Daasanach people
The Dassanetch (also Dhaasanac, Dassanach, Dassanech, Dasanach, Dasanetch written ) are a pastoral people living in the lowlands along the lower reaches of the Omo River and on the northern and north-eastern shore of Lake Turkana in southwest Ethiopia and northeast Kenya. In Ethiopia 2007 48.067 persons were registered as Dassanetch in the census, mostly in the Woreda Kuraz in the Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples Region; in Kenya, there are several thousand.
The neighboring peoples ( Nyangatom in the north, the east Hamar, Turkana South and West ) call the Dassanetch Geleb. In older sources the names Merille and Reshiat appear. Like their neighbors live Dassanetch especially of the cattle, in addition they also build sorghum, maize and beans and operate fishing. In the markets local products are sold and bought imported products. Increasingly Tourism also for Dassanetch importance.
The language of Dassanetch belongs to the Omo - Tana - subgroup of ostkuschitischen languages from the Afro-Asiatic language family.
The Dassanetch divided into eight tribal divisions, some of which are of a different origin and joined the Dassanetch throughout history. These sections are further divided into clans, which in turn are divided into "houses" or " families ". Clan often distributed over a plurality of sections. The Dassanetch identify themselves primarily by their belonging to clan level. Furthermore, there are two endogamous moieties and a system of ages. Traditionally, the two lower incisors are removed.
Were first mentioned in writing the Dassanetch - under the name Reshiat - 1892 by the explorer Ludwig von Höhnel, who had in 1888 with Samuel Teleki was the first European visited the area of Lake Turkana. There were other mentions in research reports around the turn of the century, but rather dealt with geography than with the inhabitants of the area. At the time of the Italian occupation of Ethiopia Dassanetch found in the 1930s and 1940s in some Italian ethnographic studies mention.