Günther Schlee
Datos Biográficos
| ID | 3611533 |
|---|---|
| NOMBRE | Günther Schlee |
| NOMBRES | Günther |
| APELLIDO | Schlee |
| FIRMA | SCHLEE G |
| AFILIACIONES | Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology, Halle (Saale), Germany |
| VERIFICADO | No |
| TOTAL DE OBRAS | 42 |
| TOTAL DE CITAS | 131 |
| TOTAL COMO AUTOR | 35 |
| TOTAL COMO EDITOR | 7 |
| PRIMER AÑO DE PUBLICACIÓN | 1985 |
| AÑO MÁS RECIENTE DE PUBLICACIÓN | 2025 |
| ÍNDICE H | 7 |
Gufu Oba, Pastoralist Resilience to Environmental Collapse in East Africa since 1500
This article was published open access under a CC BY-NC licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by-nc/4.0
How Enemies Are Made
In popular perception cultural differences or ethnic affiliation are factors that cause conflict or political fragmentation although this is not borne out by historical evidence. This book puts forward an alternative conflict theory. The author develops a decision theory which explains the conditions under which differing types of identification are preferred. Group identification is linked to competition for resources like water, territory, oil,…
Unequal Citizenship and One-Sided Communication
Lands of the Future
Rangeland, forests and riverine landscapes of pastoral communities in Eastern Africa are increasingly under threat. Abetted by states who think that outsiders can better use the lands than the people who have lived there for centuries, outside commercial interests have displaced indigenous dwellers from pastoral territories. This volume presents case studies from Eastern Africa, based on long-term field research, that vividly illustrate the strug…
Lands of the Future
Lands of the Future
Animal Production for a More Sustainable Economy
Identity Politics in Contemporary Ethiopia and Sudan
In Sudan and Ethiopia, different strategies have been implemented to frame cultural diversity and ethnic identities into the nation-building process. We discuss it here with Günther Schlee, who has been conducting field surveys in these countries over the past 30 years. We focus on the case of nomadic and pastoral populations, their changing identity affiliations and social belongings
Afterword
Identities on the Move
Originally published in 1989, this book examines how the inter-ethnic relationships of the clans of the pastoral Rendille, Gabbra, Sakuye and some Somalis of northern Kenya and southern Ethiopia came about. It also examines the uses to which these inter-ethnic relationships are put: for example in managing herds. Oral history is combined with cultural comparison and the analysis of social structure. Blending synchronic and diachronic perspectives…
Difference and Sameness as Modes of Integration
On Retaliation
Customary Law and the Joys of Statelessness
Omaha Terminologies
Omaha kinship terminologies are distributed globally to the north and south of the belt of ancient “high cultures” which stretches from the Mediterranean Sea to East and Southeast Asia in the Old World and includes parts of Mesoamerica and the Andes in the New World. This article offers an explanation for this curious distribution of Omaha terminologies. In so doing, it reviews examples of Omaha terminologies in Central Asia and on the Horn of Af…
Julia Pfitzner, ‘Unser Kalender funktioniert nicht mehr!’ Ernährungssicherung und Anpassung im Zeichen des Klimawandels
Review
From Identification to Framing and Alignment
We present a comprehensive framework for the comparative analysis of collective identities and corresponding processes of identification, framing, and alignment. Collective identities are defined as activated categories of likeness, distinction, and solidarity, located within any one of a number of possible frames (e.g., nationality, religion, and gender) and aligned series (e.g., national, regional, or local categories of identification). Emphas…
Conflict
Language and Ethnicity
Nomads and Nomadism in History
Why States Still Destroy Pastoralism and How They Can Learn That in Their Own Interest They Should Not
Anti-pastoralism policies are outdated--hence the word 'still' in the title. Apart from the important moral and political considerations, they are now outdated on economic grounds. There is an emerging consensus among scholars and practitioners concerned with range management and livestock production that in most of the world's dry belt, mountainous areas and tundra, reliable food production depends on mobile livestock-keeping (for a global overv…
Customary law and the joys of statelessness
There is some truth in the statement that in Somalia the periods and regions least affected by struggles about the state have provided better living conditions than the ones more affected by statehood. It is also true that the state, especially in the final stage of its existence leading up to its collapse in 1991, was of a predatory nature and, rather than contributing to development, affected it adversely. There is no doubt that no state at all…
Territorializing ethnicity
The idea of the nation state has penetrated Kenya and Ethiopia deeply at a level much below the 'nation' state. In the colonial period districts and grazing reserves were delineated according to perceived 'tribal' boundaries, which were often only created in the process. Ethnicity in that process was not invented (as has been claimed for other parts of Africa) but it has changed: it has acquired a territorial character of a new kind. Ethnic terri…
