HARAMAYA UNIVERSITY

CSSH
DEPARTMENT OF SOCIOLOGY
Introduction to
Social Anthropology

Compiled By:Gossa M.

Haramaya, Ethiopia
COURSE OBJECTIVE
Up on the successful completion of the course, students will be
able to
 Develop an understanding of the nature of anthropology and its
broader scope in making sense of humanity in a global
perspective;
 Understand the cultural and biological diversity of humanity
and unity in diversity across the world and in Ethiopia;
 Analyze the problems of ethnocentrism against the backdrop of
cultural relativism;
 Realize the socially constructed nature of identities & social
categories such as gender, ethnicity, race and sexuality;
 Explore the various peoples and cultures of Ethiopia;
 Understand the social, cultural, political, religious& economic
life of different ethno linguistic & cultural groups of Ethiopia;
 Understand different forms marginalization and develop skills
inclusiveness;
 Appreciate the customary systems of governance and conflict
resolution institutions of the various peoples of Ethiopia;
 Know about values, norms and cultural practices that maintain
society together;
 Recognize the culture area of peoples of Ethiopia and the
forms of interaction developed over time among themselves;
and
 Develop broader views and skills to deal with people from a
wide variety of socioeconomic and cultural backgrounds.
Definition, Scope and Subject Matter of Anthropology
 To begin with the etymology of the term, the term
anthropology is a compound of two Greek words, „anthropos‟
and „logos‟, which can be translated as „human
being/mankind‟ and „reason/study/science‟, respectively.
 So, anthropology means „reason about humans‟ or „the study
or science of humankind or humanity‟.
 Moreover, man has two important characteristics: biological
and cultural: It is very important to understand that the
biological and the cultural characteristics are inseparable
elements.
 Culture influences human physical structures and the vise-
versa.
 CONTINUED
 Literally, it is the study of humans. But what makes
Anthropology different from other disciplines?
 Anthropology is scientific discipline dedicated to the
comparative study of humans as a group, from its first
appearance on earth (its origin) to its present stage of
development.
 As a matter of simplicity and brevity, anthropology primarily
offers two kinds of insight.
 First, the discipline produces knowledge about the actual
biological and cultural variations in the world;
 Second, anthropology offers methods and theoretical
perspectives enabling the practitioner to explore, compare,
understand and solve these varied expressions of the human
condition.
 HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF ANTHROPOLOGY
 Anthropology is a fairly recent discipline. It was given its
present shape during the twentieth century.
 Anthropology, considered as the science of humanity,
originated in the region we commonly but inaccurately call „the
West‟, notably in three or four „Western‟ countries: France,
Great Britain, the USA and, until the Second World War,
Germany(Erikson, 2001).
 Historically speaking, this is a European discipline, and its
practitioners, like those of all European sciences, occasionally
like to trace its roots back to the ancient Greeks.
 The present academic anthropology has its roots in the works
and ideas of the great ancient and Medieval Greek, Roman, and
Hebrew philosophers and social thinkers.
 Generally speaking, anthropology as an academic discipline
was born during the 19th century, out of the intellectual
atmosphere of Enlightenment, which is the eighteenth
century social philosophical movement that emphasized
human progress and the poser of reason, and based on
Darwinian Theory of Evolution.
 By the late 1870s, anthropology was beginning to emerge as a
profession.
 A major impetus for its growth was the expansion of western
colonial powers and their consequent desire to better
understand the peoples living under colonial domination.
 Early anthropologists mainly studied small communities in
technologically simple societies.
 Such societies are often called by various names, such as,
“traditional”, “non-industrialized and/or simple societies”.
 Anthropologists of the early 1900s emphasized the study of
social and cultural differences among human groups. Here,
many of the indigenous peoples of non-western world and
their social and cultural features were studied in detail and
documented. This approach is called ethnography.
 By the mid-1900, however, anthropologists attempted to
discover universal human patterns and the common bio-
psychological traits that bind all human beings. This approach
is called ethnology.
 Ethnology aims at the comparative understanding and analysis
of different ethnic groups across time and space.
 In Ethiopia, professional anthropologists have been studying
culture and society on a more intensive level only since the
late 1950s.
 Almost inevitably, the initial emphasis was on ethnography,
the description of specific customs, cultures and ways of life.
SCOPE AND SUBJECT MATTER OF ANTHROPOLOGY

 Anthropology touches all aspect of human conditions as far

as there is a relation between human beings and natural
environment and, man and man.
 The discipline covers all aspects of human ways of life
experiences and existence, as humans live in a social group.
 SUB-FIELDS OF ANTHROPOLOGY
 There is no time, space and characteristics left to study human
beings. Accordingly, anthropology has often categorized into four
major subfields.
Physical/Biological Anthropology
 A branch of anthropology most closely related to the natural
sciences, particularly biology; that is why it is often called
biological anthropology.
 Physical anthropologists study how culture and environment have
influenced these two areas of biological evolution and
contemporary variations.
 Biological variations such as morphology/structure, colour, and size
are reflections of changes in living organism.
 Since change occurs in the universe, it also applies in human
beings.
 Human biological variations are the result of the cumulative
processes of invisible changes occurring in every fraction of
second in human life.
 The major sources of biological variations are derived from the
interrelated effects of natural selection, geographical isolation,
genetic mutations.
 Physical anthropology is essentially investigating about human
evolution and genetics.
 Human evolution - is the study of the gradual processes of
simple forms into more differentiated structures in hominid. It
records evolutionary aspects of human species using
fossils/bones.
 It also divided in to two specialities i.e Paleo-anthropology and
Primatology.
 Palaeoanthropology- (paleo means “old”) is the study of
human biological evolution through the analysis of fossil
remains from prehistoric times to determine the missing link that
connect modern human with its biological ancestors.
 Primatology- studies about primates or recent human ancestors
to explain human evolution.
 Primatologists study the anatomy and social behaviour of such
non-human primate species as gorillas and chimpanzees in an
effort to gain clues about our own evolution as a species.
 Genetics- on the other hand investigate how and why the
physical traits of contemporary human populations vary
throughout the world.
 It also crucial in understanding –how evolution works and
plays important role in identifying the genetic source of some
hereditary disease like sickle cell anemia and cystic fibrosis.
 ARCHAEOLOGICAL ANTHROPOLOGY
 Archaeological anthropology or simply archaeology studies the ways
of lives of past peoples by excavating and analysing the material
culture/physical remains (artefacts, features and eco-facts) they left
behind.
 Artefacts include Tools, ornaments, arrowheads, coins, and fragments
of pottery.
 Features include such things as house foundations, ancient buildings,
fireplaces, steles, and postholes.
 Eco-facts are non-artefactual, organic and environmental remains
such as soil, animal bones, and plant.
 There are two types of specialities in Archaeology. These are
Prehistoric Archaeology and Historical Archaeology.
 Prehistoric archaeology investigates human prehistory and
prehistoric cultures. It focuses on entire period between 6,000 years to
2. 5 million years.
 Historic archaeology on the other hand help to reconstruct the
cultures of people who used writing and about whom historical
documents have been written.
 LINGUISTIC ANTHROPOLOGY
 Linguistic anthropology studies human language as a cultural
resource and speaking as a cultural practice in its social and
cultural context, across space and time.
 Linguistic anthropology focuses on the evolution of languages.
It tries to understand languages variation in their structures,
units, and grammatical formations.
 It gives special attention to the study of unwritten languages.
Language is a key to explore a culture.
SOCIO-CULTURAL ANTHROPOLOGY
 Socio-cultural anthropology describes, analyses, interprets, and
explains social, cultural and material life of contemporary
human societies.
 Socio-cultural anthropologists engage in two aspects of study:
Ethnography (based on field work) and Ethnology (based on
cross-cultural comparison).
 Ethnography provides a comprehensive account of a
particular community, society, or culture.
 Ethnology is the comparative study of contemporary cultures
and societies, wherever they may be found.
 It examines, interprets, analyses, and compares the results of
ethnography the data gathered in different societies.
Ethnography Ethnology

Requires field work to Uses data collected by a

collect data series of researchers

Often descriptive Usually synthetic

Group/community
specific Comparative/cross-cultural
UNIQUE (BASIC) FEATURES OF ANTHROPOLOGY
 Anthropology has a broad scope. It is interested in all human
beings, whether contemporary or past, ''primitive'' or '' civilized''
and that they are interested in many different aspects of humans,
including their phenotypic characteristics, family lives,
marriages, political systems, economic lives, technology, belief,
health care systems, personality types, and languages
 The second important feature is its approach. In its approach
anthropology is holistic, relativistic, and focused one.
 Holistic in a sense that it looks any phenomena from different
vantage points. Accordingly, anthropology considers culture,
history, language and biology essential to a complete
understanding of society.
 Anthropology seeks to understand human beings as whole
organisms who adapt to their environments through a complex
interaction of biology and culture.
 Anthropology's comparative perspective helps to understand
differences and similarities across time and place.
 Another important perspective is a way of looking at people's
ideas.
 It considers insiders' views as a primary focus of any
anthropological inquiry.
 Anthropological studies give attention to how people perceive
themselves and understand their world; how a particular group
of people explain about their action, or give meaning to their
behaviour or cultural practices.
 This is what anthropologists call emic perspective.

