Ricordo di Bernardo Bernardi
Commenti a “Bronislaw Malinowski, l’antropologia pratica, la politica e il colonialismo” di Antonino Colajanni, con una risposta dell’autore
Commenti a “Bronislaw Malinowski, l’antropologia pratica, la politica e il colonialismo” di Antonino Colajanni, con contributi di Marco Bassi, Valeria Ribeiro Corossacz, Antonio De Lauri, Frederico Delgado Rosa, Andrea E. Pia, Leonardo Piasere, Daniela Salvucci, Ivan Severi, Barbara Sorgoni, Jaro Stacul, Giuseppe Tateo, Elisabeth Tauber, Dorothy L. Zinn, Pier Paolo Viazzo e una risposta dell’autore.
Relativistic international development and its potential for implementing self-determination in Ethiopia: Policy recommendations
This paper is an abstract of policy recommendations based on my presentation to the 2019 Annual Conference of Oromo Studies Association. It is included in the official Proceedings of the Conference. A longer paper was published open access in Archivio Antropologico Mediterraneo, XXII, n. 21 (2), 2019, title: 'The relativistic attitude in development: reflections on the implementation of the Ethiopian multinational Constitution'.
Oromo-Kalender
Paradigmi dello Sviluppo e Approccio Relativista
In this article the author builds on the notion of “paradigm of development” to provide analytic instruments for the institutional analysis of international development. He identifies the following four main paradigms, each rooted in different disciplines and ethical foundations:1) economic growth; 2) social equity; 3) environmental sustainability; 4) beneficiaries’ active role. Each paradigm implies different and measurable objectives, to be achieved by specific methodological approaches. The various paradigms give different consideration to relevance of specific articulations of culture, formal or informal norms and local conditions. It is accordingly possible to classify them based on th…
Decisions in the Shade: Political and Juridical Processes among the Oromo-Borana
Prophecy and Apocalypse among the Oromo-Borana: The Power of Chiasmus
This chapter bridges the rhetoric culture and anticipation theoretical domains for reinterpreting the prophetic and apocalyptic texts on the Oromo-Borana (Ethiopia). The analysis qualifies prophecy as a practice of anticipation, a rational and collective exercise of criticism to current social trends, facilitated by creative individuals that make full use of the cognitive potential of chiasmus and other rhetorical devises.
Power's Ambiguity or the Political Significance of Gada
From Herder to Strecker: Birth and Developments of the Anthropological Notion of Culture in Germany
Austrian and German anthropological traditions are considered in view of the influence they had on global anthropology. The chapter is built around the centrality of the anthropological notion of culture and cultural dynamics. The particularistic and relativist notion of culture is in fact believed to have emerged from Germany from the eighteenth century, where intellectuals have juxtaposed the term Kultur to Zivilisation. Within German anthropology, universalistic perspectives on culture have continued through the nineteenth century, as in the evolutionary approach of Gustav Klemm and Johann Jakob Bachofen. A different form of cultural universalism was introduced by Adolf Bastian with his …
Institutional Forgiveness in Borana Assemblies
Nuove frontiere nella conservazione della biodiversità: Patrimoni di comunità e assetti fondiari collettivi
L’articolo analizza l’intersezione tra l’esigenza globale di conservazione della biodiversità— tradizionalmente affrontata attraverso la messa in opera di aree protette— e la realtà degli assetti fondiari collettivi nel contesto italiano. Viene presentato il percorso internazionale che ha portato al riconoscimento nell’ambito dell’IUCN e della Convenzione sulla Biodiversità dell’efficacia delle forme di gestione sostenibile delle risorse naturali praticate dalle comunità locali e dai popoli indigeni. In Italia tali realtà sono identificate come ‘patrimoni di comunità’ (PdC) ed in gran parte corrispondono agli assetti fondiari collettivi. Vengono proposte due modalità di classificazione di t…
Territories of Life in Europe. Towards a Classification of the Rural Commons for Biodiversity Conservation
International awareness has grown about the relevance of considering indigenous and local communities as agent of eco-compatible territorial governance. This is today fully acknowledged in the context of the IUCN (International Union for the Conservation of Nature) and the CBD (United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity). Notions like “territories of life”, “ICCAs”, “community-based OECMs” (Other Effective area-based Conservation Measures) and voluntarily “conserved areas” have become central in international conservation discourse, but they are not equally considered in the EU environmental and agricultural policy. The Italian case here presented shows that rural commons have surviv…
I Borana: Una società assembleare dell'Etiopia
Etnografia degli Oromo-Borana , Kenya ed Etiopia.