Islam and Ethnicity in Northern Kenya and Southern Ethiopia
Settler Colonialism
Localisation et mondialisation. Musique et société
À partir d'études portant sur la «diaspora noire» dans le Nouveau Monde, sur les formes récentes de l'afrocentrisme aux États-Unis ou sur les modes de relecture et de transformation de systèmes anciens lors de conflits locaux, le dossier «Localisation et mondialisation» est consacré à l'examen du concept de réseau appliqué à des situations sociales débordant de toutes parts l'approche classique de l'anthropologie. Dans un second dossier, c'est la…
Territorializing ethnicity
The idea of the nation state has penetrated Kenya and Ethiopia deeply at a level much below the 'nation' state. In the colonial period districts and grazing reserves were delineated according to perceived 'tribal' boundaries, which were often only created in the process. Ethnicity in that process was not invented (as has been claimed for other parts of Africa) but it has changed: it has acquired a territorial character of a new kind. Ethnic terri…
Taking sides and constructing identities
Conflicts are often explained in terms of the interests of the groups involved, especially their competition for resources or gains. There is much merit in this approach. Theories of this type appear more realistic than those which take the legitimizing accounts of participants at face value. What people are fighting about is a fundamental question in conflict analysis, but there is another equally fundamental question that remains poorly underst…
Interethnic clan identities among Cushitic-speaking pastoralists
IntroductionThe linguistic and religious affiliation of the peoples of the arid lowlands of northern Kenya and adjacent areas of the Horn is very heterogeneous. Although most of the populations east of Lake Turkana speak languages which belong to the Lowland branch of the Eastern Cushitic sub-family, within this branch Oromo speech (Boran, Gabbra, Sakuye, Orma) is not mutually intelligible with Somaloid languages like Rendille and Somali. Even wi…
Redrawing the Map of the Horn
The paper examines the changing shapes of territories in the Horn of Africa and the discourses which legitimise these different shapes. It starts with the 'Horn' itself, the different ways to delineate it, and the interests behind these. Then Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, and thede factoindependent Somaliland are discussed and their justifications for being examined. These justifications are found not to follow the same pattern. The criteria for in…
Customary law and the joys of statelessness
There is some truth in the statement that in Somalia the periods and regions least affected by struggles about the state have provided better living conditions than the ones more affected by statehood. It is also true that the state, especially in the final stage of its existence leading up to its collapse in 1991, was of a predatory nature and, rather than contributing to development, affected it adversely. There is no doubt that no state at all…
Brothers of the Boran Once Again
This article focuses upon a cluster of questions about identity: under which conditions can social, political or ethnic affiliations which have been denied for over a generation be revived? Can there be, even in predominantly oral cultures, a kind of backup copy for older identities which are of no use in the present but might be useful again in the future? How does collective memory deal with what is deleted from it? Do insiders preserve and pas…
From Identification to Framing and Alignment
We present a comprehensive framework for the comparative analysis of collective identities and corresponding processes of identification, framing, and alignment. Collective identities are defined as activated categories of likeness, distinction, and solidarity, located within any one of a number of possible frames (e.g., nationality, religion, and gender) and aligned series (e.g., national, regional, or local categories of identification). Emphas…
Why States Still Destroy Pastoralism and How They Can Learn That in Their Own Interest They Should Not
Anti-pastoralism policies are outdated--hence the word 'still' in the title. Apart from the important moral and political considerations, they are now outdated on economic grounds. There is an emerging consensus among scholars and practitioners concerned with range management and livestock production that in most of the world's dry belt, mountainous areas and tundra, reliable food production depends on mobile livestock-keeping (for a global overv…
How Enemies Are Made
In popular perception cultural differences or ethnic affiliation are factors that cause conflict or political fragmentation although this is not borne out by historical evidence. This book puts forward an alternative conflict theory. The author develops a decision theory which explains the conditions under which differing types of identification are preferred. Group identification is linked to competition for resources like water, territory, oil,…
