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Originally presented as the author's thesis (doctoral--Universitetet i Trondheim, 1994) under the title: "Spirits, mediums and human worlds: the Amahara peasants of the north Ethiopian highlands and their traditions ..."
Discussing an armed insurgency in Ethiopia (1963-1970), this study offers a new perspective for understanding relations between religion and ethnicity.
Botanists study plants. Ethnologists study ethnic groups including their language. Ethnobotany is an interface between botany and ethnology dealing with the perception of ethnic groups about plant life surrounding them. Language, as the mirror of the mind of speakers, is central in ethnobotanical studies. This work describes the linguistic properties of wild plant names and traditional botanical knowledge among three ethnolingistic groups in northwestern Ethiopia: Awi, Gumuz and Shinasha. The ethnolingistic groups speak Awni (Cushitic), Gumuz (Nilo-Saharan) and Shinasha (Omotic) languages, respectively. The purpose of this study is to document the names and uses of wild plants from three ethnolinguistic communities of Ethiopia: the Awi (A), Gumuz (G), and Shinasha (S) - henceforth AGS. The study also attempts to describe the traditional botanical knowledge (henceforth TBK of these groups in the identification and classification of their plant life.
However much the three great traditions of medicine - Galenic, Chinese and Ayurvedic - differed from each other, they had one thing in common: scholarship. The foundational knowledge of each could only be acquired by careful study under teachers relying on ancient texts. Such medical knowledge is special, operating as it does in the realm of the most fundamental human experiences - health, disease, suffering, birth and death - and the credibility of healers is of crucial importance. Because of this, scholarly medical knowledge offers a rich field for the study of different cultural practices in the legitimation of knowledge generally. The contributors to this volume are all specialists in the history or anthropology of these traditions, and their essays range from historical investigations to studies of present-day practices.
African social development is often explained from outsider perspectives that are mainly European and Euro-American, leaving African indigenous discourses and ways of knowing and doing absent from discussions and debates on knowledge and development. This book is intended to present Africanist indigenous voices in current debates on economic, educational, political and social development in Africa. The authors and contributors to the volume present bold and timely ideas and scholarship for defining Africa through its challenges, possible policy formations, planning and implementation at the local, regional, and national levels. The book also reveals insightful examinations of the hype, the myths and the realities of many topics of concern with respect to dominant development discourses, and challenges the misconceptions and misrepresentations of indigenous perspectives on knowledge productions and overall social well-being or lack thereof. The volume brings together researchers who are concerned with comparative education, international development, and African development, research and practice in particular. Policy makers, institutional planners, education specialists, governmental and non-governmental managers and the wider public should all benefit from the contents and analyses of this book.
This book presents a timely review of the relations between the formal and customary justice systems in Ethiopia, and offers recommendations for legal reform. The book provides cases studies from all the Region of Ethiopia based on field research on the working of customary dispute resolution (CDR) institutions, their mandates, compositions, procedures and processes. The cases studies also document considerable unofficial linkages with the state judicial system, and consider the advantages as well as the limitations of customary institutions with respect to national and international law. The editor's introduction reviews the history of state law and its relations with customary law, summarises the main findings by region as well as as on inter-ethnic issues, and draws conclusions about social and legal structures, principles of organization, cultural concepts and areas, and judicial processes. The introduction also addresses the questions of inclusion and exclusion on the basis of gerontocratic power, gender, age and marginalised status, and the gradual as well as remarkable recent transformations of CDR institutions. The editor's conclusion reviews the characteristics, advantages and limitations of CDR institutions. A strong case is made for greater recognition of customary systems and better alliance with state justice, while safeguarding individual and minority rights. The editors suggest that the current context of greater decentralization opens up opportunities for pratical collaboration between the systems by promoting legal pluralism and reform, thereby enhancing local level justice delivery. The editors conclude by proposing a range of options for more meaningful partnership for consideration by policy makers, the legal profession and other stakeholders. In memory of Aberra Jembere and Dinsa Lepisa. Cover: Elders at peace ceremony in Arbore, 1993.
'Gender and Governance in Rural Services' provides policy-relevant knowledge on strategies to improve agricultural and rural service delivery with a focus on providing more equitable access to these services, especially for women. It focuses India, Ethiopia, and Ghana, and focuses on two public services: agricultural extension, as an example of an agricultural service, and on drinking water, as an example of rural service that is not directly related to agriculture but is of high relevance for rural women. It provides empirical microlevel evidence on how different accountability mechanisms for agricultural advisory services and drinking water provision work in practice, and analyzes factors that influence the suitability of different governance reform strategies that aim at making service provision more gender responsive. It presents major findings from the quantitative and qualitative research conducted under the project in the three countries, which are analyzed in a qualitative way to identify major patterns of accountability routes in agricultural and rural service provision and to assess their gender dimension. The book is intended for use by a wide audience interested in agricultural and rural service provision, including researchers, members of the public administration, policy makers, and staff from nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) and international development agencies who are involved in the design and management of reform efforts, projects, and programs dealing with rural service provision.
First Published in 1990. This study is an important landmark in our understanding of the complexities of pluralistic medical systems. It is an unusual study as it provides an overview of the indigenous Oromo and Amhara, the regional Greaco-Arabic, and the cosmopolitan health systems in the Horn of Africa, using a variety of approaches and methodologies.
The Argobba are an ethnic and religious minority in southeastern Wallo and northeastern Sawa. Despite living in harsh environments and menace from more dominant ethnic groups, they have for centuries maintained their agricultural activity, trader and weaver identity, and religious unity.At present they are undergoing rapid cultural change, and are caught up in a tension between encapsulation and the struggle for the survival of Argobba cultural tradition and political position in what once was a strategic location. This book presents a perceptive historical and cultural analysis of change and continuity, looks at how the Argobba define and redefine their agricultural and commercial ways of living as a response to threats from Oromo migration, Amhara settler penetration and Adal aggression, and examines the past and present condition of Argobba social and economic transformation in north-central Ethiopia.
Democracy is a concept reflecting European philosophies, struggles and concerns. Many Ethiopian ethnic groups have traditions which may offer more satisfactory and culturally acceptable foundations for a “sovereignty of the people” through time-honored ways of voicing political ideas, ironic observations and vital interests. In line with modern urban life Ethiopians also organize and express their interests in non-governmental organizations, the independent press and advocacy groups representing political and social alternatives. The contributors to this book analyze the democratic potential of these movements and practices, their ability to give a voice to the view from below and their potential contribution to a more genuine participation by the majority of Ethiopians in democratic decision making and bringing the sovereignty of the people a step closer to reality.