Paper short abstract:

Sheep bodies in the Ethiopian highlands, carry contradictory valuations of sheep as (more than) meat. Sheep bodies here become a site from which to understand agricultural transformations (of which the urban is an integral part), and the politics of valuing sheep multiply.

Paper long abstract:

Wool sheep, introduced into the Ethiopian highlands in the 60’s, did not material-semiotically “become-well” within landscapes and lives, and thus slowly disappeared, in contrast to the so-called 'habesha' sheep, valued for their localness, authenticity and their abilities to survive-with. However, what is categorized local differs depending on where it is approached from. Today, sheep in the Ethiopian highlands are changing, their bodies mirroring national agricultural transformations. Arguing that industrialization of agricultural landscapes is happening through industrialization of human-animal relations and livestock bodies, this paper connects threads from urban markets and places of slaughter, with places where sheep are raised, cared for and bred. These relations reveal the shifting grounds of relatedness, of which sheep are a part of and co-produce. Sheep are valued for their abilities to produce ‘more meat’ yet simultaneously for their relational qualities, making them ‘more than meat’. Sheep meat is seen as a resource within domestic and export markets, and thus – however contested – new meat breeds are a promise of prosperity. Although wool sheep failed to last, agricultural offices are now introducing new meat breeds all over the country. Such breeds often produce precarious gaps in landscapes, only bridged through constant input of care and resources; they need re-relatings and they change practices around them. They also have unintended effects, like (paradoxically) on local wool production. Overall, this paper approaches agricultural transformations through the plasticity of sheep bodies and sheep relate-abilities, considering how they juxtapose imaginations of how to live together.