Ethiopian Studies
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ethiopian Studies refers to a multi-disciplinary academic cluster dedicated to the research on Ethiopia in the cultural and historical context of the Horn of Africa. The classical concept of Ethiopian Studies, developed by European scholars, is based on disciplines like philology and linguistics, history and ethnography. It includes the study of Ethiopian arts and the history and theology of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. The classical core of Ethiopian Studies is the philology of the written sources of Christian Ethiopia and Ethio-semitic linguistics. While this approach is still alive and has its role, Ethiopian Studies have opened to a wider concept that tries to avoid a bias in favour of the Christian Abyssinian culture (Amhara, Tigrinya; cf. Habesha people) and includes the study of the southern Ethiopian cultures, Islam in Ethiopia, social and political sciences as well as contemporary issues like environment and development studies.
[edit] References
- Abbink, Jon G. 1991: Ethiopian Society and History: a Bibliography of Ethiopian Studies, 1957-1990. Leiden.
- Kropp, Manfred 1994, "From Manuscripts to the Computer: Ethiopian Studies in the Last 150 Years". In: K.J. Cathcart (ed.): The Edward Hincks Bicentenary Lectures. Dublin . pp. 117-35.
- Uhlig, Siegbert, et al. (eds.) (2005). "Ethiopian Studies". In: Encyclopaedia Aethiopica, Vol. 2: D-Ha. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag. pp. 433f-38.
