WOMEN'S HOUSEWARES AND THEIR USAGE AMONG THE AARI

Abstract

The Aari people have invented various objects for utilization in a variety of contexts in their daily lives by appropriating local materials to meet their wants and needs. The new road infrastructure has developed to link the area to the urban, which has increased the number of people travelling including traders, missionaries and government officials to the South Omo Zone and has contributed to the influx of industrial goods such as metal utensils and clothes. This paper describes the conditions surrounding the Aari women's use of exogenous objects used in their livelihood. It reports the results of the preliminary research conducted from August to November in 2010 and August to October in 2011. The survey focused on the lives of married women in Metser Village, South Ari District, South Omo Zone, Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples' Region, Ethiopia. By focusing on women from five different backgrounds in terms of religion and age, three main points were revealed. First, food vessels and containers are generally appropriated from exogenous objects, whereas clay pots and agricultural tools are typically appropriated from indigenous objects. This finding implies that women select and utilize some objects in order to familiarize themselves with the objects for exogenous and indigenous use. Second, women of traditional religion and Protestant Christianity women differed in the ways in which they earn money. Women who believe traditional religion have a tendency to use indigenous objects in making alcohol. Third, women who cannot engage in making alcohol because they have converted to Protestantism engage in and sell a non-alcohol-type drink called shaamata, made of germinated maize. These findings imply that women subjectively structure their lives and respond flexibly to the flow of exogenous objects and Protestantism into their lives.