This paper examines the characteristics of Ari women artisans who make pottery in Southwestern Ethiopia, focusing on how they use local materials to make pots and how they ensure their livelihood by communicating with users who discriminate against artisans who produce pots.

Analyzing the production by four potters in both the rainy and dry seasons, I found that their pots always sold out in the local market, even when the number produced varied because of the weather conditions. In interviews with users and makers, aimed at evaluating pottery making, users rated durable pots positively. They reported that some pots do not last long, even those recommended by their friends. Users tend to form a special relationship, known as jaala, with potters who make durable pots especially for specific users. Potters tend to develop and change their unique pottery-making styles by altering their hand and finger movement patterns, in order to produce durable pots that satisfy their customers.

These findings show that Ari pottery making not only has a technological element but also involves cultural and social processes, and that these factors determine how Ari potters select the raw materials to make durable pots that will satisfy their clients. I regard their hand and finger movement patterns as useful units to analyze each potter’s learning patterns and process of creating new techniques and to compare with potter’s technological variations among the several ethnic groups of Southwestern Ethiopia.

In many parts of Africa, crop-raiding by wild animals has given rise to a significant conflict between local communities and wildlife conservation activists. The objective of this paper is to describe some of the defensive strategies adopted by the locals against the “damage” caused by wild animals from the perspective of historical interactions between local people and wildlife. This is achieved by analyzing the case of Mago National Park in southwestern Ethiopia. Further, the study examines the transition of these strategies after the implementation of the wildlife conservation policy. The results indicate that rodents, primates, and ungulates are the most serious causes of damage to agricultural crops, and that some carnivores create problems for livestock in K village, adjoining the National Park. The following aspects were observed: two types of coping strategies implemented by the farmers; direct measures followed by each household to ward off wild animals, such as guarding the fields, chasing away any wild animals spotted in the fields, and snaring; and indirect measures, such as rituals, that were performed within the community. While these coping strategies helped to reduce the damage, they also increased the tolerance level of the damage. Prior to the establishment of the Park, the Ari people had developed different forms of coping strategies by establishing a direct and concrete relationship with the wild animals. However, when the government intensified the regulation, the Ari people began to request damage compensation from wildlife personnel and local government officials who have the authority to manage the Park.

School-based management has been promoted in many developing countries as an effective means to decentralize educational administration and give decision-making authority to the school. In Ethiopia, too, the School Management Committees (SMCs) are formulated in all schools as a multiparty administrative body, with participation of community representatives, school principal, teachers, and local government officers. Regardless of this institutionalized channel of participation, there are schools which have and do not have active community participation. Based on the assumption that the factors determining the levels and the styles of participation exist not only within the SMC and the school itself but also in the societies surrounding the school, the author enlarged the scope of investigation to the traditional social structure and socio-cultural dynamics. The research was conducted at 3 district education offices and 14 primary schools in Oromia Region, Ethiopia, through interviews, questionnaire, focus-group discussion, and participatory workshop. By untangling the perspectives of different actors—especially community members—at different localities, the author demonstrates factors which determine the types and levels of popular commitment to education.

The research revealed that the schools which have active SMC tend to be those in which parents and local people have been actively involved in school matters even before the introduction of SMC. Also, often times, SMCs are supported by non-institutionalized mechanism of participation, such as traditional communal unit called Goti which actually mobilize people and resources. Further, active communities have strong leaders who have either traditional authority like Goti leaders, administrative authority like village administrators or school principal, or connection with outside society and modern knowledge based on higher level of education or better cash income than other people. The paper also demonstrated the ambiguity of the term “community” given the fact that the school catchment areas often transcend the administrative or traditional unit of community and the people's level of involvement varies depending on who has power and how leadership is exercised.

エチオピア正教会信徒の食に関する人類学的な研究では、断食や祝宴の分析を通して食と信仰生活が深く関連することが解明されており、そこでは断食と祝宴が対比的に記述されてきた。断食＝禁欲と祝宴＝解放に対応する食の差異はたしかに信徒の食生活の軸をなす一方で、人びとは断食と祝宴をつねに対立的にとらえているわけではない。また、信徒にとって信仰上重要な食の側面は断食と祝宴だけではない。この点を理解するために、本稿では「祝い」という分析概念を用いて、エチオピア正教会の信徒がいかにして信仰に根ざした食を実践するのかを、聖日に着目して明らかにする。飲食物を準備するにあたって、人びとはそれが何を目的とするものかを言明しないことが多いが、その活動には聖日を「祝う」意味あいが込められている場合がある。本稿では、外見上は明確な特徴のない聖日における人びとの実践を含めて対象とし、暦のなかに位置づける。断食と聖日の関連及び、聖日をめぐる食実践と日常生活の関係の検討を通じて明らかになったエチオピア正教徒の「祝い」のあり方は、日常を重視して信仰生活をとらえることの重要性を示唆していた。