Editing Tutsi (section)

==Origins and classification==
The historian [[Christopher Ehret]] believes that the Tutsi mainly descend from speakers of an extinct branch of [[South Cushitic languages|South Cushitic]] he calls "Tale south Cushitic." The Tale southern cushites entered the Great Lakes region sometime before 800BC and were pastoralists par excellence, relying only on their livestock and conceivably growing no grains themselves; they did not even practice the hunting of wild animals, and the consumption of fish was taboo, and heavily avoided. The Tale Southern Cushitic way of life shows striking similarities to the Tutsi, who heavily rely on the milk, blood, and meat of their cattle and traditionally shun the cultivation and consumption of grains, and who look down on pottery, hunting and avoid eating fish. A number of words related to pastoralism in the [[Rwanda-Rundi]] languages are [[wikt:Category:Rwanda-Rundi terms derived from South Cushitic languages|Tale Southern Cushitic loanwords]], such as "Bull" "cow dung" and "lion" (a livestock predator).<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1i-IBmCeNhUC|title=An African Classical Age: Eastern and Southern Africa in World History, 1000 B.C. to A.D. 400|pages=62, 86, 181-183|isbn=978-0-8139-2057-3 |last1=Ehret |first1=Christopher |date=1998 |publisher=University Press of Virginia }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xysSAQAAIAAJ|title=Ethiopians and East Africans: The Problem of Contacts|page=11 |last1=Ehret |first1=Christopher |date=1974 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/183030|jstor = 183030|title = We Are What We Eat: Ancient Agriculture between the Great Lakes|last1 = Schoenbrun|first1 = David L.|journal = The Journal of African History|year = 1993|volume = 34|issue = 1|pages = 1–31|doi = 10.1017/S0021853700032989| s2cid=162660041 |url-access = subscription}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=xysSAQAAIAAJ|title=Ethiopians and East Africans: The Problem of Contacts|date=1974 |page=31|publisher=East African Publishing House }}</ref>

{{blockquote|This late continuation of Southern Cushites as important pastoralists in the southern half of the lacustrine region raises the intriguing possibility that the latter-day Tutsi and [[Hima people|Hima]] pastoralism, most significant in the southern half of the region, is rooted in the Southern Cushitic culture and so derived from the east rather than the north.|[[Christopher Ehret]]|title=UNESCO General History of Africa: Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century|source=<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HwV2a-lPB70C|title= UNESCO General History of Africa: Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century|date= 10 May 1998|page=503|publisher= University of California Press|isbn= 978-0-520-06699-1}}</ref>}}

The Tutsi also get a significant amount of their ancestry from the [[Eastern Sudanic|Sog Eastern Sahelians]] (a long-extinct [[Nilo-Saharan]] group). The Sog were agro-pastoralists who entered [[Rwanda]] and [[Burundi]] in 2,000 BC, mostly settling in southern Rwanda and to the east and west of the [[Ruzizi River]]. According to [[Christopher Ehret]] They spoke a [[Southern  Eastern Sudanic languages|Kir-Abbaian language]] which was related to [[Nilotic languages|Nilotic]] and [[Surmic languages]] (but still distinct from them). The [[Western Lakes Bantu languages]] spoken by the Tutsi have many [[wikt:Category:Rwanda-Rundi terms derived from Eastern Sudanic languages|Sog Eastern Sahelian loanwords]], such as the word for cow (inka), which originally meant "Cattle camp" in the Sog language, showing their contribution to Tutsi pastoralism.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1i-IBmCeNhUC|title=An African Classical Age: Eastern and Southern Africa in World History, 1000 B.C. to A.D. 400|pages=81-85, 101, 306|isbn=978-0-8139-2057-3 |last1=Ehret |first1=Christopher |date=1998 |publisher=University Press of Virginia }}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/183030|jstor = 183030|title = We Are What We Eat: Ancient Agriculture between the Great Lakes|last1 = Schoenbrun|first1 = David L.|journal = The Journal of African History|year = 1993|volume = 34|issue = 1|pages = 13-15, 30-31|doi = 10.1017/S0021853700032989| s2cid=162660041 |url-access = subscription}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lmdTAAAAYAAJ|title=Origins of Kingship Traditions and Symbolism in the Great Lakes Region of Africa|page=351|isbn=978-91-554-7295-5 |last1=Farelius |first1=Birgitta |date=2008 |publisher=Uppsala universitet }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qHf8DwAAQBAJ|title=Sacrifice as Terror: The Rwandan Genocide of 1994|date=13 September 2020 |page=63-65|publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-000-18448-8 }}</ref>

