constantly changing, being produced as well as reproduced, discovered as
well as lost; though it is often perceived by external observers as being
somewhat static
144

7.2 Significance of indigenous knowledge
 Until relatively recently, the development of a community’s conception of
knowledge was influenced primarily by the philosophy and methods of western
science.
 “Few, outside of some anthropologists and historians recognized that there are
numerous sciences embedded in cultures of other peoples and civilizations
throughout the world (Davies, S. and Ebbe, K., editors, 1995).
 Today, however, both scholars and public policy makers are recognizing the
importance of various local or culture-based knowledge systems in addressing the
pressing problems of development and the environment” (ibid).
 Indigenous knowledge is important in that people in a community value whatever
resource they get from the environment through sustainable production systems.
 The knowledge of local people is an enabling component of development.
 IK system enable people to develop strategies for handling household and
communal activities (Mangetane et al., 2001).
 For example in Ethiopia Debo and Jige are an important uniting forces in communal
activities.
 help find the best solution to a development challenges. For example, familiarity
with local knowledge can help extensionists and researchers understand and
communicate better with local people. In general, IK is an important part of the lives
145

 IK is a key element of the “social capital” of the poor; their main asset to invest in
the struggle for survival, to produce food, to provide for shelter or to achieve control
of their own lives. Furthermore, one cannot overlook indigenous knowledge’s ability
to provide effective alternatives to Western know-how.
 IK offers local people and their development workers further options in designing
new projects or addressing specific problems and wider disasters.
 Instead of relying on imported Western technologies, people in the developing
nations can choose from readily available indigenous knowledge or, where
appropriate, combine indigenous and Western technology.
 However, it is important to note that not all indigenous practices are beneficial to the
sustainable development of a local community; and not all IK can a priori provide
the right solution for a given problem.
 Typical examples are slash and burn agriculture and female circumcision.
 Hence, before adopting IK, integrating it into development programs, or even
disseminating it, practices need to be scrutinized for their appropriateness just as any
other technology. (A frame work for action, 1998).
146

7.4. Preservation, Challenges and Limitations of IK
 The future of IK, that reflects many generations of experience and problem
solving by thousands of indigenous people across the globe, is uncertain
(Warren, 2004).
 The loss of IK would impoverish society because, just as the world needs
genetic diversity of species, it needs diversity of knowledge systems
(Labelle, 1997).
 The rapid change in the way of life of local communities has largely
accounted for the loss of IK.
 Younger generations underestimate the utility of IK systems because of the
influence of modem technology and education (Ulluwishewa, 1999).
 If IK is not recorded and preserved, it may be lost and remain inaccessible to
other indigenous systems as well as to development workers.
 Development projects cannot offer sustainable solutions to local problems
without integrating local knowledge (Warren, 1991).
 "Since IK is essential to development, it must be gathered, organized and
disseminated, just like Western knowledge''(Agrawal, 1995 in Amare, 2009).
 As IK is the key to local-level development, ignoring people’s knowledge
leads possibly to failure.
147

Regarding the challenges and limitations
of IK, Amare (2009) states the following :
 As with scientific knowledge, ( Amare, 2009), IK has the following limitations and
drawbacks :
 IK is sometimes accepted uncritically because of naive notions that whatever
indigenous people do is naturally in harmony with the environment.
 Thrupp (1989) argues that we should reject “romanticized and idealistic views of
local knowledge and traditional societies”.
 There is historical and contemporary evidence that indigenous peoples have also
committed environmental sins’ through over-grazing, over-hunting, or over-
cultivation of the land.
 It is misleading to think of IK as always being ‘good’, ‘right or ‘sustainable’.
 Sometimes the knowledge which local people rely on is wrong or even harmful.
 Practices based on, for example, mistaken beliefs, faulty experimentation, or
inaccurate information can be dangerous and may even be a barrier to improving the
wellbeing of indigenous people.
 Doubleday (2003) pointed out that knowledge is power, so individuals are not
always willing to share knowledge among themselves, or with outsiders.
 Knowledge is a source of status and income (as is the case, for example, with a
herbalist) and is often jealously guarded.
 A related issue is that some indigenous peoples fear that their IK will be misused,
and lacking the power to prevent such abuses, they choose to keep quiet.
148

7.5. The Erosion of Indigenous Knowledge Systems(IKS)
 With rapid population growth—often due to in-migration or
government relocation schemes in the case of large development
projects, such as dams — standards of living may be compromised.
 With poverty, opportunities for short-term gain are selected over
environmentally sound local practices.
 The introduction of market-oriented agricultural and forestry practices
focused on mono-cropping is associated with losses in IK and IK
practices, through losses in biodiversity and cultural diversity.
 In the short term, chemical inputs seem to reduce the need to tailor
varieties to difficult growing conditions, contributing to the demise of
local varieties.
 With deforestation, certain medicinal plants become more difficult to
find (and the knowledge or culture associated with the plants also
declines).
 More and more knowledge is being lost as a result of the disruption of
traditional channels of oral communication.
149

 As IK is transmitted orally, it is vulnerable to rapid change
— especially when people are displaced or when young
people acquire values and lifestyles different from those of
their ancestors.
 In sum, indigenous peoples often have much in common
with other neglected segments of societies, i.e. lack of
political representation and participation, economic
marginalization and poverty, lack of access to social
services and discrimination.
 Despite their cultural differences, the diverse indigenous
peoples share common problems also related to the
protection of their rights.
150

The End!
Thank you for your attention !!
151

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