 It helps to understand the logic and justification behind group

behaviour and cultural practices.
 Another important unique feature is its research approach.
Anthropology is highly dependent on qualitative research to
understand the meaning behind any human activity.
 Focusing more on the local than the big social processes has
been another exclusive approach in the discipline.
 Paying great attention to local or micro-social processes
certainly help us to better understand big changes in societies.
 A detailed account of an event or phenomenon discovers
multiple realities in a community.
THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN ANTHROPOLOGY AND OTHER
DISCIPLINES

 Anthropology is similar with other social sciences such as

sociology, psychology, political sciences, economics, history,
etc.
 Anthropology greatly overlaps with these disciplines that study
human society.
 However, anthropology differs from other social sciences and
the humanities by its broad scope, unique approach,
perspective, unit of analysis and methods used.
 In its scope, anthropology studies humankind in its entirety.

 In its approach, anthropology studies and analyses human ways

of life holistically, comparatively and in a relativistic manner.
 In its perspective, according to Richard Wilk, anthropology
approaches and locates dimensions of people‟s individual and
communal lived experiences, their thoughts and their feelings
in terms of how these dimensions are interconnected and
interrelated to one another, yet not necessarily constrained or
very orderly, whole.
 The perspective is also fundamentally empirical, naturalistic
and ideographic [particularising] than nomothetic
[universalising] one.
 In its method of research, it is unique in that it undertakes
extended fieldwork through employing those ethnographic data
collection techniques such as participant observation, Key
informant interview and focus group discussions.
End of Chapter
 CHAPTER TWO
HUMAN CULTURE AND TIES THAT CONNECT
 Culture is a system of learned behavior shared by and
transmitted among the members of the group.
 Culture is a collective heritage learned by individuals
and passed from one generation to another. The
individual receives culture as part of social heritage and
in turn, may reshape the culture and introduce changes
which then become part of the heritage of succeeding
generations.
 CHARACTERISTIC FEATURES OF CULTURE
 Culture Is Learned: Culture is not transmitted genetically rather; it is
acquired through the process of learning. The process of acquiring culture
after we born is called enculturation. Enculturation is specifically
defined as the process by which an individual learns the rules and values of
one‟s culture.
 Culture Is Shared: must have a shared meaning by at least two people
within a society.
 Culture Is Symbolic: Symbolic thought is unique and crucial to humans
and to cultural learning. For example, the designs and colors of the flags of
different countries represent symbolic associations with abstract ideas and
concepts. Culture Is All-Encompassing: Culture encompasses
all aspects, which affect people in their everyday lives.
 Culture Is Integrated: Cultures are not haphazard collections
of customs and beliefs instead, culture is an integrated whole, the
parts of which, to some degree, are interconnected with one
another.
 Culture Can Be Adaptive and Maladaptive: Humans have
both biological and cultural ways of coping with environmental
stresses. Besides our biological means of adaptation, we also use
"cultural adaptive kits," which contain customary activities and
tools that aid us
 Culture Is Dynamic: Culture is changing constantly as new
ideas and new techniques are added.
 ASPECTS/ELEMENTS OF CULTURE
 Material culture
 Material culture consist of man-made objects such as tools, implements,
furniture, automobiles, buildings, dams, roads, bridges, and in fact, the
physical substance which has been changed and used by man.
 Non – Material culture
 Non-material culture consists of the words the people use or the language
they speak, the beliefs they hold, values and virtues they cherish, habits they
follow, rituals and practices that they do and the ceremonies they observe.
Some of the aspects of non-material culture are:-
 Values:
 Values are the standards by which member of a society define what is good
or bad, beautiful or ugly. Every society develops both values and
expectations regarding the right way to reflect them. Values are a central
aspect of the nonmaterial culture
 Beliefs
 Beliefs are cultural conventions that concern true or false assumptions,
specific descriptions of the nature of the universe and humanity‟s place in it.
NORMS
 Norms are shared rules or guidelines that define how
people ―ought‖ to behave under certain circumstances.
Norms are generally connected to the values, beliefs,
and ideologies of a society.
 Norms vary in terms of their importance to a culture,
these are:


 Folkway: Norms guiding ordinary usages and

conventions of everyday life. They are not strictly
enforced.
 Mores: are much stronger norms than are folkways.
Mores are norms that are believed to be essential to
core values and we insist on conformity.
 CULTURAL UNITY AND VARIATIONS: UNIVERSALITY, GENERALITY AND
PARTICULARITY OF CULTURE
 In studying human diversity in time and space, anthropologists
distinguish among the universal, the generalized, and the
particular.
 Universality: Universals are cultural traits that span across all
cultures. A great example of universality is that whether in
Africa or Asia, Australia, or Antarctica, people understand the
universal concept of family.
 Generality: Generalities are cultural traits that occur in many
societies but not all of them.
 Particularity: Trait of a culture that is not widespread
Cultural borrowing – traits once limited are more widespread
Useful traits that don‟t clash with current culture get borrowed
Examples: – Food dishes Particularities are becoming rarer in
some ways but also becoming more obvious Borrowed
cultural traits are modified Marriage, parenthood, death,
puberty, birth all celebrated differently.
 EVALUATING CULTURAL DIFFERENCES: ETHNOCENTRISM,
CULTURAL RELATIVISM AND HUMAN RIGHTS
 ETHNOCENTRISM: refers to the tendency to see the behaviors,
beliefs, values, and norms of one's own group as the only right way
of living and to judge others by those standards.
 Being fond of your own way of life and condescending or even
hostile toward other cultures is normal for all people.
Ethnocentrism results in prejudices about people from other
cultures and the rejection of their "alien ways." Our ethnocentrism
can prevent us from understanding and appreciating another
culture.
 B. CULTRUALRELATIVISM: We cannot grasp the behavior of
other people if we interpret what they say and do in the light of our
values, beliefs, and motives. Instead, we need to examine their
behavior as insiders, seeing it within the framework of their
values, beliefs and motives. The concept of cultural relativism
states that cultures differ, so that a cultural trait, act, or idea
has no meaning but it meaning only within its cultural setting.
 Cultural relativism describes a situation where there is an
attitude of respect for cultural differences rather than
condemning another people's culture as uncivilized or backward.
 Respect for cultural differences involves:
 Appreciating cultural diversity;
 Accepting and respecting other cultures;

 Trying to understand every culture and its elements in terms of its

own context and logic;
 Accepting that each body of custom has inherent dignity and
meaning as the way of life of one group which has worked out to
its environment, to the biological needs of its members, and to the
group relationships;
 Knowing that a person's own culture is only one among many; and
 Recognizing that what is immoral, ethical, acceptable, etc, in one
culture may not be so in another culture.
 C. HUMAN RIGHTS: rights based on justice and morality beyond and
superior to particular countries, cultures, and religions. The idea of human
rights challenges cultural relativism by invoking a realm of justice and
morality beyond and superior to the laws and customs of particular countries,
cultures, and religions. Human rights include the right to speak freely, to hold
religious beliefs without persecution, and to not be murdered, injured, or
enslaved or imprisoned without charge. Such rights are seen as inalienable
(nations cannot abridge or terminate them) and international (larger than and
superior to individual nations and cultures).
CULTURE CHANGE
 Culture change can occur as a result of the following Mechanisms:
 Diffusion The source of new cultural elements in a society may also
be another society. The process by which cultural elements are
borrowed from another society and incorporated into the culture of
the recipient group is called diffusion.
 Diffusion is direct when two cultures trade with, intermarry
among, or wage war on one another.
 Diffusion is forced when one culture subjugates another and
imposes its customs on the dominated group.
 Diffusion is indirect when items or traits move from group A to
group C via group B without any first-hand contact between A and
C. In this case, group B might consist of traders or merchants who
take products from a variety of places to new markets. Or group B
might be geographically situated between A and C, so that what it
gets from A eventually winds up in C, and vice versa. In today's
world, much international diffusion is indirect-culture spread by the
mass media and advanced information technology.
 Acculturation
 The cultures of either or both groups may be changed by this
contact. This usually happens in situations of trade or
colonialism. In situations of continuous contact, cultures have
also exchanged and blended foods, recipes, music, dances,
clothing, tools, and technologies.
 Invention-the process by which humans innovate, creatively
finding solutions to problems is a third mechanism of cultural
change. Faced with comparable problems and challenges,
people in different societies have innovated and changed in
similar ways, which is one reason cultural generalities exist.
 Globalization
 The term globalization encompasses a series of processes,
including diffusion and acculturation, working to promote
change in a world in which nations and people are increasingly
interlinked and mutually dependent.
TIES THAT CONNECT: MARRIAGE, FAMILY AND
KINSHIP
 MARRIAGE:
 Almost all known societies recognize marriage. The ritual of
marriage marks a change in status for a man and a woman and the
acceptance by society of the new family that is formed. The term
marriage is not an easy term to define.
 Rules of Marriage
 Societies also have rules that state whom one can and cannot marry.
The most common form of prohibition is mating with certain type of
kin that are defined by the society as being inappropriate sexual
partners. These prohibitions on mating with certain categories of
relatives known as incest taboos. The most universal form of
incest taboo involves mating between members of the immediate
(nuclear) family: mother-sons, father-daughters, and brother-sisters.
 Marriage is, therefore, a permanent legal union between a man and a
woman. It is an important institution without which the society
could never be sustained.
MATE SELECTION: WHOM SHOULD YOU MARRY?
 In a society one cannot marry anyone whom he or she likes. There
are certain strict rules and regulations.
 a) Exogamy:
 This is the rule by which a man is not allowed to marry someone
from his own social group.
 Such prohibited union is designated as incest. Incest is often
considered as sin. Different scholars had tried to find out the
explanation behind this prohibition. i.e. how incest taboo came into
operation.
 b) Endogamy:
 A rule of endogamy requires individuals to marry within their own
group and forbids them to marry outside it. Religious groups such as
the Amish, Mormons, Catholics, and Jews have rules of endogamy,
though these are often violated when marriage take place outside the
group. Castes in India and Nepal are also endogamous. “Indeed,
most cultures are endogamous units, although they usually do not
need a formal rule requiring people to marry someone from their
own society” (Kottak, 2017: 150).
 The Levirate and Sororate
 Another form of mate selection that tends to limit individual choice
are those that require a person to marry the husband or wide of
deceased kin.
 The levirate- is the custom whereby a widow is expected to marry
the brother (or some close male relative) of her dead husband.
Usually any children fathered by the woman‟s new husband are
considered to belong legally to the dead brother rather than to the
actual genitor. Such a custom both serves as a form of social
security for the widow and her children and preserved the rights of
her husband‟s family to her sexuality and future children.
 The sororate, which comes into play when a wife dies, is the
practice of a widower‟s marrying the sister (or some close female
relative) of his deceased wife. In the event that the deceased spouse
has no sibling, the family of the deceased is under a general
obligation to supply some equivalent relative as a substitute. For
example, in a society that practice sororate, a widower may be
given as a substitute wife the daughter of his deceased wife‟s
brother.
NUMBER OF SPOUSES
 Societies have rules regulating whom one may/may not
marry; they have rules specifying how manymates a person
may/should have.
 Monogamy: the marriage of one man to one woman at a time.

