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The Wheel of Autonomy: Rhetoric and Ethnicity in the Omo Valley

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Volume 18

Integration and Conflict Studies



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The Wheel of Autonomy

Rhetoric and Ethnicity in the Omo Valley

Felix Girke

308 pages, 22 illus., bibliog., index

ISBN  978-1-78533-950-9 $135.00/£104.00 / Hb / Published (August 2018)

ISBN  978-1-83695-061-5 $34.95/£27.95 / Pb / Not Yet Published (May 2025)

eISBN 978-1-78533-951-6 eBook

https://doi.org/10.3167/9781785339509


View CartYour country: - edit Request a Review or Examination Copy (in Digital Format)Recommend to your LibraryAvailable in GOBI®

Reviews

“This finely crafted book on a remarkable people is a welcome addition to Ethiopian studies, ethnic studies, and African social anthropology, and of theoretical interest to social scientists who want to know more about rhetoric theory as relevant in a ‘non-Western’ setting.” • JRAI

“This is a superb book, which regarding theories of culture, the epistemology of ethnographic research, and the evolution of our understanding of South Omo societies is path-breaking… The writing is fresh, clear and evocative.” • John G. Galaty, McGill University

Description

How do the Kara, a small population residing on the eastern bank of the Omo River in southern Ethiopia, manage to be neither annexed nor exterminated by any of the larger groups that surround them? Through the theoretical lens of rhetoric, this book offers an interactionalist analysis of how the Kara negotiate ethnic and non-ethnic differences among themselves, the relations with their various neighbors, and eventually their integration in the Ethiopian state. The model of the “Wheel of Autonomy” captures the interplay of distinction, agency and autonomy that drives these dynamics and offers an innovative perspective on social relations.

Felix Girke is a social/cultural anthropologist and a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Konstanz, Germany. His publications include the edited volumes Ethiopian Images of Self and Other (UVHW, 2014) and The Rhetorical Emergence of Culture (Berghahn Books, 2011). He currently studies the politics of cultural heritage in Myanmar.

Subject: Anthropology (General)Cultural Studies (General)
Area: Africa


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