Mai Weini, a Highland Village in Eritrea

This study is an ethnographic account which explores the social organization of an Eritrean highland community and the livelihood of the peasants. The kinship system of the highlands is examined in detail. Analysis shows that it interlinks the individuals and the villages of the highlands into an intricate web of kinship. The lineage system, or gezauti, defines, among other factors, a form of social hierarchy and the entitlement of access to land in the particular villages. The traditional systems of land tenure and kinship in highland Eritrea are today challenged by the new reform policies of the Eritrean government. An integral part of their development strategies is to sustain and enhance national sentiments created during the liberation war by disentangling the closely knit rural communities, dismantling their corporate character, and linking the individual citizen directly to the state apparatus in order to foster an all-embracing notion of national identity. The author argues that by radically changing the communal land tenure system and dismantling the descent structure, without creating any sustainable alternatives, the government has struck a blow at the foundation of social organization of the peasantry, the social and cultural consequences of which remain to be seen.