 Polygamy i.e. marriage of a man or woman with two or more

mates. Polygamy can be of two types:
 Polygyny: the marriage of a man to two or more women at
a time.
 Polyandy: the marraige of a woman to two or more men at
a time
 Marriage of a man with two or more sisters at a time is
called sororal polygyny. When the co-wives are not
sisters, the marriage is termed as non- sororal polygyny.
ECONOMIC CONSIDERATION OF
MARRIAGE
 Most societies view as a binding contract between at
least the husband and wife and, in many cases,
between their respective families as well. Such a
contract includes the transfer of certain rights
between the parties involved: rights of sexual access,
legal rights to children, and rights of the spouses to
each other‘s economic goods and services. Often the
transfer of rights is accompanied by the transfer of
some type of economic consideration. These
transactions, which may take place either before or
after the marriage can be divided into three
categories: Bride Price, Bride Service and Dowry
 1.Bride Price: It is also known as bride wealth, is the
compensation given upon marriage by the family of the groom to
the family of the bride.
 Anthropologists identified a number of important functions that the
institutions of bride price performed for the well-being of the
society. For example, bride price has been seen:-as security or
insurance for the good treatment of the wife: as mechanism to
stabilize marriage by reducing the possibility of divorce: as a form
of compensation to the bride‟s lineage for the loss of her economic
potential and childbearing capacity: and as a symbol of the union
between two large groups of kin.
 Bride Service: When the groom works for his wife‟s family, this is
known as bride service. It may be recalled that in the Old
Testament, Jacob labored for seven years in order to marry Leah,
and then another seven years to marry Rachel; Leah‟s younger sister,
thus, performed fourteen years of bride service for his father-in-law.
 Bride service was also practiced by the Yanomamo, a people living
in the low- lands of Venezuela. During this time, the groom lives
with the bride‟s parents and hunts for them.
 3. Dowry: A dowry involves a transfer of goods or money in the
opposite direction, from the bride's family to the groom‟s family.
POST-MARITAL RESIDENCE
 Where the newly married couple lives after the marriage ritual
is governed by cultural rules, which are referred to as post-
marital residence rule.
 Patrilocal Residence: the married couple lives with or near the
relatives of the husband‟s father.
 Matrilocal Residence: the married couple lives with or near
the relatives of the wife.
 Avunculocal Residence: The married couple lives with or near
the husband‟s mother‟s brother.
 Ambilocal/Bilocal Residence: The married couple has a choice
of living with relatives of the wife or relatives of the husband
 Neolocal Residence: The Married couple forms an
independent place of residence away from the relatives of
either spouse.
FAMILY
 Family is the basis of human society. It is the most important primary group in
society. The family, as an institution, is universal. It is the most permanent and
most pervasive of all social institutions. The interpersonal relationships within the
family make the family an endurable social unit. There two fundamentally
different types of family structure-the nuclear family and the extended family.
 The Nuclear Family: Consisting of husband and wife and their children, the
nuclear family is a two-generation family formed around the conjugal or marital
union. Everyday needs of economic support, childcare, and social interaction are
met within the nuclear family itself rather than by a wider set of relatives.
 The Extended Family: In societies based on extended families, blood ties are
more important than ties of marriage. Extended families consist of two or more
families that are linked by blood ties. Most commonly, this takes the form of a
married couple living with one or more of their married children in a single
household or homestead and under the authority of a family head.
 . When a woman marries into an extended family, she most often comes under the
control of her mother-in-law, who allocates chores and supervises her domestic
activities. As geographical mobility are more likely associated with nuclear family
than with extended family
KINSHIP
 Kinship is the method of reckoning relationship. In any society
every adult individual belongs to two different nuclear families.
 The family in which he was born and reared is called ‘family of
orientation‟.
 The other family to which he establishes relation through marriage
is called ‘family of procreation’. A kinship system is neither a
social group nor does it correspond to organized aggregation of
individuals. It is a structured system of relationships where
individuals are bound together by complex interlocking and
ramifying ties.
 The relationship based on blood ties is called “consanguineous
kinship”, and the relatives of this kind are called „consanguineous
kin‟. The desire for reproduction gives rise to another kind of
binding relationship. “This kind of bond, which arises out of a
socially or legally defined marital relationship, is called a final
relationship”, and the relatives so related are called ‘a final kin’.
The final kinds [husband and wife] are not related to one another
through blood.
DESCENT
 Descent refers to the social recognition of the biological relationship that
exists between the individuals. The rule of descent refers to a set of
principles by which an individual trace his descent. There are three
important rules of decent are follows;
 Patrilineal descent
 When descent is traced solely through the male line, it is called patrilineal
descent. A man‟s sons and daughters all belong to the same descent group
by birth, but it only the sons who continue the affiliation. Succession and
inheritance pass through the male line.
 2. Matrilineal descent
 When the descent is traced solely through the female line. It is called
matrilineal descent. At birth, children of both sexes belong to mother‟s
descent group, but later only females acquire the succession and inheritance.
Therefore, daughters carry the tradition, generation after generation.
 3. Cognatic Descent
 In some society‟s individuals are free to show their genealogical links either
through men or women. Some people of such society are therefore
connected with the kin-group of father and others with the kin group of
mothers. There is no fixed rule to trace the succession and inheritance; any
combination of lineal link is possible in such societies.
END OF CHAPTER TWO
 CHAPTER-THREE
HUMAN DIVERSITY, CULTURE AREAS AND CONTACT IN ETHIOPIA
 Anthropology is a broader discipline covering a vast
spatio-temporal dimension in the study of
man/humanity.
 Anthropology helps human beings to look into
themselves by searching for answers to the following
questions that are central to humanity and
anthropology :
 What are the commonalities among humans worldwide?
(That is what does every human culture do?)
 What are the variations among humans worldwide (That is,
what things do only some cultures do?)
 Why do these commonalties and variations exist in the first
place? (In other worlds why aren't all human cultures the
same?)
 How does humanity change through time? (Is it still
evolving, and if so, how?)
 Where has Humanity been, and what can that show us about
where humanity is going? (That is, what can we learn about
ourselves today, from the past?)
 Those question are addressed through the key anthropological
concepts of comparative approach (cultural relativism) and evolution.
 The comparative approach (cultural relativism):- entails that
cultures shouldn't be compared one another for the sake of saying one
is better than the other.
 Instead cultures should be compared in order to understand how
and why they differ and share commonalties each other.
 It encourages us not to make moral judgments about different kinds
of humanity
 It examines cultures on their own and from the perspective of their
unique history and origin.
 Evolution ( change of species through time) is another
key concept in anthropology which, addresses
questions regarding our distant origin, current stage of
growth, forms of adaptation, and predict future
direction of development.
 By studying evolution, anthropologists tend to treat
humanity as one of the biological species in the animal
kingdom.
 In this respect, human biology and culture have
evolved over millions of years and they will continue to
evolve together.
 Human biology affects human culture; and similarly,
human culture affects human biology.
.
THE BIOCULTURAL ANIMAL
 Humanity evolves both as a result of biological factors
and cultural factors. For this reason, anthropologists
call it biocultural evolution.
 Although humans survive by using both their biology
and cultural information, all other animals survive
mainly through their biology and by relying on
instinct rather than such cultural information.
 This difference may seem trivial, but it‘s actually very
important. For example, consider the following
cultural behaviors and their possible involvement
with biological evolution of our species:
 As a result, Paleo-anthropologists are concerned with
understanding how cultural, non-cultural, and bio-
cultural evolutionary factors shaped humanity
through time.
 Humanity is the most common term we to use refer to human
beings. Humanity stands for the human species, a group of
life forms with the following characteristics:
 Bipedalism (walking on two legs);
 Relatively small teeth for primates of our size;
 Relatively large brains for primates of our size;
 Using modern language to communicate ideas; and
 Using complex sets of ideas called culture to
survive
 Humanity is a general term that doesn‘t
specify whether you‘re talking about males,
females, adults, or children; it simply means
our species- Homo sapiens sapiens- at large.
ORIGIN OF THE MODERN HUMAN SPECIES: HOMO SAPIENS SAPIENS
COSMOLOGIES VS. EVOLUTIONALLY AND PALEO-ANTHROPOLOGICAL EXPLANATIONS

o One of the major questions anthropologists

grapple with is the origins of humankind.
The fossil record preserves evidence of past
life on Earth, tracing a progression of
simple one-celled organisms to increasingly
diverse forms.
COSMOLOGIES AND HUMAN ORIGINS
 The most profound questions are the ones that
perplex us the most.
 Where did we come from?
 Why are we here?
 What is our place in the universe?

