ERRATA

Unless you're an anthropologist, this probably won't mean much to you, but I thought I would clear up a mistake I made in a previous post. In my discussion of my trip to the west, I stated that I saw people who were "Tigray," a group common in northern Ethiopia. In fact, the people I saw were Tigre, an ethnic group native to Eritrea.

The Tigray in Ethiopia actually speak the same language as the Tigrinya people in Eritrea. A little research has revealed that "Tigrinya" actually means "the language of the Tigray" people, but in Eritrea people who speak Tigrinya are referred to as Tigrinya. On the other hand, Eritreans refer to people in Ethiopia who speak Tigrinya as Tigray. And in Ethiopia they refer to their Tigrinya-speaking population as Tigre. Nevertheless, they all seeem to be the same ethnic group.

The Tigre in Eritrea, in contrast, are a different ethnic group who speak a different language. Although not as populous as the Tigrinya in Eritrea, they occupy or are native to a larger percentage of the geographic area of Eritrea. While Tigrinya women traditionally wear clothing made from a light weight white cloth with embroidery on the edges, Tigre women wear bright colored cloth and large rings in their noses.

Unfortunately, people here don't like having their pictures taken (particularly by gawking foreigners). So, I was unable to get a very good photo of any Tigre while I was in the west. The picture above is really the best I could do.