Food and drink prohibitions/ja: Difference between revisions

There are taboos on eating fish among many upland [[Pastoralism|pastoralists]] and [[Farmer|agriculturalists]] (and even some coastal peoples) inhabiting parts of [[Ethiopia]], [[Eritrea]], [[Somalia]], [[Kenya]], and northern [[Tanzania]]. This is sometimes referred to as the "Cushitic fish-taboo", as Cushitic speakers are believed to have been responsible for the introduction of fish avoidance to [[East Africa]], though not all Cushitic groups avoid fish. The zone of the fish taboo roughly coincides with the area where [[Cushitic languages]] are spoken, and as a general rule, speakers of [[Nilo-Saharan languages|Nilo-Saharan]] and [[Semitic languages]] do not have this taboo, and indeed many are watermen. The few [[Bantu peoples|Bantu]] and [[Nilotic peoples|Nilotic]] groups in East Africa that do practice fish avoidance also reside in areas where [[Kingdom of Kush|Cushites]] appear to have lived in earlier times. Within East Africa, the fish taboo is found no further than Tanzania. This is attributed to the local presence of the [[tsetse fly]] and in areas beyond, which likely acted as a barrier to further southern migrations by [[Nomadic pastoralism|wandering pastoralists]], the principal fish-avoiders. [[Zambia]] and [[Mozambique]]'s Bantus were therefore spared subjugation by pastoral groups, and they consequently nearly all consume fish.