<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>This study deals with the early history of Jimma town and its growth from its foundation until 1936. It explores social, economic and administrative themes, but also attempts to show the interrelationship between these themes. The town of Jimma evolved during this period from being the home-town of a relatively homogenous society and culture into a place of residence for a diverse and increasingly cosmopolitan population. Economically, the story of Jimma during this period is one of both continuity and change. It is a story of continuity because Jimma, which had been a center of trade from the very beginning, continued to be so during this period. There was significant change, however, because unlike the previous decades in which Jimma had served as a point of exchange or transit for elite goods that mostly originated from beyond the borders of the Oromo Kingdom (such as slaves, ivory and musk), during this period the town developed into the chief center for the collection, organization and export of a cash crop that was grown locally (coffee).Economic change, therefore, resulted in both production and exchange. The social, economic and administrative history of Jimma is closely intertwined, however. The mixture of peoples and cultures, as well as the nature of the urban social institutions that evolved in the town, are closely tied to “the cash crop revolution”, which brought streams of permanent and temporary residents to the town; the evolution of the town into a chief administrative center, as well as the introduction of somewhat peculiar administrative and fiscal institutions, came about, at least in part, as a result of the location of the town in the heart of the “coffee country”, as southwestern Ethiopia came to be known. In short, both the urbanity and the urbanization of Jimma can be explained by the story of coffee production and trade. This article documents these processes extensively and accounts for the growth of a major town in modern Ethiopia.</abstract>

Jimma Town: Foundation and Early Growth from ca. 1830 to 1936

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>This paper reviews pain, social and physical, and its suffering in and beyond the body. It has reviewed evidences for neuro-chemical and neural overlap between social and physical pain. It also explores the consequences of this overlap followed by the sociocultural aspects of pain through an anthropological lens. This is an anthropological exploration of pain for the benefit of the understanding of our clinicians about human pain and suffering beyond the body in their local world.</abstract>

The Pain: How Does Anthropology Look at it? Suffering of Body and Mind

<abstract><title style='display:none'>ABSTRACT</title> The present article discusses the conflict in the Darfur region that took place in 2003. Main aim consists inanalyzing of major Darfur conflict emphasizing historical events preceded it. The crucial question raised here is what were significant causalities that affected the emergence of terror? The paper deals with the origin and evolution of tension and violence in Darfur. It observes growth of violation throughout history from the precolonial period to the present day. Emphasis is placed on the root causes of the Darfur crisis of 2003, its participants and characteristic aspects of this war.</abstract>

Darfur Crisis of 2003: Analysis of the Darfur Conflict from the Times of First Clashes to the Present Day

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>The <italic>Górale</italic> of the Polish highlands are seen as a people apart from the rest of Poles. They are afforded this special status through the romanticisation as Poland’s very own “noble savages” by the writers and travellers of the 19th century. This was the time of Poland’s search for nationhood (when its territory was occupied by Russia, Prussia and Austria). The <italic>Górale</italic> have always been described, even in those early accounts, as pastoralists.During the season, when the sheep went up to the alpine pastures, the villages were almost deserted. In the 20th century the pastoral system dissolution took place starting with the establishment of national parks after the Second World War. Further unfavourable developments decimated what was left of it since the late 1980s. As a result of the dissolution of the pastoral system the <italic>Górale</italic> chose to amplify their internal unity by strengthening the ethnic identity. The revival of pastoralism as it currently presents itself today, may be seen as yet another rallying call around <italic>Górale</italic> identity. It is a come back to the pastoralist “core” of the highland culture, while changing and re-inventing the tradition to suit new economic, social and political circumstances.In the Polish pastoralist tradition there have always been two seminal community events which bracketed the winter season. There was the autumn event of “Redyk Jesienny” when the sheep brought back from the summer alpine pastures were given back to their owners and there was also a spring event of “Mieszanie Owiec” which literally means the Mixing of Sheep. Historically, they were very important events of the pastoral calendar, while the pastoral system itself has been crucial fixture and backbone of the social system of the <italic>Górale</italic> people. The paper examines how these traditions changed from old ethnographic descriptions and how they are being re-invented in the context of reaffirming the <italic>Górale</italic> identity today.</abstract>

