...
Post A Reply
my profile
|
directory
login
|
register
|
search
|
faq
|
forum home
»
EgyptSearch Forums
»
Deshret
»
Cultural connections between Ethiopia & AE
» Post A Reply
Post A Reply
Login Name:
Password:
Message Icon:
Message:
HTML is not enabled.
UBB Code is enabled.
[QUOTE]Originally posted by Djehuti: [QB] [QUOTE]Originally posted by Yom: [qb] ^Circumcision was the next thing I was going to mention, both male and female, which seems to be an East African (Afro-Asiatic?) trait that spread to West Asia and West Africa.[/qb][/QUOTE]I don't think circumcision is an Afrasian trait in itself since the custom is practiced by many Africans in regions where there are no Afrasian languages or even evidence of contact with such langauges. In fact many scholars think circumcision is one of those truly pan-African traits whose origins are lost to times immemorial. But you are correct that it was most likely Afrasian speakers who introduced the custom to West Asia since it was practiced in West Asia exclusively by Semitic speakers. [QUOTE][qb]The Gabra are an Oromo subgroup who live in Southern Ethiopia near the Kenyan border, not in the highlands, but in rather low-lying pastoral areas, around 500-1000m in height, I think.[/qb][/QUOTE]Thanks for the correction. I've only heard about them once from a book I've read about East African pastoralists and it showed a picture of a Gabra male elder holding a was-like stick. I wonder what other Ethiopian groups have this object. [QUOTE][qb]As for clothes, I have another citation from the same source if it interests you. Ethiopian clothes are basically always white, with colors sometimes for the trim. Even the poor wear white, actually, a very rough white cloth. [b]Men[/b] (bolding mine): [QUOTE][b]CHAPTER XIV[/b] [b]CONCERNING MEN'S CLOTHING.[/b] Although their everyday clothing is neither expensive nor elegant, they nevertheless pride themselves on dressing well, and better than the Portuguese whose dress does not please them. The noblemen and the wealthy wear shirts of [b]white[/b] [i]bofetās[/i] 1 (I call them shirts because that is the name they give them, and also because they are an all-purpose garment, for under them they use no other shirt). They are always made with the same [i]bofetā[/i] as interfacing or lined with another fabric; the sleeves are very long, the ends reaching the tips of their feet where they meet the length of the shirt. They are so tight that they have to force them on, which makes them form many folds along the arms, like those of the [i]Baneanes[/i].2 The shirt collars are high, with much embroidery. If the buttons are not made of silver, as many men have, they are made of green and red silk, which are their favorite colours. The buttonholes are not cut into the cloth but made of string or braided loops of the same silks. These shirts are also made of [i]ambāris[/i]3 or [i]azuis[/i][?] or other similar fabrics, but all are more or less of the same cut and style, tied at the waist with a silk sash, by those who have them, or one made out of linen. They do not use belts,4 except for some types which are worn girding their shoulders, though rarely. Normally the shirt reaches as far as the anklebone, the same length as the sleeves. The trousers worn by the noblemen are of Moorish design, very tight and funnel-shaped, reaching to the anklebone. They are made of velvet, damask, satin or any other silk, but only from the knee down, because the top part is fashioned of a cloth that is as thick and [b]white[/b] as sea salt, the same as their woven cloth or some similar native fabric. It would seem that they are determined not to be restrained in the amount of cloth used so that no one can call them stingy, nor vain enough to want to display their wealth in such minor matters, as was once the fashion in other finer and more prosperous places. this is not only the case for the noblemen, even the king himself hews to the line. On top of the shirt, when they are not wearing [i]cabayas[/i], they wear [i]fotetes[/i] or other [b]white[/b] [i]canequins[/i]5 cut in half and sewn along the edges with threads of red and green or yellow 1. 'A kind of calico'. Yule and Burnell, [i]Hobson-Jobson[/i]. The word was of Per[ s ]ian origin, meaning 'woven' and was rendered in Amharic as [i]bufeta[/i]. Beckingham and Huntingford, [i]Some records[/i], p. 60. 2. Indian Hindu traders, especially Gujaratis. The term was much used by Portuguese writers of this period, and adopted into Amharic as [i]Banyan[/i]. 3. [i]Ambari[/i], Hindi, a coarse fibre and cloth made from Deccan hemp ([i]Hibiscus cannabinus[/i]). 4. Long belts or cummerbands, as described by Mansfield Parkyns, [i]Life[/i], II, 7, were by the early nineteenth century common in northern Ethiopia. 