The Materiality of Plant Mobility and Landscape Transformation in Wollega, Southwestern Ethiopia

Mobility has long shaped the cultural and material landscapes of the Horn of Africa. Nevertheless, limited ethnoarchaeological research has examined how such movement transforms everyday technologies and practices. This study examines the material dimensions of mobility in the Wollega region, southwestern Ethiopia, highlighting how the movement of crops, objects, and technologies has transformed local landscapes, material traditions, and social identities. Drawing on ethnoarchaeological fieldwork in Wollega, it examines how the introduction of maize (Zea mays) from the Americas prompted technological adaptation within Oromo food-processing systems. The analysis traces adaptations in grinding and baking technologies, three-stone hearth cooking arrangements, and social differentiation to demonstrate how mobility operates as a creative force in material negotiation. It further discusses the entanglement between foreign and Indigenous materialities, revealing how technological change embodies moral, ecological, and cultural continuity.