Once We Were Shepherds: Górale Ethnic Identity in Celebrations Revived and Reinterpreted

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> The study ‘Current Manifestations of the Ethnic Identity of Transylvanian Saxons’ presents this ethnic minority in Romania. Based on the theoretical concepts of T. H. Eriksen, it deals with the issues of the ethnic identity and its contemporary manifestations in the culture of Transylvanian Saxons. Information gathered during the qualitative field research make it possible to capture changes in the manifestations of the ethnic identity and the relationship between the minority and the majority culture. As a result of modernization processes and large-scale emigration, there has been a change of the group’s mentality, with traditional behaviour patterns and models of social coexistence disintegrating. The need has arisen to revise the ethnic identity of the community. The observed aspects of the ethnic identity include ethnicity and Saxon self-concept, Saxon dialect, Saxon Evangelical Church, festivities, minority education and interethnic relations. Attention is also paid to the opinions of Saxon politicians and intellectuals of the current situation of the society and its future direction.</abstract>

Current Manifestations of the Ethnic Identity of Transylvanian Saxons

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>This article considers the role of information, communication, and knowledge in processes of exchange and value creation in the British antiques market. As such, it positions itself between the long-standing anthropological interest in the cultural construction of value (see <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_eas-2018-0002_ref_002_w2aab3b7b1b1b6b1ab1ab2Aa">APPADURAI 1986</xref>; <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_eas-2018-0002_ref_013_w2aab3b7b1b1b6b1ab1ac13Aa">GRAEBER 2001</xref>), and the equally long-standing interest in how asymmetries of information affect consumer behaviour (see <xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_eas-2018-0002_ref_001_w2aab3b7b1b1b6b1ab1ab1Aa">AKERLOF 1970</xref>). Drawing on ethnographic material gathered over three months of fieldwork amongst antique dealers in the Notting Hill and Kensington Area of London, I aim to through light on what it is that dealers ‘know’ and how this knowledge is translated into profit within the trade. I argue that dealers’ knowledge of objects is encyclopaedic, discursive, and tactile at once and it is gained mainly through many years of handling of objects. Dealers must also keep abreast with the market movement of objects and their prices using this information to gage the potential profit they may accrue from a deal. Both forms of knowledge, I argue, are mobilized at once when a dealer is investing in stock and when he or she seeks to sell an item, in a ritual of show-and-tell that serves to both to verify the quality, condition and authenticity of a piece and to simultaneously negotiate its price.</abstract>

The Poetry of Antiques: Trade and/in Knowledge among British Antiques Dealers

Book Review: Religions in Contemporary Africa

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
Since the beginning of the last century, there has been an increase in the number of Bedouins who prefer a settled way of life. As a result, their daily life is gradually changing, and clan and tribal ties are slowly being broken. Settled Bedouins born into a nomadic family strive to continue to apply the principles of Bedouin ethics and viable old traditions in the new environment, as they are deeply rooted in them from an early age. However, some traditions of their ancestors are gradually changing and being modified due to new socio-cultural and economic conditions. On the other hand, there are traditions that continue to survive, although Bedouins now must cope with rapid technological progress. Bedouin families tend to settle and adapt their lifestyles to the conditions of the 21st century. Bedouins are proud of their origins and even in the conditions of a settled way of life they try to keep their traditions. This study analyzes the way of life and the identity of Arab nomads in the process of social and cultural changes. It focuses on Bedouin communities living in the Syrian Desert. In the last decade, however, it has been the wars in the Middle East that have pushed the Bedouins out of their natural environment, restricting the application of their cultural traditions in everyday life. This study builds on previous findings of repeated field research stays in the Syrian Desert where the first author lived among Bedouin families with whom he currently maintains virtual contact as the war situation interrupted further planned research stays.
</abstract>

Syrian Bedouin Lifestyle and Identity Concept in the Conditions of the Social and Cultural Changes of the 21st Century