A Comment on the 'Policy Framework for Pastoralism in Africa' Adopted by the African Union in January 2011
The present issue of NP is about the disarmament-with-development exercise in Karamoja, which substantially operates on the premise that pastoralism is a problem. The sooner it is eradicated, the better. Kratli (2006) describes vividly the wide gap between the perceptions of the Ugandan (and Kenyan) state and the realities of the lives of pastoralists. Pastoralists are either ignored or caricatured by the wider public. Even African cows do not fi…
Omaha Terminologies
Omaha kinship terminologies are distributed globally to the north and south of the belt of ancient “high cultures” which stretches from the Mediterranean Sea to East and Southeast Asia in the Old World and includes parts of Mesoamerica and the Andes in the New World. This article offers an explanation for this curious distribution of Omaha terminologies. In so doing, it reviews examples of Omaha terminologies in Central Asia and on the Horn of Af…
Identification in Violent Settings and Situations of Rapid Change
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
The “Five Drums,” Proto-Rendille-Somali, and Oromo Nationalism
Commentary| April 01 2008 The “Five Drums,” Proto-Rendille-Somali, and Oromo Nationalism: A Response to Aneesa Kassam Günther Schlee Günther Schlee Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Ethnohistory (2008) 55 (2): 321–330. https://doi.org/10.1215/00141801-2007-065 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Günther Schlee; The “Five Drums,” Proto-Rendille-Somali, and Oromo…
Régularités dans le chaos
On ne peut nier que les evenements qui ont eu lieu en Somalie ont ete influences par des facteurs externes et que la guerre civile et ses consequences ne peuvent s’expliquer selon une grille « traditionnelle ». Cependant, plusieurs modeles d’organisation sociale non seulement ont persiste aux epoques precoloniale et coloniale, mais se retrouvent dans les conflits actuels. On mentionnera notamment la relation complementaire entre affiliation agnat…
Interethnic clan identities among Cushitic-speaking pastoralists
IntroductionThe linguistic and religious affiliation of the peoples of the arid lowlands of northern Kenya and adjacent areas of the Horn is very heterogeneous. Although most of the populations east of Lake Turkana speak languages which belong to the Lowland branch of the Eastern Cushitic sub-family, within this branch Oromo speech (Boran, Gabbra, Sakuye, Orma) is not mutually intelligible with Somaloid languages like Rendille and Somali. Even wi…
Identities on the move
Inter-ethnic clan identities, ethnicity, centrisms and biases; a response to Paul Spencer
In 1985 I had the opportunity to publish an article with the title ‘Inter-ethnic clan identities among Cushitic-speaking pastoralists’ in this journal. The same year I submitted a book on the same topic as a Habilitation thesis to the University of Bayreuth and I. M. Lewis expressed interest in publishing it in the IAI series. The publication was delayed until 1989, partly because of disagreement with a reader who suggested that I cut out parts w…
Herders, Warriors, and Traders
How beasts lost their legs - cattle in Tswana economy and society, Jean Comaroff to increase cows, God created the king - the function of cattle in interlacustrine societies, P. Bonte drought and differential ability to bear risk - the Tuareg pastoral economy of Central Niger, Martha A. Starr political ecology in the Upper Nile - the 20th-century expansion of the pastoral common economy, Douglas H. Johnson herders, traders and clerics - trade, re…
Identidades múltiples y cross-cutting ties (nexos transversales) en la teoría de los conflictos
A. Garrido A., Identidades múltiples y cross-cutting ties (nexos transversales) en la teoría de los conflictos: aspectos somalí y oromo, Revista Mexicana de Sociología, Vol. 60, No. 3 (Jul. - Sep., 1998), pp. 197-244
Integration durch Verschiedenheit
Die Aufsatzsammlung gibt einen Einblick in die theoretische Konzeption eines der zentralen Probleme der Soziologie und der SozialÝ anthropologie - Grenzen und Grenzziehungen - und überführt es in eine globale Perspektive. In diesem Programm werden interkulturelle Dialoge als Kommunikationssysteme begriffen, in denen sinnstiftende Zeichen aus lokalen und globaÝ len Kontexten über Grenzen hinweg artikuliert und sichtbar gemacht werden. In diesem Si…
Régularités dans le chaos
On ne peut nier que les evenements qui ont eu lieu en Somalie ont ete influences par des facteurs externes et que la guerre civile et ses consequences ne peuvent s’expliquer selon une grille « traditionnelle ». Cependant, plusieurs modeles d’organisation sociale non seulement ont persiste aux epoques precoloniale et coloniale, mais se retrouvent dans les conflits actuels. On mentionnera notamment la relation complementaire entre affiliation agnat…
Identification in Violent Settings and Situations of Rapid Change
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. Please use the Get access link above for information on how to access this content
Redrawing the Map of the Horn
