Tigray

ETHNONYM: Tigre

Orientation

Identification. The Tigray are the largest ethnic group in the Ethiopian province of Tigray and in the Eritrean nation. The Tigray have not been as thoroughly studied as their culturally similar neighbors, the Amhara, with whom they share an "imperial" heritage. The Aksumite Kingdom had its seat in Tigray territory.

Location. In addition to Tigray Province and the southern highland portions of Eritrea, the Tigray occupy parts of Ethiopia's Gonder and Welo provinces. The terrain is high plateau, cut through by deep ravines. Nearly all the land is either under cultivation or in pasturage, although reserved areas that surround churches suggest that the climax growth of much of Tigray is cedar forest. The average annual rainfall hovers around the 50 centimeters required for cereal agriculture. Droughts are frequent. Rainfall concentrates in two periods: the "large rains" fall for three months beginning in mid-June and the "small rains"—if they come—fall in January or February. Most Tigray live in the highlands, where daytime high temperatures are relatively cool (21° to 27° C); nighttime temperatures occasionally plunge below freezing in December.

Demography. There are approximately 2,000,000 Tigray, primarily divided between Tigray and Eritrea. Drought, civil war, and resettlement make precise estimates impossible. Since the mid-1970s, severe droughts have resulted in extremely high rates of infant mortality. Prior to the droughts and civil war, the population density had reached the carrying capacity of the land, requiring pasturage to be converted to cultivation.

Linguistic Affiliation. Tigreñña is Semitic and more closely related to the liturgical language Ge'ez than is Amhara. All three languages are written using a common script. The language should not be confused with Tigre, a language spoken by a nearby group.

History and Cultural Relations

The Tigray have been in their present location since before the time of Christ and began converting to Christianity in the fourth century. Some of the population may have migrated from the Arabian peninsula. There seems to be a long-term process of migration south, with Tigray imperceptibly "becoming" Amhara as they marry into Amhara communities. The Tigray, with the Amhara, are the coinheritors of the Aksumite Kingdom, which later become the Ethiopian Empire. Tigray as well as Amhara were eligible for the emperorship, the last Tigray emperor being Yohannes (1872-1889).

The Tigray living in Tigray Province experienced a relatively short colonial period (1936-1942) compared to that of their Eritrean neighbors, who were dominated by the Italians from the 1890s until 1942. The heavily Tigray-influenced Eritrean Liberation Front (ELF, now the EPLF) led a separatist revolt through the 1960s until it was joined by the now-stronger Tigray People's Liberation Front (TPLF) after the 1974 overthrow of Haile Selassie. Most Tigray are rural; Asmara in Eritrea and Maqelle in Tigray are the only urban centers. War, drought, and international relief agencies have played a major role in this region since the mid-1970s.

Settlements

Tigray "parishes" equate with local communities and are the smallest units of administration for both the state and the Ethiopian Orthodox church, having a chief appointed from above. Priests and deacons are responsible to church authorities. Parishes range in population from 500 to 4,000 people. There is regional variation in settlement pattern: climatic conditions favor dispersed settlement of small hamlets across parishes where rainfall is relatively constant from year to year, and nucleated villages, one per parish, where rainfall is less predictable. Villages go through a process of dividing into quarters, which reunite when new, more powerful quarters try to dominate them. Depending on the phase of their life cycle, villages have two or three quarters. Houses range from wattle-and-daub huts to impressive masonry lime-domed or zinc-corrugated roofed edifices, depending on the family's economic success.