On the Borana Calendrical System: A Preliminary Field Report
This article addresses the astronomical functioning of the lunar calendar of the Oromo Borana (Ethiopia and Kenya). It is based on the participant observation method, observing the night sky over a time of about one year with Bante Abbagala, a Borana expert in time reckoning. Differently from previous ethnographic accounts and hypotheses, the author suggests that the Borana implicitly add an intercalary month that allows keeping correspondence between season and the name of the lunar month, even if they do not acknowledge it. They do not consider the declination of the moon, sun or stars. They rather apply a complex devise that allows the direct evaluation of the relative right ascension po…
Failed Modernization of the Ethiopian State: Oromo Perspectives on Ethiopian Political Culture
This article presents part of the qualitative data generated by the research "Ethnic relations in major towns around Addis Ababa: A comparative Study of the Dynamics of Social Solidarity", based in Addis Ababa University, College of Sociology and Social Administration, funded by the the Ethio-Italian University Co-operation Programme.
Pastoralists are peoples: Key issues in advocacy and the emergence of pastoralists' rights
This article deals with the rights-based approach to development that in the last decade has informed discourse on pastoralism. It focuses on the organisations that have engaged in pastoral advocacy at the global level, considering the dynamic conceptions of development, human rights and policy that provide their cultural and operative background. It outlines the convergence of indigenous rights with the core challenges of pastoralism, and the emergence of the new concept of 'pastoralists' rights', eventually considered as a separate domain. It argues that the mobility paradigm of pastoral development may not by itself provide an adequate answer to the problems of pastoral communities, unle…
Nascita e sviluppi del concetto antropologico di cultura nei paesi di lingua tedesca
Austrian and German anthropological traditions are considered in view of the influence they had on global anthropology. The chapter is built round the centrality of the anthropological notion of culture and cultural dynamics. The particularistic and relativist notion of culture is in fact believed to have emerged from in Germany from the XVIII century, where intellectuals have juxtaposed the term Kultur to Zivilisation. Within German anthropology, universalistic perspectives on culture have continued through the Nineteenth Century, as in the evolutionary approach of Gustav Klemm and Johann Jakob Bachofen. A different form of cultural universalism was introduced by Adolf Bastian with his the…
Recognition and Support of ICCAs in Italy
The concept of ICCA was introduced and first discussed in Italy during two workshops held in 2004 and 2005. The notion very well fits the tradition domestically known in terms of common properties (CPs) and ‘civic uses’ lands (proprietà colletive e demani civici), a category referring to lands and the natural resources used in common by a community. They include a diversity of governance solutions derived from their different historical recognition. CPs and civic uses lands in Italy achieved recognition under agricultural law and were particularly associated to the agro-forestry and pastoral sector. They have been subject to regulations of restrictions on change of land use and protected by…
I sistemi delle classi d’età. Il contributo teorico di Bernardo Bernardi e la loro riscoperta contemporanea in chiave identitaria e patrimoniale
This chapter considers Bernardi’s contribution to two different processes of traditional institutions revival in East Africa. He was the main ethnographer of the Mugwe, a traditional dignitary of the Meru of Kenya, that ceased to exist soon after his field work. He used the attribution ‘failing prophet’ in the title of the first edition of his book, changed into ‘blessing prophet’ in the following edition, having in the meanwhile registered a growing symbolic consideration for the institution. The history of the gadaa generational class system of the Oromo is intertwined with the Oromo liberation struggle. The institution never disappeared entirely, having remained operative among the Oromo…
Il caso Diigalu Tiiti. Strutture sociali e processi produttivi presso i Borana dell'Etiopia
This paper concerns the social elements which are relevant in relation with some important productive features of the Borana of Southern Ethiopia. Recent field-data seem to indicate that the structure provided by descent is particularly significant with regard both to economical mutual assistance and to management of wells, the crucial natural resources. Cet article concerne les éléments sociaux importants par rapport à des procédés de production des Borana du sud de l'Ethiopie. Le système de parenté semble particulièrement significatif aussi bien en ce qui concerne l'assistance réciproque que pour la gestion des puits, la ressource naturelle cruciale.
