具体描述
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?Dena Freeman focuses on new 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
organisation 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.
作者简介
Freeman, Dena Is Research Fellowof Queens’ College at the University
of Cambridge. She is the co-editor, with Alula Pankhurst, of Peripheral
People: The Excluded Minorities of Ethiopia (Hurst & Co.), and her essay,
From Warrior to Wife: Cultural Transformation in the Gamo Highlands of
Ethiopia, won the Curl Essay Prize in 2000.
目录信息
Acknowledgements vii
Select glossary viii
1 Introduction: theorising change 1
2 The recent history of the Gamo Highlands 28
3 Production and reproduction 47
4 The sacrificial system 66
5 The initiatory system 83
6 Experiencing change 114
7 Assemblies and incremental cultural change 130
8 Transformation versus devolution: the organisational
dynamics of change 151
Notes 169
Bibliography 171
Index 179
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