Hamer people
 |
| Total population |
|---|
| 42,838 |
| Regions with significant populations |
| Ethiopia |
| Languages |
The Hamer (also spelled Hamar) are a tribal people in southwestern Ethiopia. They live in Hamer Bena woreda (or district), a fertile part of the Omo River valley, in the Debub Omo Zone of the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Region (SNNPR). They are largely pastoralists, so their culture places a high value on cattle.
The Assistant Administrator of Hamer Bena, Ato Imnet Gashab, has commented that only six tribal members have ever completed secondary education.
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[edit] Demographics
The 2007 national census reported 46,532 people in this ethnic group, of whom 957 were urban inhabitants. The vast majority (99.13%) live in the SNNPR.[1]
According to the Ethiopian national census of 1994, there were 42,838 Hamer language speakers, and 42,448 self-identified Hamer people, representing approximately 0.1% of the total Ethiopian population.[2]
[edit] Culture
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The Hamar people are semi-nomadic pastoralists migrating every few months to find pastures for their goats and cattle. Huts are round and conical made from a dome frame of branches covered with grasses, mats and hides.[citation needed] About 20 huts are built around a meeting place where dancing and feasting occurs, and together with a cattle and goat pen make a village. The Hamar often trade with their neighbours for sorghum and corn as they do not grow it themselves. Goats and Cattle offer milk and meat. Sorghum is made into a pancake or porridge and eaten with a stew. Men typically wear a checkered skirt of cloth while women wear a cow skin skirt.[citation needed]
Cow jumping is a rite of passage for men coming of age and must be done before a man is permitted to marry. The man-to-be must "jump the cattle" four times to be successful (only castrated male cattle and cows may be used to jump over). This test is performed while naked (except for a few cords bound across the chest) as a symbol of the childhood he is about to leave behind him. On completion of this test, the young man joins the ranks of the maza - other men who have recently passed the same test and who spend the next few months of their lives supervising these events in villages throughout the Hamar territory. Unlike the Minoan bull-leaping, the cattle is held still by maza, so the physical risk is limited. The ceremonies end with several days of feasting, including the typical jumping dances, accompanied by as much sorghum beer as the cow-jumper's family can provide to the visitor[citation needed].
The maza are also responsible for a ritual which precedes the main cattle jump. The women of the village (and in particular, the would-be jumper's sisters) purposefully provoke the maza into lashing their bare backs with sticks which inflict raw, open wounds and scar them for life. However, these wounds are seen as the mark of a true Hamar woman, and all the village's women participate. Because the sister or relative was whipped at the man's ceremony and endured the pain for him she can later in life look to him for help if she falls on hard times because she has the scars from the whipping she received for him to prove his debt to her. Women commonly end up as the heads of families because they marry men who are much older than themselves while they are young. When her husband dies she is left in control of the family's affairs and livestock. She is also in control of his younger brothers and their livestock if their parents are dead. Widows may not re-marry. One Hamar woman who had long since left the village and begun life in a larger town spoke out against the whipping practice as unfit for an educated person[citation needed].
[edit] Mingi
Another pre-Islamic concept is mingi, a term meaning the state of being impure or "ritually polluted"[3] A person, often a child, who was considered mingi was killed by forced permanent separation from the tribe by being left alone in the jungle or by drowning in the river.[4] Reasons for being declared impure include birth out of wedlock, the birth of twins, the eruption of teeth in the upper jaw before the lower jaw, and chipping a tooth in childhood.[5][6]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ 2007 Ethiopian census, first draft, Ethiopian Central Statistical Agency (accessed 6 May 2009)
- ^ Hudson, Grover. 75 Ethiopian Languages: 19 Cushitic, 20 Nilosaharan, 23 Omotic, 12 Semitic, and 1 Unclassified, 2005.
- ^ Do the Hamar have a Concept of Honor?, Ivo Strecker, University of Mainz, http://www.uni-mainz.de/Organisationen/SORC/fileadmin/texts/Do%20the%20Hamar%20have%20a%20Concept%20of%20Honor.pdf
- ^ The Hamar and Karo Tribes: The Search for Mingi http://ffh.films.com/id/1572/The_Hamar_and_Karo_Tribes_The_Search_for_Mingi.htm
- ^ [The Hamar] believe that evil and bad luck (mingi) exists in certain unholy or impure things. Twins, a child born out of wed lock, and children, whose upper milk teeth come before their lower cones, are considered to possess 'mingi and for this reason, they are thrown into the forest to die. http://southtourethiopia.com/Tribal%20Ring.html
- ^ http://ebenezerethiopia.blogspot.com/2010/01/emnets-story.html
[edit] Further reading
- Lydall, Jean, and Ivo Strecker (1979). The Hamar of Southern Ethiopia. In three volumes: v. 1.: Work journal; v. 2: Baldambe explains; v. 3: Conversations in Dambaiti. Arbeiten aus dem Institut fur Volkerkunde der Universitat zu Göttingen, Bd. 12-14. Hohenschaftlarn: Klaus Renner Verlag. ISBN 3876730635 (v. 1); ISBN 3876730643 (v. 2); ISBN 3876730651 (v. 3).
- Giansanti, Gianni (2004). Vanishing Africa. Text and photographs by Gianni Giansanti; ethnographic introductions by Paolo Novaresio. Translated from Italian. With audio CD. Vercelli, Italy: White Star. ISBN 8854400068.
- Strecker, Ivo A. (1988). The Social Practice of Symbolization: An Anthropological Analysis. Monographs on Social Anthropology, no. 60. London; Atlantic Highlands, New Jersey: Athlone Press. ISBN 0485195577.
[edit] Films
- 1973 - Rivers of Sand by Robert Gardner color, 83 min
- 1994 - Sweet Sorghum: An Ethnographer's Daughter Remembers Life in Hamar, Southern Ethiopia: a film by Ivo Strecker and Jean Lydall and their daughter Kaira Strecker. A production of IWF. Watertown, Massachusetts: Documentary Educational Resources, [released c. 1997]. VHS. Presenter/narrator, Kaira Strecker; producer, Rolf Husmann.
- 1996 release - "The Hamar Trilogy." A series of three films by Jean Lydell; distributed by Filmakers Library, NYC. Titles in the series are: The Women Who Smile, Two Girls Go Hunting and Our Way of Loving.
- 2001 - Duka's Dilemma: A Visit to Hamar, Southern Ethiopia. A film by Jean Lydall and Kaira Strecker. Watertown, Massachusetts: Documentary Educational Resources, released in 2004. DVD. Camera, sound, and editing, Kaira Strecker; anthropology and production, Jean Lydall.
- 2001 - The Last Warriors: The Hamar and Karo Tribes: Searching for Mingi. A Trans Media production; Southern Star. Princeton, New Jersey: Films for the Humanities & Sciences. VHS. From The Last Warriors: Seven Tribes on the Verge of Extinction. Series producer/executive producer, Michael Willesee, Jr.; writer/director, Ben Ulm. ISBN 073653606X.
[edit] Discography
- 2003 - Nyabole: Hamar – Southern Ethiopia. CD. Museum collection Berlin series. Recorded between 1970 and 1976 and originally published on LP 1978. Mainz, Germany: Wergo.