Economy

Subsistence and Commercial Activity. The Tigray practice plow cultivation of primarily cereal crops: wheat, barley, t'af (Amharic: tyeff; Eragrostis abyssinica ), and sorghum. A second crop per year is risky or impossible in most areas. Legumes, primarily garbanzos, are included in the croprotation cycle. After several years, weeds become too strong for competition, and the field is fallowed until grasses choke out the weeds and the turf can be removed again, bringing the field into cultivation. Flax is grown for linseed oil. In some zones, frankincense figures prominently. For those living near the eastern escarpment, transportation of salt from the Danakil Depression for sale in the highland markets is an important source of income. In addition to the salt trade, individuals earn some cash by purchasing cattle and small animals in the lowlands and selling them further into the highlands. Cattle are important as plow animals. When population density is high and pasturage is in short supply, plow animals are the most critical variable in the agricultural process.

Industrial Arts. Crafts are associated with pariah "castes" of artisans who are believed to be witches. Blacksmithing, pottery making, tanning, weaving, and music making fall under this stigma. A person with a physical disability, however, can engage in weaving without being regarded as a witch.

Trade. Markets, shops, and mills are associated with towns. Shops are often run by Arab merchants. Products of artisanry (pottery, hides, metal tools), herbs and spices, coffee, salt, and bread are sold. Towns, especially those associated with administrative offices, have mead houses; each quarter of a village has at least one beer house.

Division of Labor. For nonartisans, sex and age account for most of the division of labor. Men are responsible for nearly all agriculture and husbandry. The sole exception is weeding, which is done by women. Once the grain has left the threshing floor, its storage and processing into injera (the crepelike staple) and bread is also the province of women. Boys, after the age of about 12, begin herding and helping with plowing and planting. Girls help with food preparation and child care. At least one herd boy is needed if a household is to be independent. If there are more herd boys than necessary, some may go off to study the Bible to prepare for careers as deacons, with the eventual possibility of joining the priesthood. Priests, like other male heads of households, are farmers. As many as 10 percent of a parish's households may be headed by priests. Most curing, which depends heavily on ecclesiastical training, is done by defrocked priests and deacons; most treatment of spirit possession is done by women. Artisans sometimes form their own villages, where they also practice agriculture; however, in other villages, they are found interspersed in individual households with nonartisans. Elders and powerful men are designated as "recognized men" and "big-men."

Land Tenure. Land tenure is complex and governed on a parish-by-parish basis. Each parish chooses from permutations of two basic forms: ristî (hereditary) and igurafgotet (communal). To make a claim under ristî, a person must trace descent from a parish founder through any combination of males and females. The system has inherent contradictions: all plots of land potentially have multiple claimants, giving rise to a political as well as a genealogical component to land claims. igurafgotet land tenure, unlike ristî—which can be used to restrict the inflow of new farmers—encourages newcomers and becomes salient after a drought depopulates an area. Because the choice of land-tenure systems affects the size of the holdings of many people, parishes switch from one system to the other only under extreme ecological and demographic conditions. The two land-tenure systems are not associated with settlement patterns; nucleated and dispersed forms of settlement are found with both types.

Kinship

Kin Groups and Descent. Descent is omnilineal or ambilineal. Descent groups form and disperse depending upon the particular land claim that is being prosecuted. Persons who are allies for one purpose are enemies for another. This does not follow the familiar pattern of "fission and fusion" described by Evans-Pritchard for the Nuer ( 1940), in that groups are not segments of larger groups but are based on a particular individual's genealogical relations in a particular parish. He or she will be brought together with a distinct collection of people in each parish and at each genealogical level. These associations do not achieve the kind of solidarity that would make them useful for purposes other than land claims. Kinship is bilateral and, like descent, is traced through any combination of males and females. The importance to each household of having at least one herd boy leads to boys often being brought up in the household of a father's or mother's brother or sister, as adjustments to household work forces require.

Kinship Terminology. Tigray kin terms reflect their bilateral kinship and omnilineal descent. Generation and linealtty are distinguished. Sex is distinguished only in Ego's generation and for parents. Kin types are grouped as follows: son and daughter, brother, sister, father, mother, father's and mother's brother, father's and mother's sister, and father's and and mother's father and mother. All eight great-grandparents are referred to by a single term.

