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Diego Maria Malara
Diego Maria Malara
University of Edinburgh dmalara@exseed.ed.ac.uk
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Tom Boylston
Tom Boylston
University of Edinburgh Tom.Boylston@ed.ac.uk
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Abstract
The classical sociological literature on Amhara hierarchy describes a society based on open relations of domination and an obsession with top-down power. This article asks how these accounts can be reconciled with the strong ethics of love and care that ground daily life in Amhara. We argue that love and care, like power, are understood in broadly asymmetrical terms rather than as egalitarian forms of relationship. As such, they play into wider discourses of hierarchy, but also serve to blur the distinction between legitimate authority and illegitimate power.
Contributor Notes
Diego Maria Malara is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. His research looks at changing practices of religious mediation and emerging forms of urban subjectivity and relatedness among Ethiopian Orthodox city dwellers in Addis Ababa and Bahir Dar.
Tom Boylston is a British Academy Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Anthropology at the University of Edinburgh. He specializes in ritual, media, and materiality in Ethiopian Orthodox Christian society.