article
Making a living in the postsocialist periphery: struggles between farmers and traders in Konso, Ethiopia
Africa • 76 (1) • Published In 2006 • Pages: 70-87
By: Watson, Elizabeth E..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
Following the advent of a new Ethiopian government in 1991, the traditional Konso homeland was constituted into an autonomous, self-governing administrative district. This article discusses the local consequences of the new regime’s policy emphasis on democracy, grassroots participation and, to some extent, market liberalization. One of the most important legacies of these policies has been transformation in the social standing and economic fortunes of a class of villagers who earned their living primarily from retail trade. Traditionally, these traders were regarded as an endogamous caste group, subordinate to farmers. The traders took advantage of economic liberalization and external trade links to earn more income, which they invested in buying agricultural land and building roadside commercial houses. This change reconfigured local power relations in favor of traders.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Community structure
- Inter-community relations
- Ingroup antagonisms
- Congregations
- Religious intolerance and martyrs
- Social relationships and groups
- Friendships
- Form and rules of government
- Citizenship
- Real property
- Retail marketing
- Status, role, and prestige
- Lineages
- Age stratification
- Government regulation
- Community heads
- Acculturation and culture contact
- 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.
- Ethnologist
- 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
- 1996-2002
- 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)
- Gamole, Konso Special Woreda, Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples' Region, Ethiopia
- NotesAdditional notes
- Elizabeth E. Watson
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 85-86)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 29010790
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Konso (African people)