article
"Everyone can do as he wants": economic liberalization and emergent forms of antipathy in southern Ethiopia
American ethnologist • 33 (4) • Published In 2006 • Pages: 665-686
By: Ellison, James.
Abstract
Beginning in 1991, the new Ethiopian government sought to liberalize markets and devolve state powers to ethnically-based regional and local administrative units. This article discusses the ways these policies reconfigured historically asymmetrical relations between two major occupational groups in Konso society. One was a class of agricultural families who held land and viewed themselves of superior rank. The other was a class of subordinate and endogamous caste groups who earned their living through labor as craftspeople and retail traders. These historically marginalized groups took advantage of new market opportunities to earn more income from selling crafts, and providing roadside commercial houses and services. The improved wellbeing of these groups motivated ambitious cultivators to engage themselves in formerly despised occupations, including retail trade and craft production. The blurring of hereditary occupational identities and status has generated unresolved social antagonisms.
- HRAF PubDate
- 2016
- Region
- Africa
- Sub Region
- Eastern Africa
- Document Type
- article
- Evaluation
- Creator Type
- Anthropologist
- Document Rating
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- Analyst
- Teferi Abate Adem
- Field Date
- 2001-2002
- Coverage Date
- 1991-2002
- Coverage Place
- Konso Special Woreda, Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region, Ethiopia
- Notes
- James Ellison
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 682-686)
- LCCN
- 74644326
- LCSH
- Konso (African people)