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Social Anthropology and Development Planning – a Case Study in Ethiopian Land Reform Policy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

Allan Hoben
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Extract

Since World War II anthropological research in the new nations has come under increasing criticism on both ideological and pragmatic grounds. To those who regard the creation of a modern life-style and cultural integration as urgent national goals, the concern with traditional institutions seems conservative, if not reactionary, and any interest in ethnicity seems divisive. To those responsible for planning rural development, the anthropologist's detailed report on a single community all too often seems unnecessarily obscured by professional quibbles, devoid of concrete policy recommendations, and of unknown representativeness.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 10 , Issue 4 , December 1972 , pp. 561 - 582
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1972

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References

Page 561 note 1 For details of these changes, see Adamu, Gizachew, ‘A Historical Survey of Taxation in Gojjam, 1901–69’ Department of History, Haile Sellassie I University, Addis Ababa, 1971.Google Scholar

Page 561 note 2 For an excellent review of this programme, see Dunning, Harrison C., ‘Land Reform in Ethiopia: a case study in non-development’, in U.C.L.A. Law Review (Los Angeles), XVIII, 2, 1970, pp. 271–307.Google Scholar

Page 562 note 1 Perhaps the best general description of Amhara society and culture is to be found in Levine, Donald N., Wax and Gold: tradition and innovation in Ethiopian culture (Chicago and London, 1965).Google Scholar

Page 562 note 2 For further discussion of the Amhara cultivator as a peasant, see Fallers, Lloyd A., ‘Are African Cultivators to be called Peasants?’, in Current Anthropology (Chicago), 2, 1961, pp. 108–10Google Scholar; Gaunt, Frederick, ‘Peasantries and Elites without Urbanism: the civilization of Ethiopia’, in Comparative Studies in Society and History (Cambridge), XII, 4, 1970, pp. 373–92Google Scholar; and Hoben, Allan, ‘Social Stratification in Traditional Amhara Socie’, in Tuden, Arthur and Plotnicov, Leonard (eds.), Social Stratifcation in Africa (New York, 1970).Google Scholar

Page 563 note 1 I would estimate that one Out of ten Amhara farmers is a member of the clergy.

Page 563 note 2 Social stratification in Amhara society is discussed by Levine, op. cit. passim; and Hoben, loc. cit.

Page 564 note 1 For a good description and re-examination of this assumption, see Dunning, loc. cit. pp. 293 ff.

Page 564 note 2 See Hoben, Allan, Land Tenure among the Amhara of Ethiopia (Chicago, 1973), ch. 10.Google Scholar

Page 564 note 3 It should be remembered that my discussion is concerned with only the Amhara rist areas. There are many other peoples and land-tenure systems in Ethiopia and it would be interesting to know more about the effects of land reform policy on each of them.

Page 565 note 1 In the district where I carried Out my field-work, nearly half of all the disputes which reached the government Court concerned land. Well over half the farmers interviewed had been involved in a land dispute of some kind during the previous 12-month period.

Page 566 note 1 See Nadel, S. F., ‘Land Tenure on the Eritrean Plateau’, in Africa (London), XVL, I, 1946, pp. 1–21Google Scholar; Hoben, Allan, ‘Land Tenure and Social Mobility among the Damot Amhara’, in The Journal of Ethiopian Studies (Addis Ababa), 1971,Google Scholar first circulated in mimeographed form as part of the Proceedings of the Third International Conference of Ethiopian Studies (Addis Ababa, 1966), vol. 2Google Scholar; and Lawrence, and Mann, , ‘F.A.O. Land Policy Project’, in The Ethiopia Observer (Addis Ababa), IX, 286, 1966, pp. 314–15.Google Scholar

Page 567 note 1 I was able to conduct field-work in this area during two periods: from April 1961 for i8 months, and from April 1966 for four more months.

Page 568 note 1 See Allan Hoben, ‘From Feudalism to Bureaucracy: a case study of social change in Ethiopia’; Occasional Paper 2, Committee of Ethiopian Studies, Michigan State University, East Lansing, 1972.

Page 570 note 1 Land-holding cognatic descent groups have also been described in West Africa by Lloyd, P. C., Yoruba Land Law (London, 1962).Google Scholar

Page 573 note 1 Since there is no individual registration of title in Gojjam, the land tax is assessed on the descent corporation's land tract, and it is the responsibility of the shareholders to make sure that this is collected and paid at the district tax office by one of their number.

Page 576 note 1 Here I am excluding the households of widows, divorcees, and pensioners; they are not ully involved in agricultural activities and are not self-supporting.

Page 577 note 1 A classic example of such a system of impartible inheritance is described by Homans, G. C., English Villagers of the Thirteenth Century (New York, 1960).Google Scholar

Page 577 note 2 This process is considerably more complex than I am suggesting in this brief treatment; see my forthcoming Land Tenure among the Amhara of Ethiopia, ch. 8.

Page 579 note 1 This is because the land that a man who leaves Dega Damot gives to relatives or tenants is soon claimed by them as rist.

Page 580 note 1 One of the grievances voiced during the revolt of 1967–8 in Dega Damot was that ‘voluntary contributions’ for road construction had been solicited three times by government officials, but that there was still no sign of a road.