Amhara

Africaintensive agriculturalists
Map
expand_more Description

The Amhara people of the Ethiopian central highlands are one of the two largest ethnic groups in Ethiopia. They constitute almost one-third of the country's population and, along with the Tigray, are the main adherents of the Christian Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The Amharic language was the official language of Ethiopia until the 1990s. The spread of Islam produced relative isolation in Ethiopia from the seventh to the sixteenth centuries. A feudal land tenure system was in extant officially until 1975, however feudalistic traditions persist to the present. Ethiopia is primarily rural and subsistence farming is the mainstay of the economy.

Identifier
Region
  • Africa
Subregion
  • Eastern Africa
Subsistence Type
  • intensive agriculturalists
Samples
Countries
  • Ethiopia
External Links