Harald Aspen: Amhara Traditions of Knowledge. Spirit Mediums and their Clients

Review  

The role of verification in international relations: 1945-1993

The role of verification in international relations is liked with the urge to verify which is evident throughout human history. This study focused on the evolution of this role in light of political circumstances and technological progress. Several different approaches to verification can be identified – bilateral, regional cooperation, global arrangements, and individual national efforts. Moreover, several themes characterize the existing verification regimes. These issues – namely the sharing of intelligence, managing compliance questions, and the integration of different regimes – present themselves as the negotiating ground for future years. One of the important result of the paper is that it demonstrates how the concept of verification, once a contentious political instrument, is encompassing anew actors, new frameworks, new technologies, and new fields

The Argobba of Ethiopia are not the Language they Speak

The Argobba of southeastern Wällo and northeastern Šäwa live amongst and speak the languages of the Amhara and the Oromo with great ease as if they are members of these ethnic groups. For them Amharic and Afaan Oromoo are the languages of administration and market transaction and therefore important for Argobba survival in a region domi-nated by these two ethno-linguistic groups. Yet the Argobba I met in these lands identified themselves as Argobba, and they were known as such, despite the fact that several of them had Amharic or Afaan Oromoo as their first language. The central claim of this article is therefore that the Argobba of this region define themselves as Argobba based on their traditions, customs, beliefs, values, and total cultural practices and not on the basis of who can or cannot speak the Argobba language

Folk-fairs and Festivals

Fêtes populaires et festivals. Préservation culturelle et formation de l’identité nationale en Érythrée. – L’État d’Érythrée promeut les fêtes populaires et les festivals afin de mettre en œuvre sa politique d’« unité dans la diversité » et de créer l’interaction et la cohésion dans la population. Ces manifestations régionales et nationales offrent un terrain d’interaction entre les communautés locales et l’État où celles-là attendent des bénéfices économiques de celui-ci et, inversement, où l’État tente de rendre populaires ses politiques de pluralisme culturel et de tolérance en encourageant l’articulation de traditions culturelles locales pour réaliser l’intégration nationale. La mise en scène de la culture locale a donc toujours une dimension nationale et peut avoir un impact important sur la préservation culturelle et la formation d’une identité nationale. Cet article s’intéresse à la manière dont l’État promeut l’unité nationale en s’appuyant sur l’exemple du festival Eratra.The state of Eritrea promotes folk-fairs and festivals in order to facilitate its “unity in diversity” policy, and create communal interaction and cohesion among its peoples. These regional and national folk-fairs and festivals provide a ground for interaction between local communities and the state in which local communities expect economic benefits from the state and, conversely, the state attempts to popularise its policies of cultural pluralism or tolerance to multiculturalism by encouraging the articulation of local cultural traditions in terms of national integration. The staging of local culture therefore always has a national dimension, even when the expressive and material culture is of local origin, and can be an important factor in cultural conservation and national identity formation. The article looks at how state policy fosters national unity while respecting cultural diversity using the annual Festival Ératra as a case in point

Sūfism and Syncretism in North-Eastern Šäwa

Sūfism in north-eastern Šäwa, as in Sunni Islam elsewhere, is a mystical movement that emphasises the intermediary role of holy men or saints and is aimed at gaining a closer connection to and higher knowledge of Allāh by its male adherents who perform rituals collectively in brotherhoods or fraternities. Moreover, the shari’ā-minded Islam is concerned primarily with the well-being of the Islamic body politic while Sūfism in the abstract represents concerns that are typical of the social and ..

Jeberti Women Traders’Innumeracy

AbstractThis study examines critically how cultural traditions of counting and calculating effect normal transactions among illiterate (innumerate) women traders and peasant customers in and around the market places of Mendefera and Áddi Khwala in Eritrea. It looks at how non-written or orally transmitted numerical systems help women traders in business operations, and how such systems make them more capable of defending themselves against any form of dishonesty that comes with the use of the written word or number or in dealing with official accounts of government income taxes. Attention is basically given to the question of whether women traders make wide use of such socially and culturally relevant methods of counting and calculating in enhancing commerce despite the wide prevalence of innumeracy.RésuméCet article étudie, de manière critique, l’incidence des traditions culturelles de comptage et de calcul sur les transactions normales entre des femmes négociantes, pour la plupart illétrées et ne sachant pas compter, et leurs clients paysans, que ce soit sur les marchés de Mendefera et d’Áddi Khwala, ou de leurs alentours, en Érythrée. Il montre aussi comment des systèmes de numération non écrits et transmis oralement sont mobilisés par ces femmes non seulement pour toutes leurs opérations commerciales mais dans leurs propres mécanismes de défense contre des formes de malhonnêteté pouvant survenir avec l’introduction de chiffres et de mots écrits, ou dans leurs rapports avec la comptabilité de l’administration fiscale. L’accent est notamment mis sur la question de savoir si ces négociantes font socialement et culturellement un large usage de ces méthodes de comptage et de calcul afin d’accroître leur commerce, en dépit de la prédominance et de l’ampleur de l’« innumeracy »

Food Insufficiency Is Associated with High-Risk Sexual Behavior among Women in Botswana and Swaziland

In a cross-sectional study, Sheri Weiser and colleagues found that food insufficiency was an important risk factor for increased sexual risk-taking in women in Botswana and Swaziland

The Construction of Ethiopian National Cuisine

L'Etiopia ha sempre beneficiato di un’attenzione internazionale in quanto patria di un’eccellente tradizione gastronomica. Per quanto vi siano pietanze regionali diffuse in gran parte del Paese, vi è anche una cucina nazionale distinta. Ad elevare lo status di questa cucina nazionale ha contribuito la crescente popolarità di una sua pietanza particolarmente piccante conosciuta come wäṭ, che ha ora notorietà internazionale grazie al turismo e ai ristoranti etiopici in Europa e Nord-America. Gli Etiopi non hanno mai dubitato dello status elevato della loro alimentazione, ma non c’è ancora un autentico e compiuto testo di ricette etiopiche che promuova le pietanze del Paese. Per quanto la loro cucina si diffonda in più continenti, lo studio dell'alimentazione etiopica è agli inizi senza che si registrino apporti significativi che contribuiscano a una migliore conoscenza scientifica. Questo articolo esamina alcuni dei processi che sono implicati nell'alimentazione etiopica come cucina nazionale e internazionale, rievocando le radici storiche della sua tradizione gastronomica e i fattori che ne influenzano lo sviluppo come cucina trans-nazionale