The Technical Style of Wallaga Pottery Making: An Ethnoarchaeological Study of Oromo Potters in Southwest Highland Ethiopia

Pottery making is still practiced widely in parts of Ethiopia but variations in its technical practices are poorly documented. This study presents an ethnoarchaeological investigation of the technical style of pottery making among the Oromo of western Wallaga, located in the highlands of southwestern Ethiopia. The Oromo are a Cushitic-speaking people who occupied Wallaga as part of a massive expansion that occurred between the early sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. This resulted in the Oromo settling among Omotic and Nilo-Saharan peoples in Wallaga. Oromo pottery production in the region is passed down through family lines, and these potters use specific technical styles, which are distinct in material properties and production processes from the surrounding non-Oromo communities. Documentation of the technical styles of contemporary potter communities provides a material means for archaeologists to investigate the history and interaction of social groups in the past. Specifically, this study is relevant to investigating the poorly documented history of the Oromo expansion.     

A Complete Edition of an Oral Tradition: Text Selection Practices in the History of Publishing Latvian Folk Songs

This article addresses the history of publishing folklore texts—particularly the attempts at creating all-inclusive publications that would represent an oral tradition in its entirety. Despite the quest for comprehensiveness, these attempts have always entailed the need to be selective in order to draw textual boundaries within the unbounded, diverse folk singing repertory. The focus of this study is on the text selection principles applied by two editors of Latvian folk songs: Kri?jānis Barons (1835–1923) and Pēteris ?mits (1869–1938).     

Whose development? The dilemma of rural artisan women in southwestern Ethiopia

This article examines the socio-economic situation of pottery-making households in southwestern Ethiopia. In this region, pottery production lies exclusively within the women's domain, and taboos and restrictions surrounding the practice prohibit male involvement. Potters are marginalized, banned from land ownership and sometimes form endogamous castes. Ethiopian development policy and the perception of indigenous pottery technology as ‘unproductive’ have threatened the continuity of the tradition and the livelihood of rural potters. Meanwhile, foreign-made plastic and enamel products are gradually replacing indigenous pottery.