essay

The origin of the lower castes of Somalia

Somalia, scritti vari editi ed inediti2Published In 1959 • Pages: HRAF Ms: title p, 8 [original: 95-99 ]

By: Cerulli, Enrico, Biancani, Piero.

AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
After a brief descriptive summary of the three lower castes of the Somali--the Yibir, the Midgan and the Tumal--Cerulli traces the origins of each in Somali society. Cerulli presents the theories of several other area specialists on the Somali, notably Biasutti, Paulitschke, Ruggieri, Kirk, and Schleicher. The Biasutti theory, for which the author expresses a strong preference, states in effect that the castes of Somalia are residues of pre-Cushitic populations conquered by the subsequent invasions. To this theory the author adds further substantiating data from his own research primarily in reference to language and geographical locations of these caste groups.
SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
Social stratification
cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
Somali
HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
1997
RegionThe area the document pertains to
Africa
Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
Eastern Africa
Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
essay
Evaluation
Creator TypesThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
Lawyer
Social Scientist
Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
5: Excellent Primary Data
AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
John Beierle ; Sigrid Khera ; 1972
Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
no date
Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
not specified
Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
Yibir, Midgan and Tumal: Somalia, Djibouti, and southeastern Ethiopia
NotesAdditional notes
Enrico Cerulli
Translation of: L'origine delle basse caste della Somalia.
The original Italian text is not included
Translated for the HRAF files by Piero Biancani
Includes bibliographical references
LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
60024993
LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
Somalis