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Inculcation of ideology among the Sidāma of Ethiopia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

John H. Hamer
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Extract

A moral code as ideology is gradually inculcated at different stages in the male life cycle among the Sidama of Ethiopia. The elders constitute a gerontocracy in control of the code, enabling them to link household and community in perpetuating a system of subsistence production which generates sufficient surplus to support rituals and symbols that maintain the ideology. They encourage oscillation of males between household and community until death, when the authority of the code becomes transcendent.

Résumé

Un code moral en tant qu'idéologie est progressivement inculqué au courant des différentes étapes du cycle de vie masculin parmi ies Sidama d'Ethiopie. Les aînés constituent une gérontocracie de contrôle sur le code, leur permettant de tier la famille et la communauté en un système de production de subsistance qui engender assez de surplus pour pouvoir supporter les rituels et les symbôles qui maintiennent cette idéologic Ils encouragent l'oscillation des hommes entre leur famille et la commune jusqu'à leur mort lorsque l'autorité du code devient alors transcendante.

Type
What makes a citizen?
Information
Africa , Volume 66 , Issue 4 , October 1996 , pp. 526 - 551
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1996

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