Marriage and Family

Marriage. Marriages are monogamous and "contractual." First marriages involve a dowry, usually of animals, given by the bride's family to the couple. Second marriages usually require equal contributions from both parties. Should the potential wife not have capital comparable to her potential husband's, an arrangement is made in which she is "paid" and her accumulated shares are eventually converted into community property. Only older couples and deacons intending to become priests are married before the church. The "life expectancy" of a marriage at the time it is contracted is between seven and twelve years. Marriage contracts incorporate the potential of divorce. At marriage, a guardian is selected to help reconcile difficulties and to aid in division of property in case of divorce. Elders are called in to oversee the process. After the wedding, for a first marriage, there is a period of bride-service during which the couple goes back and forth between the two parental households, spending time in each. Once bride-service has been completed, there is no formal rule of postmarital residence. Practical considerations of joint herding often lead to a period of viripatrilocal residence.

Domestic Unit. The nuclear family is the most common domestic unit. Youngest children may remain with the family homestead to take care of aging parents. A small number of economically successful households retain their own sons and daughters and draw in their mates, thus forming large multifamily households. Partition takes place in stages: separation of hearths, separation of grain bins, and final separation.

Inheritance. Inheritance rules distinguish between land and household property. If the parish is ristî, each child, regardless of gender or marital status, inherits an equal share of the land of his or her dead parent. Domestic equipment tends to remain with the child who took care of the aging parent. Other property (principally livestock), if not consumed in the funeral commemoration a year after death, may be divided.

Socialization. Small children are indulged, particularly boys. Girls begin helping their mothers earlier than boys begin helping their fathers. Girls gradually take on domestic chores. At about age 7, boys must begin to learn to obey, which involves a period of apparent trauma. Children are baptized. A series of vertical scars to the outside of either eye, found on most adults, is regarded as "medicinal" rather than "ritual" and is done on the occasion of eye infections. A cross is often made by tattoo or scarification in the middle of the forehead. Movement from minority to adulthood is not dramatic. Boys move to the adult part of the parish meeting when they become married or when they become deacons. Women tend to act in political contexts only in the absence of their husbands but have the rights of jural majors after marriage.

Sociopolitical Organization

Social Organization. The most significant unit beyond the household is the h'agareseb (lit., "farm people"), which is the parish or local community. It is at the parish meeting, held on Sunday mornings after church services, that all important community decisions are made, whether they be religious or civil, whether to add a new saint to the local church calendar or to repair a path. Parish meetings are presided over by a secular community leader, or "manager." In nucleated parishes, village wards are significant and have informal leaders. Neighbors participate in one another's life-cycle ceremonies and have the legal duty to respond when a neighbor raises a hue and cry. Descent groups have little relevance outside of land-tenure issues. Most adults belong to "twelve apostle" eating clubs, consisting of men or women or couples who meet once a month for feasting and discussion.

Political Organization. When the Ethiopian state was functioning well, the Tigray of Tigray Province were full participants in politcal life and on several occasions provided emperors. This relationship was interrupted in Eritrea by the long Italian colonization. After the 1974 Revolution, many of the Tigray in both areas rose in rebellion. Nowadays the state organization involves provincial, district, and subdistrict governors. Each parish has an official, appointed from above, who owes loyalty to the subdistrict governor. The official at each level of government owes loyalty to the official immediately above him, not to the central government. Parish priests are responsible to the bishops.

Social Control. In native theory, people are "good" because they fear what their neighbors will think, what the courts will do, and what God will do. Beyond this, the parish chief is an officer of the court and has the responsibility to handle minor cases and to carry more serious ones to higher courts. The institution of awu ha h requires all members of the community to assemble for three days or until someone confesses knowledge of a crime.

Conflict. The Tigray see conflict as a natural consequence of weak authority. Conflicts occasionally transpire, ranging from those at the the intervillage level to rebellions against the state, as happened in the 1940s and again since the Revolution. Outlaws with a large following are sometimes later made part of the state, and state officials sometimes become outlaws.

