Initiating Change in Highland Ethiopia
Causes and Consequences of Cultural Transformation

This 2002 book presents fascinating insights into cultural change and transformation in the little-known Gamo Highlands of Southern Ethiopia.

Dena Freeman (Author)

9780521037761, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 19 July 2007

192 pages, 16 b/w illus. 3 maps 6 tables
22.7 x 14.8 x 1.1 cm, 0.296 kg

"This is an elegant account of an extended rural community in southern Ethiopia." African Studies Review

In a rural community in Southern Ethiopia, there are two types of rituals performed by the same people. Historical evidence suggests that one has shown remarkable stability over the years, while the other has undergone massive transformations. External factors are the same, so how is this to be explained? In this 2002 book, Dena Freeman focuses on ethnographical and historical data from the Gamo Highlands of Southern Ethiopia to tackle the question of cultural change and transformation. She uses a comparative perspective and contrasts the continuity in sacrificial rituals with the rapid divergence and differentiation in initiations. Freeman argues that although external change drives internal cultural transformation, the way in which it does is greatly influenced by the structural organization of the cultural systems themselves. This insight leads to a rethinking of the analytic tension between structure and agency that is at the heart of contemporary anthropological theory.

List of illustrations
Acknowledgements
Select glossary
1. Introduction: theorising change
2. The recent history of the Gamo Highlands
3. Production and reproduction
4. The sacrificial system
5. The initiatory system
6. Experiencing change
7. Assemblies and incremental cultural change
8. Transformation versus devolution: the organisational dynamics of change
Notes
Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: Social & cultural anthropology, ethnography [JHMC], Regional studies [GTB]