 Cosmologies are conceptual frameworks that

present the universe (the cosmos) as an orderly
system. They often include answers to these basic
questions about human origins and the place of
human kind in the universe, usually considered the
most sacred of all cosmological conceptions.
 Cosmologies account for the ways in which
supernatural beings or forces formed human
beings and the planet we live on.
 For example, the Navajo people of the south-western
United States believe that the Holy People,
supernatural and sacred, lived below ground in 12
lower worlds.
 A massive underground flood forced the Holy People
to crawl through a hollow reed to the surface of the
Earth, where they created the universe.
 A deity named Changing Woman gave birth to the
Hero Twins, called Monster Slayer and Child of the
Waters.
 In the tradition of Taoism, male and female principles
known as yin and yang are the spiritual and material
sources for the origins of humans and other living
forms.
 Yin is considered the passive, negative, feminine force
or principle in the universe, the source of cold and
darkness,
 whereas yang is the active, positive, masculine force
or principle, the source of heat and light.
 Taoists believe that the interaction of these two
opposite principles brought forth the universe and all
living forms out of chaos.

WESTERN TRADITIONS OF ORIGINS
 In Western cultural traditions, the ancient Greeks had various
mythological explanations for human origins.
 One early view was that Prometheus fashioned humans out of
water and earth. Another had Zeus ordering Pyrrha, the inventor
of fire, to throw stones behind his back, which in turn became
men and women.
 The most important cosmological tradition affecting Western
views of creation is recounted in the biblical Book of Genesis,
which is found in Greek texts dating back to the 3rdcentury BC.
 This Judaic tradition describes how God created the cosmos.
 It begins with ―In the beginning God created the heaven and the
earth‖ and describes how creation took six days during which
light, heaven, Earth, vegetation, Sun, Moon, stars, birds, fish,
animals, and humans originated.
 God had created plant and animal species to fit perfectly within
specific environments and did not intend for them to change.
 They had been unaltered since the time of the divine
creation, and no new species had emerged.
 This idea regarding the permanence of species influenced
the thinking of many early scholars and theologians.
 EVOLUTIONARY AND PALEO-ANTHROPOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVES ON HUMAN ORIGIN
 Opposed to cosmological explanations today
anthropologist rely on scientific views of evolution in
order to explain human origins.
 Simply put, evolution refers to a process and gradual
change in species over time.
 Evolution is used to describe the cumulative effects of
three independent facts.
 Replication: The fact that life forms have offspring;
 Variation: The fact that each offspring is slightly different from
its parents, and its siblings; and
 Selection: The fact that not all offspring survive, and those that
do tend to be the ones best suited to their environment.
 The scientific explanation of human origin and the concept
of evolution are attributed to a series of discoveries of early
modern period and the works of handful of scientists in the
physical/natural sciences.
 One of the prominent persons in relation to this
development is Charles Darwin (1809-1882), a British
Naturalist of the period.
 Charles Darwin is known for his theory of natural
selection in the evolution of species and the idea of
survival of the fittest.
 In doing so, anthropologists study humanity as a biological
phenomenon by raising questions such as:
 What species are we most and least like?
 Where and when did we fist appear?
 What were our ancestors like?
 Can we learn about human behavior from the behavior of our
nearest relatives, the chimpanzees and gorillas?
 Is our species still evolving?
 How do modern human genetics, population growth, and other
current issues play out from a biological perspective?
 The answers to the above mentioned and many other
questions about our species in the study of evolution, the
change through time of the properties of a living species.
That’s because evolution is the foundation of the life
sciences.
THE KINDS OF HUMANITY: HUMAN PHYSICAL VARIATION

 People come in many colors and shapes;

 People of the Mediterranean, for example, are
obviously darker-skinned than those of Scandinavia,
and
 Natives of the Arctic are shorter and stockier than the
tall, lean Samburu of East Africa.
 Why is this? How did these variations come about,
and what do they mean for humanity as a species?
 The answer comes from the study of human biology by
physical anthropologists.
 How human populations have adapted to their
varying environments by the same evolutionary
process that shapes all living things from the
perspective of race.
RACIAL TYPES- ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES
 Biologically speaking, a race is a group of organisms of the
same species that share similar physical (and genetic)
attributes and specific geographic regions.
 In short, they‘re subdivisions of a single species- meaning
they can mate and have offspring that are healthy enough
to have their own offspring-exhibiting some characteristics
reflecting their geographical origins.
 Just like any other living thing, human beings adapt to
their environments through an evolutionary process.
 Adaptation – is a process (behavioural and/or biological)
that increases the likelihood of survival for an organism.
 In humans, adaptations include complex behavior, such as
making tools.
 These behaviours aren‘t passed on genetically but rather
culturally.
 Some of these bodily adaptations are pretty easily visible,
and some are only visible when you look very closely at the
genes.
 Skin color—one of the most visible human
characteristics— is a good example of adaptation to a
particular environment.
 The darkest skin appears in populations originating in
tropical zones, such as Africa and Asia.
 The lightest skin is traditionally found in northern Europe
 Darker skin, then, is an adaptation to the geographical
conditions of Africa.
 Lighter skin, then, is an adaptation to the geographical
conditions of Europe because over time, the prehistoric
colonists of Europe who happened to be born with lighter
skin (simply by chance) had more offspring, who
themselves carried the genes for lighter skin.
 Biological adaptations aren‘t instantaneous. They take
place over the span of generations, so an African moving to
Europe won‘t evolve lighter skin, nor will a European
travelling to Africa evolve darker skin (except for some
tanning).
 Another example of biological adaptation in human beings is the
difference of stature between arctic (such as Inuit) and East
African (such as Maasai) people.
 In the cold polar regions, the Inuit have a short and stocky build;
 the Maasai of East Africa have taller and more slender bodies
that don‘t have to retain so much heat — they actually have to
dump excess heat in their hot environment, which is facilitated
by their body shape.
 Body stature in these cases is an adaptation to the geographical
conditions of hot African and the cold Arctic.
 What Anthropologists can say for sure about Human
Races?
 For most physical anthropologists (who‘ve spent the most time
closely examining human biology), race is nearly meaningless
when applied to humanity.
 Rather than talk about races, physical anthropologists more
commonly talk today of ancestry, a more general term that
recognizes the reality of some geographically specific human
adaptations but doesn‘t turn them into loaded, black-and-white
races.
 One of the main reasons the race concept really doesn‘t
apply to humans is that defining human races is almost
impossible: To what race do you assign a person born from
a Native American and a native African marriage?
 The History of Racial Typing
 Like all animals, humans have undoubtedly been
classifying their neighbors in various ways for a very long
time.
 Some of the first records of humans classifying others as
certain ―types‖ come from ancient Egypt, where by 1350
BC you can see records of them classifying humans by
skin color:
 Egyptians were red-skinned, people south of Egypt were
black-skinned, those living north of the Mediterranean
Sea were white-skinned, and people to the east were
yellow-skinned.
 By the the16th century, during the Age of Discovery,
Europeans voyaging around the world were encountering
many previously unknown peoples and developing racial
classifications of their own.
 With behavioral characteristics ―linked‖ to genetic
characteristics in the minds of many (including scientists),
some in the 19th and early 20th centuries even advocated
for state regulation of marriages, family size, and whether
to allow an individual to reproduce.
 This practice became known as eugenics, and the Nazis
took it to a terrible extreme during World War II.
 In Germany, the Nazi party began to systematically kill
those members of society that it considered inferior to the
northern-European Christian ideal they held.
 Using eugenics as the basis for its acts, the Nazi party
killed millions of Jewish people, Gypsies and others it
considered inferior in an attempt to create a master race.
 The idea of a master race is therefore suicidal.
THE GRAND ILLUSION: RACE, TURNS OUT, IS ARBITRARY
 Over the years, various anthropologists have attempted to
classify the human species into various races, such as
 Caucasian,
 Black African,
 Asian, and so on.
 The problem is that the physical traits used to identify
which group an individual belonged in aren‘t binary
opposites like black or white, period, with no middle ground.
They‘re continuous traits, meaning that a whole spectrum
exists between, say, ―black‖ and ―white‖ skin designations.
 Any attempt to classify human races raises a number of
questions.
 Although Asians look pretty clearly different from
Europeans in some respects, what do you do with people
who look, well, partly Asian and partly European?
 Anthropologist R.C. Lewontin concluded that “Human racial
classification is of no social value and is positively
destructive of social and human relations.
DIVERSITY/VARIATION
 Although all humans are of the same species, they don‘t all act
the same; human behaviour varies tremendously worldwide. If
race doesn‘t control a person‘s characteristics, what does account
for human behavioral variation?
 In short, the answer is culture. Cultures differ because people live
in different conditions, be they ecological, economic, social, or
what have you.
 For example, each culture is ultimately a unique adaptation to
the social and environmental conditions in which it evolves.
 The culture of the Amazonian foragers has certain characteristics,
and they value certain things and act certain ways, because they
have evolved in a particular ecological environment, one different
from highland Scots, whose own culture is an adaptation to their
unique environment. This difference is ultimately why human
behavior isn‘t the same worldwide.
 Of course, human cultures have been evolving for thousands of
years — and in the modern age, with mass communication and
mass movement of peoples from one environment and culture to
another, culture has changed very quickly.
CULTURE AREA AND CULTURAL CONTACT IN ETHIOPIA

