Table of Contents

Part I. The making of an imperial state: 1. Old Abyssinia and the new Ethiopian empire: themes in social history Donald Donham; Part II. Renegotiating power and authority: 2. Nekemte and Addis Abeba: dilemmas of provincial rule Alessandro Triulzi; 3. From ritual kings to Ethiopian landlords in Maale Donald Donham; 4. Institutionalizing a fringe periphery: Dassanetch-Amhara relations Uri Almagor; Part III. Reorienting kinship and identity: 5. Lifelines: exchange marriage among the Gumuz Wendy James; 6. A problem of domination at the periphery: the Kwegu and the Mursi David Turton; Part IV. Expanding tribute and trade: 7. Coffee in centre-periphery relations: Gedeo in the early twentieth century Charles W. McCellan; 8. Vicious cycles: ivory, slaves, and arms on the new Maji frontier Peter P. Garretson; 9. On the Nilotic frontier: imperial Ethiopia in the southern Sudan, 1898–1936 Douglas H. Johnson; Epilogue Wendy James.

Promotional Information

This international collection of essays offers a unique approach to the understanding of imperial Ethiopia, out of which the present state was created by the 1974 revolution.