[[Central Sudanic|Central Sudanic peoples]] likely form another part of the ancestry of the Tutsi. Central Sudanic farmers and herders entered Rwanda and Burundi in 3,000 BC, and some of their cultural practices have stayed on after their assimilation by the Bantu. For example, in [[Central Sudanic]]-speaking societies, women are kept away from cattle. Among the Tutsi (and the neighboring [[Hima people]] to the north), women are strictly forbidden to milk cows (especially menstruating women).<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=lmdTAAAAYAAJ|title=Origins of Kingship Traditions and Symbolism in the Great Lakes Region of Africa|page=67-68, 116, 351|isbn=978-91-554-7295-5 |last1=Farelius |first1=Birgitta |date=2008 |publisher=Uppsala universitet }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/179560|title=Sheep and Central Sudanic Peoples in Southern Africa|page=220|jstor=179560 |last1=Ehret |first1=Christopher |journal=The Journal of African History |date=1968 |volume=9 |issue=2 |doi=10.1017/S0021853700008835 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vLPx8f5zZd4C|title=Tribal Crafts of Uganda|date=1953 |page=15}}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1i-IBmCeNhUC|title=An African Classical Age: Eastern and Southern Africa in World History, 1000 B.C. to A.D. 400|page=8, 96|isbn=978-0-8139-2057-3 |last1=Ehret |first1=Christopher |date=1998 |publisher=University Press of Virginia }}</ref>

The definition of "Tutsi" has changed through time and location. Social structures were not stable throughout Rwanda, even during [[Colony|colonial]] times under the [[Ruanda-Urundi|Belgian rule]]. Generally, the Tutsi elite or aristocracy was distinguished from Tutsi commoners.

When the Belgian colonial administration conducted censuses, it identified the people throughout Rwanda-Burundi according to a simple classification scheme. The “Tutsi" were defined as anyone owning more than ten cows (a sign of wealth) or with the physical features of a longer thin nose, [[high cheekbones]], and being over six feet tall, all of which are common descriptions associated with the Tutsi.

In the colonial era, the Tutsi were hypothesized to have arrived in the [[African Great Lakes|Great Lakes]] region from the [[Horn of Africa]], in accordance with the [[Hamitic hypothesis]].<ref>International Institute of African Languages and Cultures, Africa, Volume 76, (Oxford University Press., 2006), pg 135.</ref><ref>{{Cite news|title=Shooting Star of the Continent|date=10 June 2010| author1= Josh Kron |work=Haaretz|url=https://www.haaretz.com/2010-06-10/ty-article/shooting-star-of-the-continent/0000017f-e0e7-d568-ad7f-f3ef944b0000|access-date=2023-02-07}}</ref>

Tutsi were considered by some to be of [[Cushitic-speaking peoples|Cushitic]] origin, although they do not speak a [[Cushitic languages|Cushitic language]], and have lived in the areas where they presently inhabit for at least 400 years, leading to considerable intermarriage with the Hutu in the area. Due to the history of intermingling and intermarrying of Hutu and Tutsi, some ethnographers and historians are of the view that Hutu and Tutsi cannot be called distinct ethnic groups.<ref>[[Philip Gourevitch]], {{cite book |title=We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families |title-link=We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed With Our Families |year=1998}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.preventgenocide.org/edu/pastgenocides/rwanda/indangamuntu.htm|title='Indangamuntu 1994: Ten years ago in Rwanda this ID Card cost a woman her life' by Jim Fussell|website=www.preventgenocide.org}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Gourevitch |first=Philip |date=1995-12-10 |title=From 1995: Rwanda, After the Genocide |url=https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1995/12/18/after-the-genocide |access-date=2025-05-14 |work=The New Yorker |language=en-US |issn=0028-792X}}</ref>[[File:HE Paul Kagame, President of the Republic of Rwanda (14985842184).jpg|thumb|[[Paul Kagame]], the President of Rwanda]]
[[File:Ange Kagame 2014.jpg|thumb|150px|[[Ange Kagame]], daughter of [[Paul Kagame]]]]