5. Pieces of [b]white[/b] cloth from India. silk, if available, leaving a single garment like a sheet in which they wrap themselves. Or if they make these sheets of [i]fotete[/i], fine ones that are locally made because they make ones of excellent quality, or they use other sorts of sheets of the same quality, or those who have silk use that material. They cover their shoulders with these garments and lower them when they want to show respect to someone, or more or less according to a persons stature.6 The greatest respect noblemen can show toward the king, and ordinary men toward the noblemen, is to lower the cloth and cinch it around the waist. This garment is best called a sheet rather than a cape, because it is made like one and is of the same size. It is worn in place of a cape and used in the same way. They are quite right to make this kind of gesture of politeness and not another, because below the head, which is the main part of a man's body that shows, are the shoulders; and as they do not wear hats on their heads or caps, even though some do use hoods neither the Muslims nor the Turks nor the heathens would take them off, therefore, neither should they doff them (even though some of them have started to wear a type of cap made of various kinds of silk): by baring their shoulders they are baring the main part of the body they usually keep covered. 6. Arrangement of the [i]shamma[/i], or wrap, was an essential part of Ethiopian etiquette, and a way of showing respect and defining status. Walker, [i]Abyssinian at home[/i], pp. 14, 125, 167. [/QUOTE] [QUOTE] Middle-class men, wherever they are, also wear shirts of the same style and material as desscribed earlier. Those whose position does not entitle them as much fashion them of cheaper cloth. Their pants are usually [b]white[/b], but those of the wealthy and those worn for festive occasions are always black. Their style is not Moorish and funnel-shaped but rather in the style of the old Portuguese drawers they seem to have imitated, with long, wide legs embroidered in white thread so as to stand out against the black. They are different from drawers in that the seat of these pants is very low, set close to the cuffs, and the body of the pants is very tight above and completely closed. Also they often wear something like the [i]bajus[/i]10 from India in place of shirts, only with half sleeves, to their elbows; the neckline is long, reaching to the knee. They all adorn their heads in the same way. The other common folk and peasants wear bulky breaches or local [i]collelas[/i]. They do not wear trousers but wear and cover themselves with these clothes and so are decently clothed. However these do not do if one is in a hurry or in a fight, because then they necessarily must imitate the youth who in Christ's prison tore off his coverings and fled naked, for he probably wore what these men wear now. Once, when an attempt was made to persuade them to wear trousers, even men rich in land, owners of many cows, even those with mules to ride upon, answered that quite apart from its being a custom of their country [to go without trousers] hich they did not choose to abandon, they would not because they could not stand the fleas. It is true that some have already started wearing trousers and that those who live in the [i]catamās[/i] and courts all wear them, not so much from honesty as to vaunt themselves by so doing. 10. [i]Baju[/i], Marathi, a light jacket worn by women, or [i]Baju'e[/i], Arabic, a piece of clothing with short sleeves and belt. [/QUOTE]The Women are described as wearing the same type of cloths, I can PM or post the description of the style, though.[/qb][/QUOTE]So what about men wearing skirts or 'kilts' as Westerners call them? I have mostly seen men in Somalia wearing long skirts of the kind worn by men in Egyptian art. [QUOTE][qb]Another connection could be in whitewashing. This isn't usually done for houses in Ethiopia, but it's common for churches and monasteries, and is an Aksumite tradition. Whitewashed churches & monasteries in Ethiopia: Yemrehanna Kristos (12th c.): [IMG]http://farm1.static.flickr.com/228/500625511_086f6f3a05.jpg[/IMG] Medhane Alem Kesho (ca. 10th c.): [IMG]http://farm1.static.flickr.com/141/338693546_742fd145b7.jpg[/IMG] [IMG]http://farm1.static.flickr.com/145/338693288_e644c42d2d.jpg[/IMG] Debre Selam in Atsbi (ca. 10th c.): [IMG]http://farm1.static.flickr.com/164/338698442_08df7f01d4.jpg[/IMG] Petros wa Paulos (ca. 10th c.): [IMG]http://img229.imageshack.us/img229/9231/petroswapaulos2pm0.jpg[/IMG] Whitewashing is also common in the Muslim city of Harar in Eastern Ethiopia. [IMG]http://farm1.static.flickr.com/51/136767561_65be88fd74.jpg[/IMG] [/qb][/QUOTE]Interesting. [/QB][/QUOTE]
Instant Graemlins
Instant UBB Code™
What is UBB Code™?
Options
Disable Graemlins in this post.
*** Click here to review this topic. ***
Contact Us
|
EgyptSearch!
(c) 2015 EgyptSearch.com
Powered by UBB.classic™ 6.7.3