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
The aim of the text is to analyse contemporary Bolivian decolonial feminism using Cusicanquiʼs model of cultural hybridity. Cusicanqui formulated the concept of chʼixi as an analytical tool for theorizing about the mixing of cultures that maintain distinct aspects but enter a mutual creative dialogue and create new qualities through it. In my analysis, I focus on two streams of Bolivian decolonial feminism, represented by Mujeres Creando and Mujeres Creando Comunidad movements. First, I describe historical roots of Bolivian decolonial feminism with an emphasis on the influence of anarchist ideas both on the formation of the Bolivian workersʼ movement and on strategies and practices of social and indigenous movements at the turn of the millennium. In the following discussion I analyse the ideologies and strategies of Mujeres Creando and Mujeres Creando Comunidad movements using Cusicanquiʼs model of hybridity. I conclude that both movements construct a subversive network of alternative knowledge and practices, within which seemingly contradictory experiences can coexist harmoniously and create a new, non-dichotomous qualities. According to Cusicanqui, these chʼixi spaces are the source of a new, emerging epistemology based on which a radical vision of decolonised modernity can be formulated.
</abstract>

“We are Indians, Whores and Lesbians, Revolted and Twined Together.” Decolonial Feminism in Bolivia

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
Taiwanese identity has been the subject of much scholarly inquiry in recent decades. The rapidly changing political, social and international environment around Taiwan has made the question of what it means to be Taiwanese both more complex (in terms of aspirations for the future of Taiwan) and simple (that being Taiwanese is different from being Chinese). The purpose of this study is to explore the intricacies of Taiwanese identity in the face of recent developments such as changes in education, shifting attitudes towards China as a result of ongoing tensions between Taiwan and the mainland. The study posits that the previously ambiguous Taiwanese identity, which might have been a subject of contention during the 1990s, has now become a distinct and unified construct. This can be attributed to the maturation of Taiwanese society following decades of martial law, leading to a clear consensus among the majority of Taiwanese citizens that they do not wish to be absorbed by the People’s Republic of China. In order to understand the Taiwanese identity, it is essential to examine the collective aspirations and hopes of the Taiwanese population for the future of their nation. This can be seen through the active involvement of individuals in various civic movements and volunteer initiatives. The way in which the Taiwanese people envision their society, government, and place in the world is heavily influenced by their past and present experiences.
</abstract>

Taiwanese Identity - a Done Deal? Understanding the Contemporary Consolidation of Taiwanese Identity

Conference Report: Student conference KSA FF UPOL Conference Report

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>
Traditions and customs carry socio-cultural and economic values of the community where they are practised. Infanticide was a traditional practice among the Gweno people in Kilimanjaro, northern Tanzania. This practice had socio-cultural, political, and economic significance which persisted. As a global phenomenon, infanticide has attracted enormous scholarship from different disciplines covering mostly its practice, its associated beliefs, and its eradication campaigns. Despite the popularity of infanticide practices among the Gweno people, particularly during the early colonial period, little has been revealed and documented on how it was practised, associated beliefs and the socio-cultural, political, and economic significance it carried in this community. Benefitting from research findings collected in 2015 through historical and ethnological methods such as oral traditions, interviews, archival materials, and anthropological accounts, this paper uncovers the socio-cultural, political, and economic grounds of infanticide practices among the Gweno people. The paper is built on the argument that infanticide practices served as cultural, socio-political, and economic survival strategy of the Gweno people.
</abstract>

Infanticide: A Survival Strategy among the Gweno People during the Early Colonial Period in Tanganyika

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>This essay offers an ethnographic analysis of the role of food in modern Italian food festivals. Starting from the ethnographic case of Borgonovo, a rural town in Southern Piedmont, and its festival, it highlights the nonlinear role played by food in the festivals and points out gastronomic festivals should be read as a local response of rural, and marginal communities to the phenomenon of their social marginalization.</abstract>

Food Festivals and Expectations of Local Development in Northern Italy

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>Ever since the 1980s, the Maya Studies became seeped with influence of the theories of Mircea Eliade. The article traces the origins and contexts of this influence and evaluates both the results it yielded and the problems it brought to the discipline. First of all, it shows that the way Eliade’s influence has been brought to the Maya Studies (mainly via the Maya Cosmos monograph) is seriously problematic, since it does not discuss or even acknowledge the Eliadian origins of its main concepts. This lack of theoretical reflection opened the door to simplifications and misunderstandings, which spread through the discipline. At the same time, the fundamentally empirical character of Maya Studies practically prevented any deeper conceptual discussion of Maya religion. The article therefore calls for a much needed theoretical and methodological self-reflection of Maya Studies and its concepts related to ancient Maya spirituality.</abstract>

