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.
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
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.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Community structure
- Inter-community relations
- Classes
- Castes
- Occupational specialization
- Tillage
- Avoidance and taboo
- Social personality
- Status, role, and prestige
- Regulation of marriage
- Ingroup antagonisms
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Konso
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 2016
- 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
- article
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Anthropologist
- 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
- Teferi Abate Adem ; 2015
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 2001-2002
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1991-2002
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Konso Special Woreda, Southern Nations, Nationalities, and People's Region, Ethiopia
- NotesAdditional notes
- James Ellison
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 682-686)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 74644326
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Konso (African people)