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| Title: | Cultivation Strategy and Historical Change of Sorghum Varieties in the Hoor of Southwestern Ethiopia |
| Author: | Miyawaki, Yukio |
| Year: | 1996 |
| Periodical: | Senri Ethnological Studies |
| Issue: | 43 |
| Pages: | 77-120 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic term: | Ethiopia |
| Subjects: | Arbore millet Development and Technology Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) |
| Abstract: | The Hoor are a Cushitic agropastoralist people numbering about 2000 who live in the South Omo Administrative Region of southwestern Ethiopia. They cultivate sorghum on the flood plains of the Weito River that flows from north to south on the eastern edge of their territory. The present paper investigates the factors that influence the rise and decline of indigenous plant varieties and focuses in particular on people's knowledge and the strategies that enable them to adapt to harsh ecological environments. Based on fieldwork conducted in 1993 and 1995, the author first describes the sorghum cultivation of the Hoor and indicates how people determine cultivation strategies on the basis of a number of factors and by close observation of indigenous sorghum varieties. Next he explains Hoor folk taxonomy and the native categorization of indigenous sorghum varieties. He summarizes the results of a questionnaire on sorghum varieties administered to cultivators. Based on the answers to the questions relating to the determination of Hoor cultivation strategies, he carries out a multivariate analysis on the twenty-nine most popular varieties and shows that the varieties can be classified into certain categories according to their specific utilities and that the utilities relevant to cultivation strategies have a significant influence on the fate of varieties. Bibliogr., notes. |