Cultural Anthropological Study of Sustainable Societies : An Analysis of Livelihoods Among Ethnic Groups in Southwestern Ethiopia

Africa is often described as a continent bound with such problems as violence, poverty, corruption, etc. However, situations seem to differ greatly from countries to countries, from regions to regions, and from societies to societies, which indicates the necessity of a more detailed study at each scale. This study considers minor ethnic groups in southwestern Ethiopia in terms of the sustainability of societies by analyzing, as an ecological issue, local processing and cooking methods of a staple crop, and as social issues, recurring conflicts between herder societies and farmer societies, and the phenomenon of settlement abandonment in a frontier area which lasts over a half century.