CASTE AND CLASS IN HISTORICAL NORTH-WEST ETHIOPIA: THE BETA ISRAEL (FALASHA) AND KEMANT, 1300–1900

Abstract

Peoples create their own histories by making choices within a framework of opportunities and constraints. In the historical interaction of small groups within a larger state and social formation, the context of constraints and opportunities changes over time, as do the choices and actions of the smaller groups. Such socio-ethnic historical processes must thus be analyzed both diachronically and dialectically. This comparative study examines the actions of two small groups, the Beta Israel and Kemant, during three phases of Ethiopian history: the centralizing state to 1632; the urban-centered state, 1632–1755; and the regionalized but re-centralizing state, 1755–1900. In contrast to the assumptions of traditional Ethiopian historiography in which small groups were only objects of conquest and inevitable assimilation, this paper demonstrates the construction and reconstruction of group identities during several hundred years extending into the twentieth century.