 Put simply culture areas refers to a cluster of related

cultures occupying a certain geographical region.
 In anthropology the concept of culture area has been
used beginning from the 1920s where Afred Kroeber
and his contemporaries were interested in examining
the concentration of cultural trains in a given
geographic area.
 In the context of Ethiopia, we may come up with
different culture are in relation to subsistence. These
are plough culture, Enset culture area, pastoral
societies culture area.
A. PLOUGH CULTURE AREA
 Plough culture area represents those parts of the
country where agriculture is predominantly the
means by which subsistence is eked out.
 Most of highland and central parts of the country
serves as the backbone of the economy is considered
a plough culture.
 The area often called plough culture has been a
subject of anthropological inquires over the past
seven decades starting from the 1950s.
 Some of the ethnographers who studied the area
that we call plough culture are Donald Levine, Allen
Hobben, Fredrick Gamst and Jack Bauer.
B. ENSET CULTURE AREA
 Enset culture area, on the other hand, covers a vast
region in the southern part of country.
 Enset cultivating regions of the present day SNNPRS
such as the Guraghe, Sidama and Gedeo areas
constitute enset culture area.
 In this region, enset serves as a staple diet to the
people who make use the plant in a wide variety of
forms for a living.
C. PASTORAL CULTURE AREA
 Pastoral culture area is found in the low land areas
covering a large section of the Afar in the
northwest, Somali in the southeast and Borena of
southern of Ethiopia.
 As opposed ot the above the cases, inhabitants of
the pastoral culture area rely significantly on their
herds and cattle for a living.
 Mobility of people and herds is a major
characteristic feature of the people occupying the
pastoral culture area.
End of Chapter 3
 CHAPTER FOUR
MARGINALIZED, MINORITIES, AND VULNERABLE
 Marginalization -treatment of a person or social group as minor,
insignificant or peripheral.
 Marginalization involves exclusion of certain groups from
 social interactions,
 marriage relations,

 sharing food and drinks, and

 working and living together.

 Who are mostly marginalized? There are marginalized social groups

in every society and culture.
 Women,
 children,
 older people, and
 people with disabilities are among marginalized groups across the
world.
 The nature and level of marginalization varies from society to society as
a result of cultural diversity.
 Religious, ethnic, and racial minorities are also among social groups
marginalized in different societies and cultures.
 Crafts workers such as tanners, potters, and ironsmiths are
marginalized in many parts of Ethiopia.
 Vulnerability refers to the state of being exposed to
physical or emotional injuries.
 Vulnerable groups are people exposed to possibilities
of attack, harms or mistreatment.
 As a result, vulnerable persons/groups need special
attention, protection and support.
 Minority groups:
 ‗Minority group‘ refers to a small group of people
within a community, region, or country.
 In most cases, minority groups are different from the
majority population in terms of
race,
religion,

ethnicity, and

language.
GENDER-BASED MARGINALIZATION
 Gender inequality involves discrimination on a
group of people based on their gender.
 Gender inequality mainly arises from socio-cultural
norms.
 The manifestation of gender inequality varies from
culture to culture.
 Gender-based marginalization is a global problem.
 It involves exclusion of girls and women from a wide
range of opportunities and social services.
 There are some customary practices that affect the
health and wellbeing of girls and women. These
practices collectively are called harmful traditional
practices (HTPs).
 Female genital cutting, is one of HTPs which is
widely practiced in most regions of Ethiopia.
 FEMALE GENITAL CUTTING
 Female genital cutting (FGC) is practiced in 28 countries in
western, northern and eastern Africa.
 The prevalence of FGC is very high in Somali (98%), Djibouti
(93%), Egypt (87%), Sudan (87%), and Eritrea (83%).
 Ethiopia is one of the high prevalence countries in Africa.
 According to recent reports, 65% of girls and women in 15 to 49
years age category are circumcised (UNFPA & UNICEF, 2017).
 The prevalence of FGC has been declining in Ethiopia. However,
it is still practiced in most of the regions in the country.
 Factors that encourage female genital cutting
1) people consider it as an integral part of their culture; and
2) people believe that the practice has some benefits.
 The following are some of the beliefs related to the practice:
 FGC is considered as a process of purifying girls.
 Uncircumcised girls would be disobedient, powerful and ill-mannered.
 There is a widely held belief that uncircumcised girls are promiscuous because
they have high sexual drive
 FGC is also considered as a means of preserving girls‘ virginity, which is
considered as a precondition for marriage in some cultures.
MARGINALIZED OCCUPATIONAL GROUPS
 According to anthropological findings, there are
occupational marginalized groups in many parts of
Ethiopia of which the following are cted as examples:
 tanners,
 potters,
 weavers and

 ironsmiths.

 These craft-workers have different names in different

parts of the country.
 Craft-workers such as potters and tanners are
considered as impure and excluded from social
interactions, ownership of economic resources (e.g.,
land), and participation in associations and
celebrations.
 Despite their contributions, weavers are marginalized
from the wider society.
 Despite their contributions, these segments of the
population are considered inferior and marginalized
from wide areas of social interactions.
Type of Manifestations of marginalization
Marginalization
Spatial Craft-workers settle/live on the outskirts of villages, near to forests, on
Marginalization poor land, around steep slopes.
They are segregated at market places (they sell their goods at the
outskirts of markets).
When they walk along the road, they are expected to give way for
others and walk on the lower side of the road.
Economic Craft-workers are excluded from certain economic activities including
marginalization production and exchanges. In some cultures they are not allowed to
cultivate crops.
They have a limited access to land and land ownership.
Social Craft-workers are excluded from intermarriage, they do not share
Marginalization burial places with others; they are excluded from membership of
associations such as iddirs.
When marginalized groups are allowed to participate in social events,
they must sit on the floor separately-sometimes outside the house or near door
Cultural Cultural marginalization is manifested in negative stereotyping such as
Marginalization the following
Occupational minorities are labelled as impure and polluting; they
are accused of eating animals that have died without being
slaughtered;
Occupational minorities are also considered unreliable, lacking
morality, respect and shame.
 AGE-BASED VULNERABILITY
 Age-based vulnerability is susceptibility of people,
especially children and older people, to
 different forms of attack,

 physical injuries and

 emotional harms.

