Beer and Feasts in the Highlands of Southern Ethiopia: Ethnoarchaeological and Archaeological Perspectives

Summary

This is an abstract from the "Raise Your Glass to the Past: An Exploration of the Archaeology of Beer" session, at the 86th annual meeting of the Society for American Archaeology.

Feasting and drinking beer by the Gamo Boreda, who live in the highlands of southern Ethiopia, represent status and seniority and have a long tradition of connecting the living with the ancestors. This paper focuses on the archaeological site of Ochollo Mulato (AD 1270–1950), incorporating oral traditions in association with ceramic ethnoarchaeological and archaeological research documenting the importance of beer and feasting by the Gamo Boreda. Elders recount from their oral tradition that Ochollo Mulato is the oldest and most senior of the nine original settlements encompassing the Gamo highlands. Oral tradition and archaeological and ethnoarchaeological ceramic analyses suggest that large-scale ritual feasting of beer and other foods were part of the activities occurring at Ochollo Mulato over the last eight centuries.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 86th Annual Meeting, Online (2021)   •
• Raise Your Glass to the Past: An Exploration of the Archaeology of Beer

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 33639