The relativistic attitude in development: reflections on the implementation of the Ethiopian multinational Constitution
L’approccio allo sviluppo che considera la crescita economica come unico obiettivo può produrre degli effetti deleteri sui gruppi marginalizzati. Lo sviluppismo adottato in Etiopia dal 1991 illustra questo punto con riferimento ai contadini, ai popoli pastorali e alle minoranze etniche. La riflessione internazionale sullo sviluppo e il progresso nel campo dei diritti umani hanno portato all’emergere di nuovi paradigmi. L’articolo mostra come le misure correttive siano state caratterizzate da una crescente attitudine ‘relativistica’, che consiste nel dare considerazione alla rilevanza di articolazioni particolari di cultura, norme formali o informali, e condizioni locali. L’attitudine relati…
Oromo Calendar
The politics of space in Borana Oromo, Ethiopia: demographics, elections, identity and customary institutions
This article addresses the protracted state of political violence in and around the Borana and Guji zones of Oromia region after the introduction of ethnic federalism in Ethiopia. To account for the persistence of the conflict, we must elaborate on the connections between ethnic identity, natural resource and customary institutions by introducing the notion of oprimary identityo. Since the turn of the millennium there is in Ethiopia a theoretically grounded attempt to co-opt customary institutions and elders into modern governance, particularly in the pastoral sector. Field-research focused on the interplay of customary and modern politics during two electoral events, the 2004 referendum or…
La cooperazione internazionale allo sviluppo. Costruire sull’esperienza. Presentazione
La propensione per lo studio delle specificità culturali ha fatto dell’antropologia una delle discipline direttamente interessate ai processi di mutamento pianificato. L’attenzione per la cooperazione internazionale allo sviluppo e alle sue ricadute professionali è stata ben presente nell’antropologia italiana e all’interno dei convegni SIAA, ma il dibattito in seno all’associazione è rimasto per il momento sottodimensionato rispetto a un altro ambito di grande interesse pubblico, la migrazione dai paesi affetti da conflitti e povertà verso l’Europa e al ruolo che gli antropologi possono svolgere nelle politiche di accoglienza.
Written Past: Explorers’ Histories
The Oromo Eschatology: The Prophecy Of Areeroo Boosaroo, Narrated By Borbor Bulee And Guyyoo Dambii
This article provides the first ethnographic account of prophetic text and poetry among the Borana. It was ethnographically constructed by the join efforts of an indigenous anthropologist, an africanist anthropologist, and a Borana oral historian.
Federalism and Ethnic Minorities in Ethiopia: Ideology, Territoriality, Human Rights, Policy
In 1994 Ethiopia has adopted a new constitution, considered one of the most advanced in terms of provisions for human rights. The progressive ratification of several international treaties on minority rights had already begun in 1991, immediately after the fall of the Derg regime. This progress has brought Ethiopia into the UN monitoring system, but the review of the official UN documents reveals the mismatch between the mentioned constitutional and international steps and the on-ground situation. This article considers two possible causes of this gap. The first is the particular form of ethnic federalism, first introduced with the Charter of the Transitional Government of Ethiopia and late…
Primary identities in the lower Omo valley: migration, cataclysm, conflict and amalgamation, 1750–1910
This article applies the notion of primary identity to explore the emergence of ethnic identities in the southern-most tract of the lower Omo valley. Current identities here are the result of two correlated patterns of movement that have occurred over the past 150 years: migration to the valley by organised pastoralists and scattered groups, and a general movement down the river and into the Omo delta, where the ecological niche generated by the regular flooding of the Omo River provided a rich variety of livelihood alternatives. The major migrations reported here were connected to great population movements that occurred in East Africa from the nineteenth century, often provoked by catacly…
Serawit Bekele Debele, Locating Politics in Ethiopia’s Irreecha Ritual
Review
Customary Institutions in Contemporary Politics, Borana Zone, Oromia, Ethiopia
Chikage Oba-Smidt, The Oral Chronicle of the Boorana in Southern Ethiopia: Modes of Construction and Preservation of History among People without Writing
Review
Policy Recommendations for Peace Making: The Lesson of the Inter-Ethnic Peace Ceremony in Arbore, 6 - 9 March 1993, South Omo, Ethiopia
Synthesis of Lessons Learned. Enhancing Equity in the Relationship between Protected Areas and Local Communities in the Context of Global Change. Horn of Africa and Kenya
This study is a review of the engagement of local communities in the management of natural resources in the Horn of Africa and Kenya, with the objective to contribute to enhancing equity in the relationship of local communities with protected areas.
Sezione monografica. La cooperazione internazionale allo sviluppo. Costruire sull’esperienza
La propensione per lo studio delle specificità culturali ha fatto dell’antropologia una delle discipline direttamente interessate ai processi di mutamento pianificato. L’attenzione per la cooperazione internazionale allo sviluppo e alle sue ricadute professionali è stata ben presente nell’antropologia italiana e all’interno dei convegni SIAA, ma il dibattito in seno all’associazione è rimasto per il momento sottodimensionato rispetto a un altro ambito di grande interesse pubblico, la migrazione dai paesi affetti da conflitti e povertà verso l’Europa e al ruolo che gli antropologi possono svolgere nelle politiche di accoglienza.
Valorizzare i domini collettivi per la conservazione della biodiversità. Iniziative nell'ambito del VI Convegno Nazionale di Antropologia Applicata Cremona, 13-15 dicembre 2018. Nota di concetto
This is a concept note for two initiatives organised at the VI National Conference of Applied Anthropology aimed at valorizing the Italian Law 168/2017 on the commons for the conservation of biodiversity