CHILDREN: DISCRIMINATION/VULNERABILITY
 Children are among vulnerable groups exposed to harm
because of their age.
 Both boys and girls are exposed to some harm and abuse in
the hands of older people.
 However, girls are exposed to double marginalization and
discrimination because of the gender.
 Child girls are exposed to various kinds of harm before they
reach at the age of maturity.
 Girls are exposed to HTPs such as female genital cutting.
 Minor girls are also exposed to early/child marriage in
many parts of Ethiopia
MARGINALIZATION OF OLDER PERSONS
 ‗Older People‘ refers to adults with the age of 60 and above.
 The number of older people is increasing globally.
 According to the estimation of the United Nations (2009),
the number of older people will increase to 2 billion by 2050.
 80% of the 2 billion older persons would live in low and
middle-income countries.
 This means Africa would have a large number of older
adults after 30 years.
 Ethiopia, the second populous country in Africa, would also
have millions of older persons after three decades.
 Ageism is a widely observed social problem in the world.
 Ageism refer to stereotyping, prejudice, and discrimination
against people based on their age.
 Older people are facing various problems as a result of
modernization, globalization, and urbanization.
 Older people are exposed to social exclusion because of their
lower social and economic status.
 RELIGIOUS AND ETHNIC MINORITIES
 Religious and ethnic minorities groups also face
different forms of marginalization.
 There are several examples of marginalization
and discrimination targeting religious and
ethnic minorities in the world.
 The Jewish people suffered from discrimination
and persecution in different parts of the world.
They were targets of extermination in Germany
and other WesternEuropean countries because
of their identity.
 Muslim Rohingyas are among the most
marginalized and persecuted people in the
world.
 HUMAN RIGHT APPROACHES AND INCLUSIVENESS:
ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES
 All forms of marginalization and discrimination against
vulnerable and minority groups contradict the principles
of human rights.
 The major human rights conventions denounce
discrimination against women, children, people with
disability, older people and other minority and
vulnerable groups.
 People with disabilities have the right to inclusive
services and equal opportunities.
 The human rights of women and girls include right to be
free from harmful traditional practices such as forced
marriage, early marriage, and female genital cutting.
 Any form of discrimination, exclusion, and gender-based
violence also violate the human rights of girls and
women.
END OF THE CHAPTER
 CHAPTER FIVE
IDENTITY, INTER-ETHNIC RELATIONS AND MULTICULTURALISM IN ETHIOPIA
 Identity, Ethnicity and Race: Identification and Social Categorization
 Ethnicity
 The word is derived from the Greek term ‗ethnos‟ and Latin word
‗ethnikos‟), which literally means ―a group of people bound together by
the same manners, customs or other distinctive features‖
 Ethnic groups are those human groups that entertain a subjective
belief in their common descent because of similarities or physical type
or of customs or both, or because of memories of colonization and
migration.
 It does not matter whether or not an objective blood relationship
exists, but whether it is believed to exist.
 The cultural contents of ethnic dichotomies contains two orders:
 (i) overt signals or signs - features that people look for and exhibit
to show identity, often such features as dress, language, house-form,
or general style of life,
 (ii) basic value orientations: the standards of morality and
excellence by which performance is judged.
 Since belonging to an ethnic category implies being a certain kind of
person, having that basic identity, it also implies a claim to be judged,
and to judge oneself, by those standards that are relevant to that
identity.
ETHNIC GROUPS AND ETHNIC IDENTITY
 Ethnic Group
 Ethnic Group’ is based on the belief in common
descent shared by its members, extending beyond
kinship, political solidarity vis-a-vis other groups, and
common customs, language, religion, values, morality,
and etiquette (Weber, 1978).
 Anderson (1983), described ethnic groups as ―an
imagined community‖ that possesses a ―character and
quality‖
 Schermerhorn (1996), conceptualize ethnic group as a
unit of population having unique characteristics in
relation with others, binding with common language,
myth of origin, and history of ethnic allegiance.
 By considering the various definitions provided to define
ethnicity, Hutchinson and Smith‘s (1996) identified six main
features that the definition of an ethnic group, predominantly
consists.
 1. A common proper name, to identify and express the “essence” of
the community;
 2. A myth of common ancestry that includes the idea of common
origin in time and place and that gives an ethnic group a sense of
fictive kinship;
 3. Shared historical memories, or better, shared memories of a
common past or pasts, including heroes, events, and their
commemoration;
 4. One or more elements of common culture, which need not be
specified but normally, include religion, customs, and language;
 5. A link with a homeland, not necessarily its physical occupation
by the ethnic group, only its symbolic attachment to the ancestral
land, as with diaspora peoples; and
 6. A sense of solidarity on the part of at least some sections of the
ethnic‟s population
ETHNIC IDENTITY
 Ethnic identity is an affiliative construct, where an
individual is viewed by themselves and by others as
belonging to a particular ethnic or cultural group.
 On the individual level, ethnicity is a social-
psychological process, which gives an individual a
sense of belonging and identity.
 It is, of course, one of a number of social phenomena,
which produce a sense of identity.
 Ethnic identity can be defined as a manner in which
persons, on account of their ethnic origin, locate
themselves psychologically in relation to one or more
social systems, and in which they perceive others as
locating them in relation to those systems (Isajiw, 1990).
 Locating oneself in relation to a community and society is
not only a psychological phenomenon, but also a social
phenomenon in the sense that the internal psychological
states express themselves objectively in external
behaviour patterns that come to be shared by others.
 External and Internal Aspects Of Ethnic Identity
 External aspects- observable behaviour, both cultural and
social, such as
 (1), speaking an ethnic language, practicing ethnic traditions,
 (2), participation in ethnic personal networks, such as family and
friendships,
 (3), participation in ethnic institutional organizations, such as
churches, schools, enterprises, media
 (4), participation in ethnic voluntary associations, such as clubs,
'societies,' youth organizations and
 (5) participation in functions sponsored by ethnic organizations such
as picnics, concerts, public lectures, rallies, dances.
 Internal Aspects of ethnic identity refer to images, ideas,
attitudes, and feelings. These, of course, are interconnected
with the external behaviour.
 Three types of internal aspects of identity: (1) cognitive, (2)
moral, and (3) affective.
 RACE –THE SOCIAL CONSTRUCTION OF RACIAL IDENTITY
 Race is an elusive concept sometimes interchangeably with
ethnicity, where the relationship between the two concept
remain complex.
 Racial Classification
 For some time, it was common to divide humanity into four
main races, which recognized both on the scientific and
folk notions of the concept.
 Europeaeus: White; muscular; hair – long, flowing; eyes blue
– Acute, inventive, gentle, and governed by laws.
 Americanus: Reddish; erect; hair – black, straight, thick;
wide nostrils – Obstinate, merry, free, and regulated by
custom.
 Asiaticus: Sallow (yellow); hair black; eyes dark – Haughty,
avaricious, severe, and ruled by opinions
 Africanus: Black; hair –black, frizzled; skin silky; nose flat;
lips tumid – Crafty, indolent, negligent, and governed by
caprice or the will of their masters.
 Modern genetics abandon race as a variable in
biomedical research and tends not to speak of races,
and this has two main reasons:
 1.There has always been so much interbreeding between
human populations that it would be meaningless to talk
of fixed boundaries between races.2.
 2. The distribution of hereditary physical traits does
not follow clear boundaries.
 Nevertheless, when used as a social construction of
human categorization ‗Race‘ is human groups defined
by itself or others as distinct by virtue of perceived
common physical characteristics that are held to be
inherent.
 As a social construction of human categorization ‗Racial
group‘ is a group of people, defined by itself or others as
distinct by virtue of perceived common physical
characteristics that are held to be inherent.
 Racial stratification is associated with birth-ascribed
status based on physical and cultural characteristics
defined by outside groups.
 Ethnicity is also ascribed at birth, but the ethnic group
normally defines its cultural characteristics itself.
 Thus, racial categorizations, which are defined by the
outsider, are normally laced with inaccuracies and
stereotypes, while ethnic classification is normally
more accurate of a cultural group because it is defined
by the group itself.
 Yet, ethnic classifications can also be defined and used
by outside groups to stereotype an ethnic community
in ways that are often oversimplified and that view
ethnicity as a static cultural process.
 THEORIES OF ETHNICITY: PRIMORDIALISM, INSTRUMENTALISM AND
SOCIAL CONSTRUCTIVISM
Perspective Description
Primordialist Ethnicity is fixed at birth. Ethnic identification is based on
Approach deep, ‗primordial‘ attachments to a group or culture and
(Model) unchageable part of ones identity. Ethnicity is an ascribed status
and ethnic membership is fixed, permanent and primarily ascribed
through birth.
Instrumentali Ethnicity, based on people‘s ―historical‖ and ―symbolic‖
memory, is something created and used and exploited by
st Approach
leaders and others in the pragmatic pursuit of their own
(Model) interests, whose primary motives are non-ethnic
Social Ethnic identity is not something people ―possess‖ but
something they ―construct‖ in specific social and historical
Constructivist
contexts to further their own interests. It is therefore fluid and
Approach subjective. It has much to do with the exigencies of everyday survival
(Theory) (ethnicity is constructed in the process of feeding, clothing, sending to
school and conversing with children and others). In general,
constructivists conceive ethnicity as situational, flexible and variable
dealing with inter-personal ethnicity without initially reifying a
concept of culture.
END OF THE CHAPTER
 CHAPTER SIX
CUSTOMARY AND LOCAL GOVERNANCE SYSTEMS AND PEACE MAKING
 INDIGENOUS AND LOCAL GOVERNANCE
 Indigenous systems of governance have been used to maintain social
order across Ethiopian regions. The role of indigenous governance was
indispensable before the advent of the modern state system.
 The Oromo Gadaa
 The Gaada of the Oromo is one of the well-studies indigenous systems of
governance.
 Gadaa system is ‗an age grading institution of the Oromo that has a
complex system of administration, law making and dispute settlement‘.
 The Gadaa is a highly celebrated institution of governance and dispute
settlement among the Oromo people.
 It is an egalitarian (democratic) system of governance.
 Political power is transferred from one generation set (Luuba) to
another every eight years
 Gaada officials such as the Abba Gaada and Abba Seera (father of law)
serve for eight years and leave their position to the new generation of
Gadaa officials
 The Gaada system involves a continuous process of law
making and revision.
 The law making process has rooms for wider
participation of the people.
 Gumi gaayo, a law making assembly of the Borana
Oromo, is a good example.
 The Waliso Oromo have a law making assembly known
as yaa‟ii haraa,
 The Gaada is an indigenous system of
 governance,
 conflict resolution, and
 peacemaking.

 The indigenous system of governance among the

Oromo also include institutions of conflict resolution
such as the Jaarsa Biyyaa (literally: elders of the
soil/land) institution.
 The Gedeo Baalle
 The Baalle and the Gaada system of the Oromo have some
similarities.
 For example, both have grading system and exercise
periodic transfer of power (i.e., every eight years).
 The customary law of the Gedeo is called Seera.
 The Ya‘a, the general assembly, is the highest body of the
Gedeo indigenous system of governance.
 The Baalle is a complex system which has three
administrative hierarchies:
 Abba Gada, Roga (traditional leader next the Abba Gada), and
 two levels of council of elders known as Hulla Hayyicha and Songo
Hayyicha.
 The Abba Gada is the leader of the Baalle.
 The Baalle system has a body of laws called Seera.
 Conflicts are resolved by the Songo hayyicha at village level.
 When disputes are not settled at the village level, cases can
be referred to first to the Hulla Hayyicha and finally to the
Abba Gada.
 In general, the Gedeo system of governance has the
following major institutions: the ya‟a (general assembly), the
Seera (customary law), the Abba Gada, and council of elders.
 Dere Woga of the Gamo
 The Gamo people were organized into several local
administrations locally known as deres.
 There were more than 40 deres across the Gamo highlands.
 Each dere had its own ka‟o (king) and halaqa (elected leader).
 The indigenous system of governance embraces the dere woga
(customary law) and the dubusha assemblies.
 The highest body of the indigenous governance is the dere
dubusha, a general assembly that is responsible to make and
revise customary laws, resolve major disputes that cannot be
solved at the lower levels.
 The dubushas assembly has three hierarchies: 1) the dere
dubusha (at the top), sub-dere dubusha (at the middle), and
guta/neighborhood dubusha (at the village level). Minor cases
and disputes are resolved by the dere cima, council of elders.

