MUSICAL PERFORMANCE AND SELF-DESIGNATION OF ETHIOPIAN MINSTRELS: AZMARI

ern Ethiopia can be seen in various social settings including life cycle celebrations, annual events of the Ethiopian Orthodox church, Zar-spirit possession, etc. The abundance of musi-cal activities counters the dominant image of Azmari as musicians just found in local bars. Moreover, Azmari in Gondar share a self-designation based on genealogical ties. The paper treats their folk category as well as genealogy and code of communication as self-imposed group markers that strictly distinguish the in-group. The paper tries to reconstruct the people who have been known as “Azmari ” from the above perspectives. Key Words: Musical activities; Azmari; Self-imposed group markers. BACKGROUND There is a tendency of society to differentiate groups or people according to various kinds of social factors such as economic status, kinship, the type of occupation, generation, etc. This paper intends to make a preliminary analy-sis of self-imposed group markers of Ethiopian minstrels which separates them from the rest of the society. Anybody who drops by local bars in the Ethiopian highland areas migh