Sustaining one another: enset, animals, and people in the southern highlands of Ethiopia
Enset (ensete ventricosum; Abyssinian banana), uniquely domesticated in Ethiopia, sustains upwards of 20 million people in southern Ethiopia. It also feeds a sizeable animal population and is in turn nurtured by both animals and people.

In this paper we trace some of the relations of co-dependence and mutual sustenance that characterize enset within Ethiopian highland agricultural systems. We further suggest that the idea of ‘sustenance’ be expanded beyond idioms of food and feeding, to incorporate aesthetics as well as relations to the earth and land.
Date: 13 October 2017, 15:30 (Friday, 1st week, Michaelmas 2017)
Venue: 64 Banbury Road, 64 Banbury Road OX2 6PN
Speakers: Dr Elizabeth Ewart (University of Oxford), Dr Wolde Tadesse (University of Oxford)
Organising department: School of Anthropology and Museum Ethnography
Organisers: Dr Chris Morton (University of Oxford), Dr Morgan Clarke (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address: kate.atherton@anthro.ox.ac.uk
Part of: Anthropology Departmental Seminar Series: Hilary 2024
Topics:
Booking required?: Not required
Audience: Public
Editor: Kate Atherton