Wax and gold; tradition and innovation in Ethiopian culture.

Levine,-Donald-Nathan

Society-Amhara-Africa

General

1958-1961

Chicago, University of Chicago Press.

83

1965

Loyalty is proclaimed all around. Conviviality is the norm among peers, 
though the authoritarian character of the Amhara family inhibits camaraderie 
between those of greatly differing ages. Unlimited succor in time 
of sickness and death and profuse commensality in happier hours are 
important values to the Amhara peasant and ones about which he is 
self-conscious and articulate.

Reverence for one's fathers is perhaps the key legitimating principle 
in the structure of Amhara morality. This is the outgrowth and foundation 
of a social system which makes children devoted servants of their 
fathers and keeps men under their fathers' control until they are 
fully adult. The fierce loyalty to the symbols and practices of the 
church is experienced as being true to "the faith of our fathers," 
and it is an analogous devotion to "the land of our fathers" that 
moves the Amhara to a steadfast defense of his hereditary farmland 
and the borders of his country.

The chief areas of conflict within the Amhara peasant's conception 
of the good life are those of sex and aggression. These conflicts 
appear to reflect the mixture of Christian and pagan cultures in Abyssinian 
history. From Christianity come beliefs that marriage is sacred, divorce 
is not legitimate, and adultery is taboo. The Amhara peasant, while 
respecting the embodiment of these norms in the lives of priests, 
feels justified in having sexual relations outside marriage and in 
getting a divorce whenever the need arises. Perhaps it can be argued 
that this represents a conflict between norms and practice, but the 
legitimate tone of the non-Christian behavior suggests that it might 
well be considered an alternative norm, a carry-over from the ancient 
culture which legitimized polygamy.

Attitudes concerning the use of violence represent a clear instance 
of conflict of norms. The precepts "Do not kill" and "Love thy neighbor," 
though not regarded as constituting the crux of Christian ethics, 
are known and acknowledged in Abyssinia. The rare priest or elder 
who embodies the classic ideal of Christian love is appreciated as 
a man of the highest virtue. The fearless killer, on the other hand, 
embodies another ideal of no less importance -- that of being guabaz, 
brave and manly. The peasant who assaults his neighbor because the 
latter has usurped his land, committed adultery with his wife, injured 
his zamad, or insulted him grievously is following an ethic of cardinal 
importance in Amhara culture.

The Central Confrontation

The foregoing has indicated some of the main concepts through which 
the Amhara peasant perceives the common objects of human experience, 
and what meaning they have for him. Since it is an exploratory account, 
it lacks the unity that would come from the consistent application 
of a rigorous observational procedure or of a coherent, analytic conceptual 
scheme. Yet even at the present stage of inquiry it is possible to 
move toward a more unified state-

Ideas-About-Marriage; Separation-And-Divorce

121; 181; 183; 561; 565; 571; 577; 581; 586; 593; 602; 771; 779; 837

DOC:4046