Economy
The economy of the Suri is based on agriculture. To name a few of the crops planted are cabbage, beans, yams, tobacco and coffee. During the dry season, the Suri also collect honey. The Suri pan gold to make pots in nearby streams which as later used in trade with the Juye and Murle. Trades are also made between the Suri and the Ethiopian highlanders, Amhara and Shangalla. Rifles and weapons are traded with Amhara and Shangalla as are leopard and lion skin, giraffe tails, honey and ivory.
The average male in the Suri tribe owns somewhere between 30 to 40 cows. These cows are not usually killed unless they are needed for ceremonial purposes. Every young male is named after their cattle, which they are ruled to look after. Cows are tremendously important to the Suri, and at times Suri risk death to protect their herd; Suri men are judged by how much cattle they own. In desperate times, Suri men risk their lives to steal cattle from other tribes. Men also are not allowed to marry until they own 60 cows. These cows are given to his wife’s family after the ceremony. To praise their cattle or mourn their deaths, the Suri sing songs for them.
Read more about this topic: Suri (Ethiopia)
Famous quotes containing the word economy:
“Cities need old buildings so badly it is probably impossible for vigorous streets and districts to grow without them.... for really new ideas of any kind—no matter how ultimately profitable or otherwise successful some of them might prove to be—there is no leeway for such chancy trial, error and experimentation in the high-overhead economy of new construction. Old ideas can sometimes use new buildings. New ideas must use old buildings.”
—Jane Jacobs (b. 1916)
“It enhances our sense of the grand security and serenity of nature to observe the still undisturbed economy and content of the fishes of this century, their happiness a regular fruit of the summer.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Quidquid luce fuit tenebris agit: but also the other way around. What we experience in dreams, so long as we experience it frequently, is in the end just as much a part of the total economy of our soul as anything we “really” experience: because of it we are richer or poorer, are sensitive to one need more or less, and are eventually guided a little by our dream-habits in broad daylight and even in the most cheerful moments occupying our waking spirit.”
—Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900)