The paper examines the changing shapes of territories in the Horn of Africa and the discourses which legitimise these different shapes. It starts with the 'Horn' itself, the different ways to delineate it, and the interests behind these. Then Eritrea, Ethiopia, Somalia, and thede factoindependent Somaliland are discussed and their justifications for being examined. These justifications are found not to follow the same pattern. The criteria for in…
Introduction
An abstract is not available for this content so a preview has been provided. As you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the 'Save PDF' action button
Taking sides and constructing identities
Conflicts are often explained in terms of the interests of the groups involved, especially their competition for resources or gains. There is much merit in this approach. Theories of this type appear more realistic than those which take the legitimizing accounts of participants at face value. What people are fighting about is a fundamental question in conflict analysis, but there is another equally fundamental question that remains poorly underst…
Brothers of the Boran Once Again
This article focuses upon a cluster of questions about identity: under which conditions can social, political or ethnic affiliations which have been denied for over a generation be revived? Can there be, even in predominantly oral cultures, a kind of backup copy for older identities which are of no use in the present but might be useful again in the future? How does collective memory deal with what is deleted from it? Do insiders preserve and pas…
The “Five Drums,” Proto-Rendille-Somali, and Oromo Nationalism
Commentary| April 01 2008 The “Five Drums,” Proto-Rendille-Somali, and Oromo Nationalism: A Response to Aneesa Kassam Günther Schlee Günther Schlee Search for other works by this author on: This Site Google Ethnohistory (2008) 55 (2): 321–330. https://doi.org/10.1215/00141801-2007-065 Cite Icon Cite Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Permissions Search Site Citation Günther Schlee; The “Five Drums,” Proto-Rendille-Somali, and Oromo…
Changing Identifications and Alliances in North-East Africa
Forms of group identity play a prominent role in everyday lives and politics in north-east Africa. These volumes provide an interdisciplinary account of the nature and significance of ethnic, religious, and national identity in north-east Africa. Case studies from Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Kenya illustrate the way that identities are formed and change over time, and how local, national, and international politics are interwoven. Specific atten…
Tackling Ethnicity from Different Sides Marc Howard Ross’ Workon Culture and Conflict. A Review Article
Anthropos , Seite 571 - 578
Borders and Borderlands as Resources in the Horn of Africa
A Comment on the 'Policy Framework for Pastoralism in Africa' Adopted by the African Union in January 2011
The present issue of NP is about the disarmament-with-development exercise in Karamoja, which substantially operates on the premise that pastoralism is a problem. The sooner it is eradicated, the better. Kratli (2006) describes vividly the wide gap between the perceptions of the Ugandan (and Kenyan) state and the realities of the lives of pastoralists. Pastoralists are either ignored or caricatured by the wider public. Even African cows do not fi…
Islam and Ethnicity in Northern Kenya and Southern Ethiopia
Settler Colonialism
Why States Still Destroy Pastoralism and How They Can Learn That in Their Own Interest They Should Not
Anti-pastoralism policies are outdated--hence the word 'still' in the title. Apart from the important moral and political considerations, they are now outdated on economic grounds. There is an emerging consensus among scholars and practitioners concerned with range management and livestock production that in most of the world's dry belt, mountainous areas and tundra, reliable food production depends on mobile livestock-keeping (for a global overv…
Customary law and the joys of statelessness
There is some truth in the statement that in Somalia the periods and regions least affected by struggles about the state have provided better living conditions than the ones more affected by statehood. It is also true that the state, especially in the final stage of its existence leading up to its collapse in 1991, was of a predatory nature and, rather than contributing to development, affected it adversely. There is no doubt that no state at all…
Territorializing ethnicity
The idea of the nation state has penetrated Kenya and Ethiopia deeply at a level much below the 'nation' state. In the colonial period districts and grazing reserves were delineated according to perceived 'tribal' boundaries, which were often only created in the process. Ethnicity in that process was not invented (as has been claimed for other parts of Africa) but it has changed: it has acquired a territorial character of a new kind. Ethnic terri…
Conflict
Language and Ethnicity
Nomads and Nomadism in History
Sociology (23 obras) · Political science (21 obras) · Geography (17 obras) · Rangeland Management and Livestock Ecology (15 obras) · Law (14 obras) · History (11 obras) · African history and culture analysis (10 obras) · Ethnology (10 obras) · Anthropology (9 obras) · Law (9 obras)