People of the plow : an agricultural history of Ethiopia, 1800-1990 / James C. McCann.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

McCann, James, 1950-

Series:

ACLS Humanities E-Book.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Agriculture--Ethiopia--History.

Agriculture.

Ethiopia--History.

Ethiopia.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xviii, 298 p. ) ill., maps ;

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Madison, Wis. : University of Wisconsin Press, c1995.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

For more than two thousand years, Ethiopia's ox-plow agricultural system was the most efficient and innovative in Africa, but has been afflicted in the recent past by a series of crises: famine, declining productivity, and losses in biodiversity. James C. McCann analyzes the last two hundred years of agricultural history in Ethiopia to determine whether the ox-plow agricultural system has adapted to population growth, new crops, and the challenges of a modern political economy based in urban centers. This agricultural history is set in the context of the larger environmental and landscape history of Ethiopia, showing how farmers have integrated crops, tools, and labor with natural cycles of rainfall and soil fertility, as well as with the social vagaries of changing political systems. McCann traces characteristic features of Ethiopian farming, such as the single-tine scratch plow, which has retained a remarkably consistent design over two millennia, and a crop repertoire that is among the most genetically diverse in the world. People of the Plow provides detailed documentation of Ethiopian agricultural practices since the early nineteenth century by examining travel narratives, early agricultural surveys, photographs and engravings, modern farming systems research, and the testimony of farmers themselves, collected during McCann's five years of fieldwork. He then traces the ways those practices have evolved in the twentieth century in response to population growth, urban markets, and the presence of new technologies.

Contents:

Intro

Contents

Illustrations

Maps

Tables

Transliteration

Preface

Prologue: Fanus, Agriculture, and History

Part I. The Plow and the Land

1. The Salubrious Highlands: A Historical Setting

2. The Ox-Plow Complex: an Ecological Revolution

3. Fanus in the Agrarian Polity: Historical Trends in Population,Fanu Resources, and Specialized Agriculture, 1800-1916

Part II. The Plow and Ethiopian Historical Landscapes

4. From Royal Fields to Marginal Lands: Agriculture in Ankober, Shawa, 1840-1990

5. The Plow in the Forest: Agriculture, Population, and Maize Monoculture in Gera

6. Addis Ababa's Kitchen: Food, Forage, and Intensification in a Closed Ox-Plow Economy, Ada 1800-1990

7. Conclusion: People of the Plow, People of the City

Epilogue

Appendix A: Crop Names

Appendix B: Glossary of Agricultural Terms

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9786612622847

9780585316512

0585316511

9781282622845

1282622846

9780299176136

0299176134

OCLC:

45728370

Publisher Number:

2027/heb02636 hdl