In approaching Rwandan ethnicity as"political identity, this question of origins is relegated to the background and we can instead focus on the development of the meaning attributed to these categories, and on how people understand and have understood this distinction over time With this theoretical background in mind, it is possible to trace the linkages between ethnicity and power over the course of Rwandan history. This linkage was already evident in Rwanda long before Europeans, first German and then Belgian, established a presence there in 1897 Nonetheless, there remains a great deal of uncertainty about what ethnic categories actually meant in precolonial Rwanda and on what basis they were structured Many historians, for example, note that clear physical differences existed between the hutu and the Tutsi groups ,22 but just as many scholars underline the inconsistency of such physical difference as a marker of ethnic difference in precolonial times. At the same time, while it is generally agreed that Hutu as a group tended to be primarily agriculturists while Tutsi as a group tended to be cattle-herders, 3 scholars emphasize the need to historicize this occupational pattern as an artifact"created alongside the institutionalized power of the Rwandan state. Other explanations note that Tutsi as a category tended to denote access to economic power, while Hutu as a category tended to be marked by the lack of access to such power." Whatever the scholarly disagreements, however there is a general agreement that the precolonial categories of Hutu and Tutsi were fairly flexible, and were characterized by a relatively high degree of intermarriage as well as by socio-cultural processes that allowed individuals to move, over time, between ethnic groupings Nonetheless, during the latter half of the nineteenth century, the flexibility of these categories started to diminish, and their political meanings began to increase. During this time, the Tutsi ethnicity in Rwanda. See Catharine Newbury, "Ethnicity and the Politics of History in Rwanda, "Africa 7oday45,no.l(1999) 22 The stereotypical construction of Tutsis envisions them as"extremely tall and thin, and often displaying sharp, angular facial features"(Prunier, 5). Hutus are stereotyped as being shorter, with flatter and broader facial feature unier Mamdani, When victims Become Killers, 51 PC Newbury, The Cohesion ofOppression, 11-12 Mamdani, When Victims Become Killers, 53-4; C. Newbury, The Cohesion ofOppression, 127 In approaching Rwandan ethnicity as “political identity,” this question of origins is relegated to the background and we can instead focus on the development of the meaning attributed to these categories, and on how people understand and have understood this distinction over time. With this theoretical background in mind, it is possible to trace the linkages between ethnicity and power over the course of Rwandan history. This linkage was already evident in Rwanda long before Europeans, first German and then Belgian, established a presence there in 1897. Nonetheless, there remains a great deal of uncertainty about what ethnic categories actually meant in precolonial Rwanda and on what basis they were structured. Many historians, for example, note that clear physical differences existed between the Hutu and the Tutsi groups,22 but just as many scholars underline the inconsistency of such physical difference as a marker of ethnic difference in precolonial times. At the same time, while it is generally agreed that Hutu as a group tended to be primarily agriculturists, while Tutsi as a group tended to be cattle-herders,23 scholars emphasize the need to historicize this occupational pattern as an artifact “created alongside the institutionalized power of the Rwandan state.”24 Other explanations note that Tutsi as a category tended to denote access to economic power, while Hutu as a category tended to be marked by the lack of access to such power.25 Whatever the scholarly disagreements, however, there is a general agreement that the precolonial categories of Hutu and Tutsi were fairly flexible, and were characterized by a relatively high degree of intermarriage26 as well as by socio-cultural processes that allowed individuals to move, over time, between ethnic groupings. Nonetheless, during the latter half of the nineteenth century, the flexibility of these categories started to diminish, and their political meanings began to increase. During this time, the Tutsi ethnicity in Rwanda. See Catharine Newbury, “Ethnicity and the Politics of History in Rwanda,” Africa Today 45, no. 1 (1999): 7. 22 The stereotypical construction of Tutsis envisions them as “extremely tall and thin, and often displaying sharp, angular facial features” (Prunier, 5). Hutus are stereotyped as being shorter, with flatter and broader facial features. 23 Prunier, 5. 24 Mamdani, When Victims Become Killers, 51. 25 C. Newbury, The Cohesion of Oppression, 11-12 . 26 Mamdani, When Victims Become Killers, 53-4; C. Newbury, The Cohesion of Oppression, 12