Gerontocracy as a tradition and a mirror for the future The case of Sidama
by John HAMER Anthropology holds up a great mirror to man and lets him look at himself in his infinite variety. [Kluckholm 1949:11] Years ago Clyde Kluckholm published a book titled 'Mirror for Man". In it he explained how studies of nonwestern societies '... show the great variety of solutions ...' that have been developed, as well as '...the variety of meanings ...' that have been conceived to resolve human problems (ibid:15). This world panorama of differing life styles became a way of learning '... what works and what doesn't ...' Since then, and specially now with the popularization of 'cultural diversity,' the discovery has focused, for the average person, on such peripheral aspects of difference as tasting foods and musical forms. Seldom, however, have westerners been willing to look seriously at the possibility of experimenting with different forms of authority, social, and economic practices observed in the cultures