Going Places: Empowering Women, Enhancing Heritage and Increasing Chicken Production in Ethiopia

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Our anthropological research in Ethiopia made us familiar with a well-known Amharic proverb: "Women and chickens rise early in the morning, but they have nowhere to go". This project aims to help address this widespread issue of female socio-economic immobility. Through collaboration with the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), the National Museum of Ethiopia and the Africa Programme, this project will conduct female-centred cultural/scientific research into chicken husbandry, past and present, to support Ethiopia's future economic/heritage development.By kick-starting a new Arts/Humanities-Science collaboration and Past-Present comparison we will demonstrate how such approaches can generate vital data to contextualise and inform decision-making, and engage and educate stakeholders. To achieve these aims within the 8-month period, we will use our proven Large Grant approach to research the Amhara and Tigray regions of Ethiopia and meet six connected objectives (O) using the following linked methods (M). O1) To empower women and ensure their centrality in the development of Ethiopia's poultry industry. M1) Work in collaboration with ILRI to conduct interdisciplinary gender survey and anthropological research to capture lived experiences of chicken husbandry in target regions and then co-produce (with ILRI, Africa Programme and local communities) bi-lingual female-focused educational materials. O2) Facilitate Ethiopia's heritage development M2) Use the chicken's cultural history and collaboration with British Museum's Africa Programme to develop educational materials for museum staff and visitors. O3) Survey and record the material cultures of chicken husbandry M3) Material cultures of modern husbandry will be recorded during anthropological fieldwork, whilst collections held in Ethiopian and UK museums will be surveyed to develop linked Ethiopian-UK educational materials (O2). O4) Survey, analyse and record local Ethiopian chicken breeds M4) Modern chicken specimens (~100 individuals) collected during fieldwork (M1) will be subject to full osteometric/geometric morphometric, genetic and stable isotope analysis to inform on breed resilience/management. Results will be compared with the ancient data (O5).O5) Undertake a deep-time analysis of Ethiopian chicken breed/husbandry M5) Working with the National Museum of Ethiopia, the introduction, diversity, development and management of ancient Ethiopian chickens will be explored through full analysis (cf M4) of archaeological specimens.O6) Generate strong collaboratively produced outputs that move forward scholarship and feed into policy M6) Two residential Research Network meetings will be held to bring the team together: the first will take place in Nov 2016 (School of Advanced Studies, London), the second Feb 2017 (ILRI, Ethiopia). At the final conference (June 2017, National Museum Ethiopia) we will launch our education materials, present the project's academic results (for publication) and recommendations as a white paper that will explore implications for policy makers (World Bank and UN FAO).