 INTRA AND INTER-ETHNIC CONFLICT RESOLUTION INSTITUTIONS
 Conflicts and disputes exist in every society and community.
 Conflicts may arise between individuals, groups and communities
within the same ethnic group.
 Peoples across Ethiopian regions have indigenous institutions and
mechanisms of conflict resolution and peacemaking.
 There are different indigenous institutions of conflict resolution and
peacemaking across regions and cultures in Ethiopia.
 Study findings reveal variations and similarities among indigenous
institutions of conflict resolution in Ethiopia.
 Indigenous justice institutions and mechanisms share several
common aspects including the following:
 High involvement of elders at different stages of conflict resolution and
peacemaking process.
 Preference and respect for elders known for their qualities
including experience in dispute resolution; knowledge of
customary laws, procedures, norms and values of the society;
impartiality, respect for rules and people; the ability of listening
and speaking politely; honesty and tolerance.
 Indigenous dispute resolution practices focus on restoring social
relationships, harmony, and peaceful coexistence.
 Indigenous/customary justice institutions have been widely used
across Ethiopian regions and cultures.
 With some exceptions, customary justice institutions include three
major components.
 Customary law: it refers to a body of rules, norms, and a set of
moral values that serve as a wider framework for human conduct
and social interactions.
 The Sera of the Sidama, the dere woga of the Gamo, the Seera
Addaa of the Oromo; Gordena Sera of Kestane Gurage are examples
of customary laws.
 In most cases, customary laws are available orally.
 Council of elders: The council of elders embraces highly respected
and well-experienced community members who have a detail
knowledge of the customary laws.
 Elders often serve their communities on voluntary basis without any
payment.
 The number of the elders varies based on the nature of the case. The
institution of council of elders has different names in various ethnic
groups: Yehager Shimagile (Amhara), Jaarsaa Biyyaa (Oromo),
Hayyicha (Gedeo), Guurtii (Somali), Dere Cima (Gamo), Deira
Cimma (Wolayita), and Cimuma (Burji).
 Customary courts are public assemblies that serve two major
purposes: (a) hearing, discussing and settling disputes, and (b)
revising, adapting, and making laws.
STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS OF CUSTOMARY JUSTICE SYSTEMS/INSTITUTIONS
 Strengths of customary justice institutions
 Incur limited cost in terms of time and resources/money
 Conflict resolution process are held in public spaces in the
community; different parties (victims, offenders and community
members)
 Decisions are easily enforced through community-based sanctions
 It aims at restoring community cohesion, social relations,
collective spirit and social solidarity
 Rely on respect for elders, the tradition of forgiveness,
transferring compensations, embedded in indigenous beliefs
 Limitations of customary justice institutions
 Women are excluded from participation at customary courts and
assemblies with a few exceptions.
 They are effective to resolve dispute and restore peace within the
same ethnic group.
 Their potential in resolving inter-ethnic conflicts and restoring
long-lasting peace is very limited.
 INTER-ETHNIC CONFLICT RESOLUTION
 One of the weaknesses of indigenous institution of peacemaking is
their limitation in resolving inter-ethnic conflicts.
 However, there are some example of inter-ethnic conflict resolution
institutions in some parts of Ethiopia.
 Abbo Gereb is one of the indigenous institutions that address inter-
ethnic conflicts.
 It is a dispute resolution institution in Rayya and Wajirat district,
Southern Tigray. Abbo Gereb, literally means the father of the river,
Gerewo.
 Abbo Gereb serves to settle disputes between individuals or groups
from highland Tigray and lowland Afar.
 Conflict between the two groups often arise because of dispute over
grazing land or water resources, particularly in dry season.
 When conflict arises between parties from two ethnic groups, notable
elders from Tigray and Afar come together to resolve the dispute and
restore peaceful relations.
 Most of the elders involved in inter-ethnic conflict resolutions are
bilingual: speaking Tigrigna and Afar.
 The mechanisms of inter-ethnic disputes have different names.
WOMEN’S ROLE IN CONFLICT RESOLUTION AND PEACE MAKING

 Ethiopian women participate in the process of dispute

settlement in exceptional cases.
 For example, in some cultures, women participate in
dispute settlement processes when cases are related to
marriage and women‘s issues.
 In most cases, indigenous institution of conflict
resolution are dominated by men.
 This does not mean that women are completely
excluded from conflict resolution and peace making
activities.
 WOMEN’S PEACE MAKING STICKS
 Sidama women have two instruments of power: the Yakka and
the Siqqo. The Yakka is women‘s association or unity group.
 The Siqqo is a stick that symbolizes peace and women honor.
 The Siqqo and the Yakka are closely associated.
 Mobilizing the Yakka and holding the Siqqo, Sidama women
stand for their customary rights.
 They do this, for example, when a woman is beaten up by her
husband or a pregnant woman is mistreated.
 For example, if a man prohibits his wife from Yakka
participation, the women group impose a fine on him. The fine
could be an ox.
 Oromo women also have a peace stick called Sinqee.
 Sinqee serves the purpose of protecting women‘s rights and
making peace.
 Quarrelling men stop fighting when a woman stands between
them holding her Sinqee.
 Don Kachel: Agnuak Women Peacemaking
Institution
 DonKachel means „let us all live in peace‟. It involves a peace-
making movement initiated by Jaye, a group of wise and elderly
Agnuak women. The Jaye start a peace-making movement based
on information gathered through women‟s networking.
 The Jaye quickly act upon receiving information about, for
example, a heated argument that could lead to conflict and
fighting. The Jaye call the disputing parties for a meeting to
settle the dispute. A few neutral observers will also be invited to
monitor the process of the meeting. After examining the
arguments of the two parties, the Jaye give their verdict.
 The party that caused the conflict request for forgiveness in
public and pay some compensation.
 A sheep or goat is slaughtered after the conflict resolved; the
meat is cooked and shared by participants of the meeting.
 Finally the Jaye would announce the meeting is over, the
problemresolved, using these words „Now let us all live in peace
together!‟
 The practice of Don Kachel is currently being adopted by other
ethnic groups including the Nuer, Mejenger, Opo, and Komo.
 Women’s Institution Of Reconciliation: Raya-azebo, Tigray
 Elderly and highly respected women in a village in Raya-Azebo,
Tigray established a reconciliation institution called the Debarte.
 The Debarte plays an important role in avoiding harms associated
with the culture of revenge.
 A man may kill another man in a fight. The incident would trigger
the feeling of revenge among male relatives of the murdered man. In
such a tense situation, the wife of the killer requests for the Debarte
intervention.
 The Debarte quickly start their intervention to stop the act of revenge.
The Debarte instruct the murderer‟s wife to gathering her female
relatives together. The wife and her female relatives get ready wearing
their netela upside down and covering their hair with black cloths to
show their grief and regret.
 After these preparations, the Debarte lead the female relatives of the
killer to the home of the murdered man.
 The women cry loudly while walking to their destination. As they
come near to the home of the killed person, they utter the following
words: „Abyetye ezgio! Abyetye ezgio!‟ „Oh God help us! God help us!
Upon their arrival at the compound of the victim, the Debarte kneel
down and cover their heads with the dust of the compound. They beg
the relatives/family of the murdered man to give up revenge and
consider forgiveness.
 LEGAL PLURALISM: INTERRELATIONS BETWEEN CUSTOMARY,
RELIGIOUS AND STATE LEGAL SYSTEMS
 Legal pluralism is an important concept in disciplines that study
legal issues.
 It refers to the existence of two or more legal or justice systems in a
given society or country.
 Legal pluralism indicates the co-existence of multiple legal systems
working side-by-side in the same society.
 Legal pluralism is evident in the Ethiopian context.
 Multiple legal institutions, including customary laws and courts,
state laws and courts, and religious laws and courts (e.g., the Sharia
Law) work side-by-side in most parts of the country.
 The FDRE Constitution provides ample space for religious and
customary laws and courts to address personal and family cases.
 The following two Articles show this reality.
 In accordance with provisions to be specified by law, a law giving
recognition to marriage concluded under systems of religious or
customary laws may be enacted (Article 34(4).
 Religious and customary courts that had state recognition and functioning
prior to the adoption of the Constitution shall be organized on the basis of
recognition accorded to them by the Constitution. (Article 78(5)
END OF THE CHAPTER
 CHAPTER SEVEN
INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS (IKS) AND PRACTICES

