Research Catalog

Title

Mai Weini, a highland village in Eritrea : a study of the people, their livelihood, and land tenure during times of turbulence / Kjetil Tronvoll.

Author

Tronvoll, Kjetil.

Publication

Lawrenceville, NJ : Red Sea Press, [1998], ©1998.

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Holdings

Details

Description

xvi, 311 pages, 8 unnumbered pages of plates (some folded) : illustrations, genealogical tables, maps; 22 cm

Summary

• This study is an ethnographic account which explores the social organization of an Eritrean highland community and the livelihood of the peasants. The kinship system of the highlands is examined in detail. Analysis shows that it interlinks the individuals and the villages of the highlands into an intricate web of kinship. The lineage system, or gezauti, defines, among other factors, a form of social hierarchy and the entitlement of access to land in the particular villages.
• The traditional systems of land tenure and kinship in highland Eritrea are today challenged by the new reform policies of the Eritrean government. An integral part of their development strategies is to sustain and enhance national sentiments created during the liberation war by disentangling the closely knit rural communities, dismantling their corporate character, and linking the individual citizen directly to the state apparatus in order to foster an all-embracing notion of national identity.
• The author argues that by radically changing the communal land tenure system and dismantling the descent structure, without creating any sustainable alternatives, the government has struck a blow at the foundation of social organization of the peasantry, the social and cultural consequences of which remain to be seen.

Subject

• Tigrinya (African people) > Kinship
• Tigrinya (African people) > Land tenure
• Tigrinya (African people) > Agriculture
• Land tenure > Mai Weini
• Village communities > Mai Weini
• Mai Weini (Eritrea) > Rural conditions
• Mai Weini (Eritrea) > Social conditions

Note

• Originally presented as the authors thesis (M.A.)--University of Oslo, 1996.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. [291]-304) and index.

Contents

Ch. 1. Introduction: Experiencing Ethnography -- Pt. I. Backdrops. Ch. 2. The Land, its People and History. Ch. 3. The Setting -- Pt. II. The people... Ch. 4. The Villagers and the Local Community. Ch. 5. Sidrabet: "The Family-House" Ch. 6. Gezauti: "Group of Houses" -- Pt. III. ...their livelihood... Ch. 7. The Peasant Calendar. Ch. 8. Peasants' Strategies of Survival During Times of Distress. Ch. 9. Beyond the Plow and Ox: Religion and War -- Pt. IV. ...and land. Ch. 10. Land and People in a Historical Perspective. Ch. 11. Land Tenure Systems in Eritrea and Northern Ethiopia. Ch. 12. Meret Shehena: "Land of Brothers" -- Pt. V. Coda. Ch. 13. People and Land. During Times of Turbulence: Towards a Synthesis. Ch. 14. Epilogue: From Local Integration to National Congruity?

ISBN

• 1569020582 (hard cover : alk. paper)
• 1569020590 (paperback : alk. paper)

LCCN

98011533

OCLC

ocm38281367

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries