Humane Development: Participation and Change Among the Sadama of Ethiopia - Hardcover

John H. Hamer (author)

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0817303022 ISBN 13: 9780817303020

Publisher: The University of Alabama Press, 1987

Synopsis

Seeks to show that the Sadama are a people quite adaptable to change on their own terms
 
Humane Development seeks to show that the Sadama are a people quite adaptable to change on their own terms. According to their narrative history and from what is know from documents in recent times, individuals have often taken risks that have sometimes favored and at other times gone against the enhancement of their lifestyle.
 
Certainly people can, as the experience of the Sadama shows, effectively participate in change at the local level. They bring a vast experience to the challenge of choosing, and also a knowledge of the relationship between their environment, tools, and organization that has enabled them to survive through the millennia. When people are permitted to draw upon their heritage in making choices, they approach the changing situation with confidence. More­over, the opportunity to choose among alternatives, rather than being subjected to an externally made choice, maximizes the possibility for innovation.
 

About this title

Review

"Hamer has produced a very well-written ethnographic analysis of development and change among the Sadama, a Cushitic-speaking people living along the Rift Valley..."-Academic Library Book Review | "Hamer has produced a very well-written ethnographic analysis of development and change among the Sadama, a Cushitic-speaking people living along the Rift Valley...The analysis attempts to show how traditional modes of decision making and living adapt to or are adapted to impinging forces of modernization. Hamer's emphasis on humane development is highly appropriate and his analysis is very successful. The focus on inevitable and constant change, and the continuing evolution of the society, makes this study a particularly useful one because the lessons of the Sadama can be generalized far beyond the boundaries of East Africa. The Sadama's particularistic history is of course unique to this group but the patterns of adaption are far more broadly applicable."-Academic Library Book Review

Edition details

• Publisher: The University of Alabama Press
• Publication date: 1987
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0817303022
• ISBN 13: 9780817303020
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 320