CASTE AND CLASS IN HISTORICAL NORTH-WEST ETHIOPIA - THE BETA-ISRAEL (FALASHA) AND KEMANT, 1300-1900

This article compares the histories of two small groups in north-weste rn Ethiopia between about 1300 and 1900. It explores the development o f separate identities by the Beta Israel (Falasha) and the Kemant peop les from an original common Agaw-speaking base during three time perio ds in Ethiopian history: the centralizing state to 1632; the urban-cen tered state, 1632-1755; and the regionalized but re-centralizing state , 1755-1900 It argues that the key variable in explaining the historic al development of these two groups was their differential relationship to the Ethiopian state. During this six hundred year period, Beta Isr ael resisted conquest, were partially incorporated into the broader so ciety, but ultimately maintained a high degree of social separation in an essentially caste relationship with the dominant society and state . This separation allowed the group to refashion their identity again in the twentieth century: between the 1970s and 1991 virtually all Bet a Israel separated completely from Ethiopia by emigrating to Israel. I n contrast, Kemant did not resist the original royal incursion into th e region beginning in the fourteenth century. Unlike Beta Israel, they tried to maintain their identity through a process of accommodation a nd withdrawal up to the mid-nineteenth century. Beginning in the late nineteenth century and continuing into the twentieth, however, their s ociety has experienced strong pressures from the dominant society and state, leading to the loss of their cultural distinctiveness and their incorporation into the overall class system of the region. These two cases, thus, illustrate some of the processes by which north-western E thiopia became a 'traditional Amhara area'.