Dena Freeman, Freeman Dena

Initiating Change in Highland Ethiopia

Causes and Consequences of Cultural Transformation

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

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 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 re-thinking of the analytic tension between structure and agency that is at the heart of contemporary anthropological theory.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Cambridge University Press
• Seitenzahl: 192
• Erscheinungstermin: 30. April 2007
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 229mm x 152mm x 11mm
• Gewicht: 287g
• ISBN-13: 9780521037761
• ISBN-10: 052103776X
• Artikelnr.: 22784117

Autorenporträt

Dena Freeman is the Deputy Director of One World: Movement for Global Democracy and an advisor of Democracy Without Borders. She has published widely on the topics on globalisation, development and democracy and is the author of several books, including most recently Can Globalization Succeed? (2020).

Inhaltsangabe

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.