Book
Highland plateau Amhara of Ethiopia
Human Relations Area Files • New Haven, Conn. • Published In 1985 • Pages: 3 v. (xvii, 502 leaves)
By: Messing, Simon D. (Simon David), Bender, M. Lionel (Marvin Lionel).
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
This is a comprehensive ethnograpy of rural Amhara society and culture circa 1950s, including an extensive 100-page glossary. Amhara society is extremely hierarchical, ranked by property relations, ethnicity and occupation. At the top are the descendants of a former military and religious fief-holding elite. At the bottom are occupational groups marked by their religious and ethnic differences. Although orthodox Christianity is the dominant state religion, Messing discusses a whole strata of animistic and syncretic beliefs and practices that are closely tied to Amhara medical views and remedies. Women are locked out of Amhara political and religious life, but play a major part in spirit possession cults, which Messing poses as a parallel world to the dominant patriarchal society. Also included are lengthy discussions of the Amhara life cycle and etiquette.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Glossary
- Social stratification
- Etiquette
- Magical and mental therapy
- Revelation and divination
- Congregations
- Ideas about nature and people
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Amhara
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 1998
- 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
- Book
- 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.
- 4: Excellent Secondary Data
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Ian Skoggard ; 1996
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 1953-54, 1961
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1950s
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Gonder District, Ethiopia
- NotesAdditional notes
- Simon D. Messing ; edited by M. Lionel Bender
- Revision of thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Pennsylvania, 1957
- Includes bibliographical references (leaves 482-502) and index
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 85200729
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Amhara (African people)