Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0130/01300.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 11KB | 207 lines

$Unique_ID{COW01300}
$Pretitle{228}
$Title{Ethiopia
Glossary}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Robert Rinehart}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{descent
group
rights
ancestor
common
groups
land
ethiopian
government
states}
$Date{1980}
$Log{}
Country:     Ethiopia
Book:        Ethiopia, A Country Study
Author:      Robert Rinehart
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1980

Glossary

     abuna (sometimes abune-Head (patriarch) of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church.

     age-set system-A system comprising several named sets (or groups) of men,
each of which consists of those initiated in a given period. Each set passes
through a series of age grades, taking on the rights, duties, and activities
specific to the grade. In Ethiopia such a system coexists with a generation
set or gada (q.v.) system in some ethnic groups, e.g., the Oromo.

     balabat (pl., balabatoch, often seen as balabats)-An Amharic term
originally referring to any person with a claim to rist (g.v.) land by virtue
of membership in a cognatic descent group (q.v.) Commonly used since the
establishment of the empire by Menelik II for those local chiefs and other
non-Amhara who were assigned low-level administrative positions among their
own people and who were allocated substantial landholdings.

     Birr (no symbol used)-The monetary unit since September 20, 1976, when it
replaced at par the Ethiopian dollar (q.v.). The Birr was first circulated on
October 14, 1976. Like the Ethiopian dollar, the Birr also consists of 100
cents. From the Birr's introduction through mid-1980, US $1 equaled Birr 2.07
to Birr 2.08. Conversely, Birr 1 equaled about US $0.48.

     Brooke Amendment-An amendment to the United States Foreign Assistance
Appropriation Bill of 1979 introduced by Senator Edward W. Brooke (R.,
Massachusetts). According to the amendment, all foreign aid provided by the
United States may be terminated to countries that are in default of required
repayments for periods longer than one calendar year.

     clan-A group whose members are descended in the male line from a putative
common male ancestor (patriclan) or in the female line from a putative common
female ancestor (matriclan-not reported in Ethiopia). Clans may be divided
into subclans organized on the same principle or into lineages (q.v.).

     clan-family-Among the Somali, a group of clans (q.v.) believed to be
unlimately linked by descent from a remote common ancestor.

     cognatic descent group-A group comprising those persons tracing descent
from a common ancestor through both males and females, thereby differing from
unilineal descent groups, such as clans (q.v.) and lineages (q.v.). During the
imperial era this entity was important among the Amhara as the one holding the
block of land to which its members claimed rist (q.v.) rights. The group had
no other function.

     Derg-Amharic term for committee. Commonly used to describe the ad hoc
Coordinating Committee of the Armed Forces, Police, and Territorial Army,
which formed in 1974 to present grievances to the imperial government. When
Emperor Haile Selassie's regime collapsed under pressures of the Derg and
civilian protest groups, the committee formed a provisional military
government, redesignating itself the Provisional Military Administrative
Council (PMAC-q.v.).

     descent group-A group having political, economic, or social functions.
Formation of the group is based on actual or putative descent through persons
of one sex from a common ancestor of the same sex, therefore unilineal descent
groups (clans or lineages, q.v.), or through persons of both sexes from a
common ancestor of either sex (cognatic descent groups, q.v.).

     Ethiopian dollar-Monetary unit (symbol Eth$) until September 1976 when it
was replaced at par by the Birr (q.v.). US $1 equaled Eth$2.50 (Eth$1 equaled
US $0.40) from the late 1963 until devaluation of the United States dollar on
December 21, 1971, when the official rate became US $1 to Eth$2.306. After
further devaluation of the United States dollar on February 15, 1973, US $1
equaled Eth$2.07 to Eth$2.08. fiscal year (FY)-July 8 through the following
July 7.

     gada-An Oromo term widely used to refer to a system that groups persons
(invariably males) of the same generation (rather than age) into sets. The
sets are ordered hierarchically and assigned a range of social, political, and
ritual rights and responsibilities. Generation-set systems are found in
varying forms among sections of the Oromo and other groups, e.g., the Konso
and Sadama.

     GDP-Gross domestic product. The total value of goods and services
produced within a country's borders during a fixed period, usually one year.
Obtained by adding the value contributed by each sector of the economy in the
form of compensation of employees, profits, and depreciation (consumption of
capital). Subsistence production is included and consists of the imputed value
of production by the farm family for its own use and the imputed rental value
of owner-occupied dwellings. In countries lacking sophisticated data-gathering
techniques, the total value of GDP is often estimated.

     GNP-Gross national product. GDP (q.v.) plus the income received from
abroad by residents less payments remitted abroad to nonresidents

     Gonzalez Amendment-An amendment to the International Development
Association Act introduced in 1972 by Representative Henry B. Gonzalez (D.,
Texas). The amendment, which subsequently was added to a series of acts
dealing with international lending institutions, gave United States members
authority to apply the principles contained in the earlier Hickenlooper
Amendment (q.v.) to loan requests from offending countries.

     gult-A principle of land tenure among the Amhara, Tigray and, with
modifications, elsewhere. Abolished in principle in 1966. Gult rights were
rights granted by the emperor or his designated representative to members of
the ruling group as reward for service or to Ethiopian Orthodox Christian
churches or monasteries as endowments. The gult-holder, often but not
always an official, was entitled to collect tribute and demand labor from
those on the land over which he held rights. Some of the tribute was kept,
and the remainder was passed upward.

     Habesha-A term comprehending the two politically, socially, and
economically dominant ethnic groups of what came to be the Ethiopian empire:
the Amhara and the Tigray. Both claimed to be heirs of the ancient kingdom
of Aksum, and both were Ethiopian Orthodox Christian.

     Hickenlooper Amendment-An amendment to the United States Foreign
Assistance Act of 1961 introduced by Senator Bourke B. Hickenlooper
(R., Iowa). The legislation provides the United States government necessary
authority to retaliate against foreign countries that nationalize private
property owned by American interests. Retribution may be achieved by
terminating or otherwise modifying the foreign assistance provided such
countries by the United States.

     Kebele-Popular term used to describe cooperative urban neighborhood
associations, which were formed after the nationalization of all urban
land and rentable dwellings in July 1975; these cooperatives became the
counterpart of the peasant associations developed under the provisional
military government's land reform proclamation of March 1975. Since their
development, kebeles have become elements of local government that serve
as instruments of sociopolitical control in urban areas.

     lineage-A group whose members are descended through males from a
common male ancestor (patrilineage) or through females from a common female
ancestor (matrilineage-not reported in Ethiopia). Such descent can in
principle be traced. Lineages vary in geneological depth from the ancestor
to living generations; the more extensive ones often are internally
segmented.

     patrilineal clan-A clan (q.v.) organized on the basis of putative descent
through males from a common male ancestor.

     PMAC-Provisional Militar