Cultural contact and change in naming practices among the Aari of southwest Ethiopia
When people of different cultures interact, a degree of linguistic and/or cultural adaptation is expected. This paper examines the implication of the relationship between the Aari and the Gama for the naming practices of the former. The Aari people, who speak Araf, came into contact with Amharic-speaking migrants from central and northern Ethiopia (collectively called the Gama) during the southward expansion of Emperor Menelik in the late nineteenth century. Traditionally, the Aari people used names to express their collective history, shared life experiences, major events, and their environment. The incorporation of Aariland into the Ethiopian empire led to economic, political, and cultural domination as well as resistance on the part of the Aari. Personal names that characterize the period of struggle against the dominant migrants became common until the 1974 revolution that ended the Gama hegemony. Afterwards, however, the naming tradition suffered a setback as evidenced in the decline of Aari personal names in favour of Amhara names and the alteration of the spelling and pronunciation of Aari names. The new changes in naming practices compromised the role of the Aari language as an expression of culture and a marker of identity.
Amharic personal nomenclature: A grammar and sociolinguistic insight
Abstract This article presents the grammatical and sociolinguistic analyses of Amharic proper nouns. In the sociolinguistic section, names are classified into types based on their semantic contents, which are strongly linked with the socio-economic and political situations surrounding the birth of a child. In the grammatical section, the phonology, morphology and syntax of names are described. This section also identifies the pragmatically possible constructions of proper names beyond the rules of the grammar of the language. I started working on this paper when I was at Addis Ababa University. But it is only in the Institute for African Studies, University of Cologne, I have had the chance to finish it. I am very grateful to the Alexander Humboldt Foundation for making my stay in Cologne as a research fellow possible. I wish to express my gratitude to Prof. Bernd Heine, Dr. Anbessa Teferra and Hirut W/Mariam for their valuable comments on the first draft of this paper.
Art, history, and gender: women and clay in West Africa
Women dominate the production of pottery in Africa, yet few scholars have considered women the likely creators of the figurative ceramic sculpture recovered archaeologically across the savanna. Indeed, the question of who made these highly celebrated ceramics is rarely raised. A close look at the art historical and archaeological literature exposes the gender biases that privilege men's ‘high’ art over women's ‘low’ craft, making men the presumed creators of these works. Examples of women's predominance in the production of ritually-destined figurative ceramics in Nigeria alone counters such unsubstantiated assumptions. Through such production women play important roles in the construction of social and cultural meanings. It does make a difference in our reading and writing of history to understand and reconstruct what women make as well as what men make.RésuméLes femmes dominent la production d'objets en argile en Afrique, mais peu d'experts ont considéré les femmes comme créatrices probables des sculptures figuratives en céramique découvertes dans des fouilles archéologiques dans toute la savane. De fait, la question de savoir qui fabriquait ces céramiques hautement prisées est rarement soulevée. Une étude plus approfondie de la littérature ayant trait à l'histoire de l'art et à l'archéologie met en évidence les partis pris sexuels qui privilégient l'art ‘élevé’ des hommes par rapport à l'artisanat ‘vulgaire’ des femmes, faisant des hommes les créateurs présumés de ces oeuvres. Des exemples de la prédominance des femmes dans la production de figurines rituelles en céramique au Nigéria contredisent ces suppositions non prouvées. Par cette production, les femmes jouent un rôle important dans l'élaboration de notions sociales et culturelles. Comprendre et reconstruire ce que font les femmes, de même que ce que font les hommes, nous fait lire et écrire l'histoire différemment.