Axis Mundi in the Tropics: Uses and Abuses of Eliade’s Phenomenology of Religion in the Schelean Maya Studies

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title>This article deals with <italic>Gurraacha</italic> institution, which is very important in inter-ethnic peace building and resolving conflict among people of south-central Ethiopia. This institution was named after the Oromo term <italic>‘Gurraacha’</italic> (literally meaning black) to indicate its power in inter-ethnic peace building and conflict resolution. It is one element of Oromo <italic>Gadaa</italic> system which was established time immemorial to sustain peace between Oromo and non-Oromo neighboring ethnic groups. The data for this study was collected through interview, observation and focus group discussions in 2014 and 2015. As revealed by this study, <italic>Gurraacha</italic> institution is a guarantee for sustaining peace among people of south-central Ethiopia by managing conflict over boundary, grazing land, looting of cattle and water points. Overall, the study concluded that <italic>Gurraacha</italic> institution has real significance in inter-ethnic peace-building, sustaining social harmony and inter-ethnic conflict resolution. In <italic>Gurraacha</italic> institution, people rebuild lost peace and order of <italic>Waaqa</italic> (God) by performing purification rituals. There is no corruption in <italic>Gurraacha</italic> institution since all activities are undertaken according to Waaqa’s law and order. There is no false oath in this institution because such act is believed to have negative consequences. The oath of <italic>Gurraacha</italic> institution which are made during reconciliation process transcend generations. This institution is the model of conflict transformation which is hardly found in today’s world. Therefore, using this indigenous institution for future policy formulation in the country as inter-ethnic peace building and conflict resolution model is important for the realization of sustainable peace and development.</abstract>

<italic>Gurraacha</italic>: An Indigenous Inter-Ethnic Peace Building and Conflict Resolution Institution among the People of South Central Ethiopia

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> The topic of this paper reflects the reasons why formal education is not in accord with Datoga pastoral life in Tanzania and why this marginalized Nilotic tribe hesitates to send children to schools. In an attempt to grasp different reasons of avoiding education, the paper is focused especially on education of girls, which is less preferred than that of boys. The discussion reveals the impact of formal/informal education on traditional life of mobile Datoga and how norms, habits are slowly weakened. The suggestion is offered that unless the communication between pastoral Datoga and the government regarding school attendance and better conditions takes the cultural context, Datoga will remain outside the schooling process and their marginal position in the society will not change and neither their image of savage people.</abstract>

‘We Don’t Need No Education’. A Case Study About Pastoral Datoga Girls in Tanzania

<abstract><title style='display:none'>Abstract</title> Throughout the paper the author focuses on the ritual of female circumcision in Indonesian Java, more specifically in the city of Yogyakarta. By the help of fieldwork and academic literature she examines this not merely taboo but also legally forbidden practice in the biggest Muslim country in the world. Female circumcision (FC) in Java and Indonesia in general is considered as a daily practice going hand in hand with tradition. The author puts to the foreground the form of circumcision performed in Yogyakarta and its classification as a symbolic and less invasive one. She explains the history of this ritual in the archipelago, national and international regulations and guidelines, analyzes the role of different authorities (state, religious leaders and NGO’s) on the persistence/abundance of FC and as a consequence its ‘globalized’ form (medicalizetion of FC). The author learns and emphasizes that this is a practice taken for granted, whose origin is little known to the interlocutors (the executors and participants of the ritual) and that the existing literature on the subject is insufficient. For such research a careful approach is of key importance and the author frequently utilizes the help of cultural relativism, reductionism and the use of narrative.</abstract>

Khitan Perempuan: Who Speaks for the Indonesian Female Circumcision?

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Ethnologia Actualis

The Journal of Ethnographical Research

 Ethnologia Actualis is an academic peer-reviewed journal published by the Department of Ethnology and World Studies, University of SS Cyril and Methodius in Trnava. It promotes...

 Ethnologia Actualis is an academic peer-reviewed journal published by the Department of Ethnology and World Studies, University of SS Cyril...