 IKS is defined as technical insight of wisdom gained

and developed by people in a particular locality
through years of careful observation and
experimentation with the phenomena around them.
 Indigenous knowledge systems (IKS)
 refer to a body of empirical knowledge and beliefs handed
down through generations of long-time inhabitants of a
specific locale, by cultural transmission, about the
relationship of living beings with each other and their
environment (Warren 1991).
INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, AND INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE
 The phrase ‗indigenous people' refers to a specific
group of people occupying a certain geographic area
for many generations (Loubser, 2005).
 Indigenous people possess, practice and protect a total
sum of knowledge and skills constitutive of their
meaning, belief systems, livelihood constructions and
expression that distinguish them from other groups
 However, the concept ―indigenous‖ is a social and
historical construct with high political, social, and
economic stakes.
 Definitions of indigenous in international governing
organizations (IGOs), in indigenous communities, and
in the academic literature are highly contested.
 In sum, despite the lack of an authoritative / formal
universal definition for the concept of indigenous
peoples, the United Nations Permanent Forum on
Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) sets outs distinguishing
features as a guide for the identification of indigenous
peoples across the globe. This includes the:
 Self- identification as Indigenous peoples at the individual
level and accepted by the community as their member;
 Historical continuity with pre-colonial and/or pre-settler
societies;
 Strong link to territories and surrounding natural
resources;
 Distinct social, economic or political systems;
 Distinct language, culture and beliefs;
 Formation of non-dominant groups of society; and
 Resolve to maintain and reproduce their ancestral
environments and systems as distinctive peoples and
communities
INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE (IK)
 Literatures on indigenous knowledge does not provide
a single definition of the concept.
 According to Warren,
 indigenous knowledge is the local knowledge – knowledge that is
unique to a given culture or society (Warren, 1991).
 For Kwaku and Morena (2010),
 IK is a unique local knowledge to a given culture or society.
 IK exists in rural and urban societies as part of life
that their livelihood depends on specific skills and
knowledge for survival.
 The World Bank refers IK as a large body of knowledge
and skills which is developed outside the formal system
including development planning, environmental
assessment, resource management, local conservation of
biological resources, and conflict resolution (World
Bank, 1998).
SPECIAL FEATURES OF INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE
 IK is:
 Local
 It is rooted in a particular community and situated within broader cultural
traditions; it is a set of experiences generated by people living in those
communities. Separating the technical from the non-technical, the rational
from the non-rational could be problematic. Therefore, when transferred to
other places, there is a potential risk of dislocating IK.
 Tacit
 knowledge and, therefore, not easily codifiable.
 Transmitted orally
 through imitation and demonstration. Codifying it may lead to the loss of
some of its properties.
 Experiential rather than theoretical knowledge.
 Experience and trial and error, tested in the rigorous laboratory of survival of
local communities constantly reinforce IK.
 Learned through repetition,
 which is a defining characteristic of tradition even when new knowledge is
added. Repetition aids in the retention and reinforcement of IK.
 Constantly changing,
 being produced as well as reproduced, discovered as well as lost; though it is
often perceived by external observers as being somewhat static
SIGNIFICANCE OF INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE
 Today, both scholars and public policy makers are
recognizing the importance of various local or culture-
based knowledge systems in addressing the pressing
problems of development and the environment.
 Indigenous knowledge is important in that people in a
community value whatever resource they get from the
environment through sustainable production systems.
 These communities are conscious of the need to self-
reliant in capital stocks and management skills.
 The knowledge of local people is an enabling
component of development.
 In this regard; a large percentage of the earth's genetic
diversity has been maintained and managed through
farmer's IKS.
 Indigenous knowledge system enable people to develop
strategies for handling household and communal activities
 For example in Ethiopia Debo and Jige are an important
uniting forces in communal activities.
 Members of the community unite to provide essential
inputs, including direct labor to operations. '‗
 This deployment of manpower is strongly supported by
IKS, which is composed of technologies, rules, information,
approaches, and relationships that are vital to sustainable
development.
 Over the years, IKS authorities (elders) make local rules to
protect important resources such as useful plants, water
bodies, stone terracing, agro-forestry, watersheds and
rivers, food preservations, conflict management, calendar,
fallowing as a soil regeneration practice, etc.
 According to Paula Puffer Paula (1995), indigenous / local
knowledge can help find the best solution to a development
challenges.
 For example, familiarity with local knowledge can help
extensionists and researchers understand and
communicate better with local people.
 INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE AND DEVELOPMENT
 Indigenous knowledge passes from one generation to the next
and enable indigenous people to survive, manage their natural
resources and the ecosystems surrounding them like animals,
plants, rivers, seas, natural environment, economic, cultural and
political organization.
 Knowledge of these elements form a set of interacting units
known as indigenous coping systems.
 In other words, ''IK is relevant to development process such as
agriculture, animal husbandry, traditional medicine, saving and
credit, community development, poverty alleviation, and peaceful
coexistence
 Indigenous knowledge may help identify cost-effective and
sustainable mechanisms for poverty alleviation that are locally
manageable and meaningful.
 Indigenous knowledge is used at the local level by communities
as the basis for decisions pertaining to food security, human and
animal health, education, natural resources management, and
other vital activities.
 Utilizing IK helps to increase the sustainability of development
efforts because the IK integration process provides for mutual
learning and adaptation, which in turn contributes to the
empowerment of local communities.
 Since efficiency, effectiveness, and sustainability are key
determinants of the quality of development work, harnessing
indigenous knowledge has a clear development business case.
 Early indications point to significant improvements in
development project quality, if IK is leveraged with modern
technologies.
 In sum, indigenous knowledge is the knowledge that helps a
society make decisions about activities, such as agriculture and
education, that are acceptable to their life ways. Indigenous
knowledge, along with western- based knowledge, helps create
development solutions that are culturally acceptable by the
community.
 In the past, such knowledge has been ignored and development
solutions have been created that were not economically feasible or
culturally acceptable by the local community.
 When western scientific ideas are paired with indigenous
knowledge systems, researchers going overseas or working with
local communities can prepare an initial development plan that
has a complete picture (Puffer, 1995).
 PRESERVATION, CHALLENGES AND LIMITATIONS OF IK
 Indigenous knowledge, which has generally been passed from generation to
generation by word of mouth, is in danger of being lost unless it is formally
documented and preserved (Amare, 2009).
 The rapid change in the way of life of local communities has largely
accounted for the loss of IK.
 Younger generations underestimate the utility of IK systems because of the
influence of modem technology and education
 Regarding the challenges and limitations of IK, Amare (2009) states the
following :
 Although the knowledge of indigenous communities has been found to be
very useful, the, exploitation of natural resources, and increased
competition for employment, has set off a problematic chain of events.
 This modernization has influenced indigenous traditional spread of
industrialization threatens the preservation and continued development
of IK systems
 Industrialization, along with its attendant processes of urbanization
African which generate IK and practices can break down.
 Added to this is the commercial society in many ways and Ethiopia is no
exception.
 As Grenier (1998) puts it: ―the growth of national and
international markets, the imposition o f educational
and religious systems and the impact o f various
development processes are leading more and more to
the ―homogenization‖ o f the world‘s cultures.
 Consequently, indigenous beliefs, values, customs,
know-how and practices may be altered and the
resulting knowledge base incomplete.
 As with scientific knowledge, ( Amare, 2009), IK has
the following limitations and drawbacks and these
must be recognized as well:
 IK is sometimes accepted uncritically because of naive notions that
whatever indigenous people do is naturally in harmony with the
environment.
 Thrupp (1989) argues that we should reject ―romanticized and
idealistic views of local knowledge and traditional societies‖.
 There is historical and contemporary evidence that
indigenous peoples have also committed environmental
sins‘ through over-grazing, over-hunting, or over-cultivation
of the land.
 It is misleading to think of IK as always being ‗good‘, ‗right
or ‗sustainable‘.
 Quite often the overlooked feature of IK, which needs to be
taken into account, is that, like scientific knowledge,
sometimes the knowledge which local people rely on is
wrong or even harmful.
 Practices based on, for example, mistaken beliefs, faulty
experimentation, or inaccurate information can be
dangerous and may even be a barrier to improving the
wellbeing of indigenous people.
 Knowledge is a source of status and income (as is the case,
for example, with a herbalist) and is often jealously
guarded.
 A related issue is that some indigenous peoples fear that
their IK will be misused, and lacking the power to prevent
such abuses, they choose to keep quiet.
THE EROSION OF INDIGENOUS KNOWLEDGE SYSTEMS (IKS)
 Despite the fact that some IK is lost naturally as techniques and
tools are modified or fall out of use, the recent and current rate of
loss is accelerating because of
 rapid population growth,
 growth of international markets,
 educational systems,
 environmental degradation, and
 development processes — pressures related to rapid modernization and
cultural homogenization
 Below, some examples are given by Grenier to illustrate these
mechanisms:
 With rapid population growth—often due to in-migration or government
relocation schemes in the case of large development projects, such as
dams — standards of living may be compromised.
 With poverty, opportunities for short-term gain are selected over
environmentally sound local practices.
 With increasing levels of poverty, farmers, for example, may also have
less time and fewer resources to sustain the dynamic nature of IK
systems through their local experiments and innovations.
 The introduction of market-oriented agricultural and forestry practices
focused on mono-cropping is associated with losses in IK and IK
practices, through losses in biodiversity and cultural diversity.
 In the short term, chemical inputs seem to reduce the need to tailor
varieties to difficult growing conditions, contributing to the demise of
local varieties.
 With deforestation, certain medicinal plants become more difficult to
find (and the knowledge or culture associated with the plants also
declines).
 More and more knowledge is being lost as a result of the disruption of
traditional channels of oral communication.
 Neither children nor adults spend as much time in their communities
anymore.
 It is harder for the older generation to transmit their knowledge to
young people.
 As IK is transmitted orally, it is vulnerable to rapid change —
especially when people are displaced or when young people acquire
values and lifestyles different from those of their ancestors.
 Farmers traditionally maintained their indigenous crop varieties by
keeping household seed stocks and by obtaining seed through
traditional family and community networks and through exchanges
with nearby communities. Some of these traditional networks have
been disrupted or no longer exist.
 In the past, outsiders ignored or maligned IK, depicting it as
primitive, simple, static, ―not knowledge,‖ or folklore. This historic
neglect has contributed to the decline of IK systems, through lack of
use and application.
END OF THE CHAPTER