Thesis
Religion, cooperation, and reproductive suppression among the Hamar agropastoralists of Southwest Ethiopia
Washington State University
Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
2016
Handle:
https://hdl.handle.net/2376/101300
Abstract
Recent coevolutionary theory has emphasized the roles of religion and punishment in maintaining cooperation. This study investigates an interlocking set of supernatural beliefs, rituals, and infanticidal practices, maintained and imposed by the gerontocracy among the Hamar agropastoralists of southwestern Ethiopia, in two aspects: as a strategy for resisting 1) cuckoldry; and 2) reproduction by women or couples who contribute little to village cooperative breeding networks. Mingi children, believed to portend calamity and hence destroyed, are thought a consequence of the mother's failure to complete a suite of compulsory rituals prior to conception, the timing of which is decided by village elders and ultimately by the mother-in-law. Data from a demographic survey and qualitative interviews with Hamar elders, adolescents, and mothers of mingi children conducted in 2013 indicate children of mothers poor in social capital, which often but not always correlates with material poverty, are at higher risk of accusation. Risk factors cluster around second wives, who are more likely to be widowed, have dead paternal grandmothers, have children with men unrelated to their husband's family, and have fewer resources with which to sustain involvement in food and labor sharing networks, all of which can make them more vulnerable targets of village gossip and charges of having committed ritual transgressions resulting in a mingi child. Contrary to media reports, the rate of mingi infanticide appears very low, as are infant and child mortality. These findings suggest rare but theatrical acts of infanticide constitute what coevolutionary researchers have referred to as credibility enhancing displays, which when coupled with the threat of supernatural punishment may be used as a low cost means of enforcing within-village cooperation between non-biologically related women in this patrilocal society, promoting high survival rates. However, the mingi/ritual complex also regulates the reproduction of women in weak social positions in favor of higher status males' and females' reproductive success. A cross-cultural investigation of hypotheses concerning the adaptive significance of infanticide motivated by the belief, previously common throughout sub-Saharan Africa, that maxillary precedence in the teething sequence indicates supernatural danger is also carried out.
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Details
- Title
- Religion, cooperation, and reproductive suppression among the Hamar agropastoralists of Southwest Ethiopia
- Creators
- Scott Conley Calvert
- Contributors
- Barry S. Hewlett (Degree Supervisor)
- Awarding Institution
- Washington State University
- Academic Unit
- Anthropology, Department of
- Theses and Dissertations
- Master of Arts (MA), Washington State University
- Publisher
- Washington State University; [Pullman, Washington] :
- Identifiers
- 99900525398201842
- Language
- English
- Resource Type
- Thesis