Some Aspects of Ecology and Social Structure in the Ensete Complex in South-West Ethiopia

Abstract

THE RELATIONSHIP between ecological adaptations and forms of social grouping in Africa is a recurrent problem of anthropological interest. Even so, studies of population responses to ecological, socio-political and historical circumstances, for the most part, concern tribal groups outside the Horn of Africa (Herskovits I926; Forde I937, I953; Richards I 939; Huntingford I 953; Gulliver I 955; Stenning I 959; Jones I 96 I). Hence, ecological data on the Horn generally, or on Ethiopia in particular, are conspicuously scanty. Even the more recent field researches in Ethiopia (Messing I957; Jensen I959; Simoons I 960) scarcely take into account the relationship between the factors of ecology and the fashioning of Ethiopian socio-cultural institutions, though these studies are not lacking in abundance of ethnographic content, and in this their value is immense. However, this lack is regrettable; and even more so since, as Murdock (1949, P. 22) has cogently pointed out, one of the two major food plant complexes which played a significant role in shaping African culture history originated in the Horn, on the Central Ethiopian Plateau. Lack of ecological evidences increase considerably the problem of reconstructing major sequences in the culture history of Ethiopia. Similarly, a knowledge of the patterns of past and present migrations and adaptations of similar and distinct cultural groups, and of the spread and diffusion of various cultivated plants and agricultural practices, depends upon analyses of Ethiopian food complexes and economies. Food complexes of the Central Ethiopian Plateau can be placed in two general categories: cereal grains and root crops, cultivated by plough and hoe techniques, respectively. Among the latter, ensete edulis is by far the most important staple food grown, having wide distribution throughout South-west Ethiopia, and cultivated by most, though not all, of the sedentary Cushitic-speaking tribes in this region. A complex of culture traits connected with ensete cultivation distinguishes South-west Ethiopia as a distinct culture area, not only in Ethiopia and the Horn, but in the whole of Africa as well. This paper discusses some general ecological and socio-cultural characteristics of the Ensete Complex with specific reference to the Gurage, the only non-Cushitic-speaking tribe which cultivates ensete and about whom substantial ethnographic data from field research are available.2 Over the centuries the Gurage have made adaptations to the cultivation, food-taking habits, and material aspects of the ensete culture; their sociopolitical institutions and belief and ritual systems subsequently have undergone changes in response to the ecological conditions of South-west Ethiopia. This paper also suggests a preliminary culture area classification of this region based on the distributional phenomena of the ensete culture complex.