Religion and Expressive Culture

Religious Beliefs. Christianity is said to have come to Tigray with the shipwrecked Syrian Fromentius, in the third century. Each parish is associated with a church, which in most regions is built of masonry and, in some others, carved into cliffs. It is through Bible study that most young men gain literacy. The Ethiopian Orthodox church was formally affiliated with the Coptic church in Alexandria, to which, until 1954, it was obliged to turn for archbishops. The Tigray recognized three categories of belief as "religion" (haymanot ): Christianity, Islam, and Judaism. A number of the saints are indigenous and not shared by the Roman or Greek churches. Spirit possession, in the form of the zar cult, is prominent, but many Tigray regard it as illegitimate. Zar has special significance in empowering women.

Religious Practitioners. Priests and deacons, many monastery trained, celebrate the Mass. Diviners are defrocked deacons or priests. Spirit mediums are typically women, as are the vast majority of those afflicted with possession. Priests and deacons receive a special allotment of land for their services, plus honoraria from their penitents. Diviners charge for their services, as do spirit mediums.

Ceremonies. The most frequent ceremony is the celebration of Mass, which occurs a number of times per week, depending on the local church calendar and parish patron saints. Other important rituals are baptism and funerals. Ordinary weddings are more ceremonial than ritual. Divination and curing have a ritual character, as do ward or neighborhood dances intended to affect the weather.

Arts. Arts, crafts, and secular music are primarily the domain of the pariah castes of artisans. The exceptions are sacred music, which is led by monastically trained (but not necessarily ordained) men, and icon painting, biblical illumination, and scroll making, which are undertaken by a few deacons.

Medicine. Most affliction (including illness) is treated by diviners rather than by priests or spirit mediums. Affliction is attributed to transgressions against God, sorcery motivated by envy, or witchcraft unconsciously executed by artisans or others possessed by Satan. Diviners both diagnose and treat. Spirit possession by entities other than Satan and his minions primarily affects women and is regarded as outside the realm of Christian belief. Such possession may be brought under control but not cured.

Death and Afterlife. After death, people are judged, in what is popularly thought of as a setting much like a secular court, and proceed to heaven or hell.

Bibliography

Bauer, Dan F. (1978). Household and Society in Ethiopia. 2nd ed. East Lansing: Michigan State University, African Studies Center.

Bauer, Dan F. (1990). "The Sacred and the Secret: Order and Chaos in Tigray Medical Practice and Politics." In Creativity of Power, edited by William Arens and Ivan Karp. Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Bruce, John (1975). "Land Reform Planning and Indigenous Communal Tenures: A Case Study of the Chigurafgwoses in Tigray, Ethiopia." Ph.D. dissertation, University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Evans-Pritchard, E. E. (1940). The Nuer. London: Oxford University Press.

Hoben, Allan (1973). Land Tenure among the Amhara of Ethiopia. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Levine, Donald (1965). Wax and Gold. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Nadel, S. E (1946). "Land Tenure on the Eritrean Plateau." Africa 16(1): 1-21.

DAN F. BAUER

Tigray, Ethiopia A regional state, also spelt Tigre, named after the Tigrinya‐speaking Tigre people. Some of these also live in Eritrea where Tigré is also spoken. Tigrinya and Tigré are separate languages. To the Eritreans, Tigray or Tigre means ‘Common People’ or ‘Serfs’.

Tigray, see Tigré

Tigray •Le Carré • Sierra Madre • ashtray •mare, soirée •padre • Castlereagh • beret • sempre •X-ray • affairé • hairspray • respray •Tigray • stingray • in-tray • émigré •vertebrae •foray, moray •chambray, chambré, hombre, ombré •André • osprey • entrée •con amore, Doré, Fauré •sucre • outré • Vouvray • bourrée •sunray •Desirée, Dies Irae •curé, purée •cabaret