Anthropos: Anthropos, 101.2006+Ind.1906-2005(CD-ROM)

Anthropos, 101.2006+Ind.1906-2005(CD-ROM)

Bibliographic Data

Journal

Structure Type:: Journal

Works URN (URL):: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-714820

URN:: urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-714820

Persistent identifier:: BV043334262

Title:: Anthropos

Place of Publication:: Fribourg

Publisher:: Ed. St. Paul

Year of Publication:: 1906

Collection:: Journals and Newspapers > Journals of Ethnology

Domain:: Social and cultural anthropology > General overview

Journal Volume

Structure Type:: Journal Volume

Works URN (URL):: https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-711754

URN:: urn:nbn:de:kobv:11-711754

Persistent identifier:: 1510223177592

Title:: Anthropos, 101.2006+Ind.1906-2005(CD-ROM)

Year of Publication:: 2006

Call Number:: LA 1118

Collection:: Journals and Newspapers > Journals of Ethnology

Journal Issue

Structure Type:: Journal Issue

Title:: Bd. 101, 2006, Heft 2

Collection:: Journals and Newspapers > Journals of Ethnology

ANTHROPOS 101.2006: 379-402 Order in a Disordered World The Bertha House (Western Ethiopia) Alfredo Gonzalez-Ruibal Abstract. - The structuring of domestic space among the Bertha P e °ple of the Sudanese-Ethiopian borderland is described. The ^ e rtha are one of the largest Nilo-Saharan groups currently liv- ln g in Ethiopia, and they stretch out further west into Sudan. The overwhelming majority of the population lives in traditional r °und houses made with bamboo and straw. Despite their mas- Slv e conversion to Islam, they still have a number of pre-Muslim Practices, some of them clearly reflected on the use and or ganization of the house. The relevance of domestic space for Ordering the world and its relationship to the body are stressed. '■ u dan-Ethiopia borderland, Bertha, Nilo-Saharans, domestic s Pace] fredo González-Ruibal received his Ph.D. in Prehistoric Ar- ^ aeology from the Complutense University of Madrid (2003). e is now a MEC/Fulbright visiting scholar at the Stanford Ar- aeology Center (California). - He has carried out archaeolog- A an d ethnoarchaeological research on domestic architecture 11 (Alicia (Spain) and in Benishangul-Gumuz (Ethiopia). - His hcations include: “Etnoarqueología de la emigración. Terra j^ e ^°ntes (Galicia)” (Pontevedra 2003) and “The Need for a paying p ast An Archaeology of Oblivion in Contemporary Jcia (NW Spain)” {Home Cultures 2005), both focus on the anings of the destruction of vernacular architecture. - See s ° References Cited. Int r oduction Rthropologists have pointed out on several occa- n . s ^e enormous symbolic relevance of houses, r hcularly in premodem communities. Houses are , a simple reflection of social values; instead, ue y play an active role in their materialization, hxation w hen i and reproduction. This is especially clear Se nse, h comes to notions of order. Houses, in this act as an organizing structure that allows their occupants to sort out the world, to distinguish the domestic and the wild, death and life, female and male, clean and dirty by means of a few simple principles, such as in/out, right/left, up/down, and front/back (Bourdieu 1970: 746, 748). As Cunning ham (1973; 204) states, “order concerns not just discrete ideas or symbols, but a system; and the sys tem expresses both principles of classification and a value for classification per se, the definition of unity and difference.” In some cases, buildings can en capsulate very complex cosmological and mytho logical meanings, such as origin myths and ge nealogical information. Some of the best examples explored to date come from sub-Saharan Africa 1 and, meaningfully, the most complex cases of space organization come from equally complex societies: the Swahili and many Madagascar peoples (Bet- sileo, Sakalava, Merina) are paradigmatic. In this article, a house of an egalitarian group of slash- and-bum agriculturalists from western Ethiopia, the Bertha, is studied. The main issues that will be dealt with concern the regional variations of the Bertha house, the rituals surrounding the house, and the relevance of space and the human body for ordering the world. Between 2001 and 2005, four archaeological and ethnoarchaeological fieldseasons were car ried out in Benishangul-Gumuz National Regional State, in western Ethiopia, along the Sudanese bor derland (Map 1, Map 2), by the Department of Pre- 1 E.g., Feeley-Harnik 1980; Preston Blier 1987; Donley-Reid 1990; Beidelman 1991; Hahn 2000; etc.

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