This thesis is a hi t rical survey ofsocio-cultural interactions among the people ' 0 Giddarndistrict from the Italian occupation in 1936 to the period IVhen interactions betweenrnindigenous Oromo people and the Amhara reselliers gave ri e to open war in 2000. Giddarndistrict is located in Eastern Wallagga ::.one of Western Ethiopia. nlil the GoBame andrnShoans conquered the area in the last quarter of the 191t. centwy, no new order was imposedrnon the socio-cultural lives of the people except for the emergence of monarchical chiefsrnwhose powers had weakened the gadaa system. Therefore, the people of the district IVho hadrndifferent clans, 'ub-clans and lineages had lived by practicing their indigenous religion andrnother socio-cultural practices. Throughout the period under study. three historicalrndevelopments had been experienced and tram/ormed the socio-cultural interactions of thernpeople. These are the natural socio-cultural interactions among the local people, the impactsrnof the newly introduced religions and the arrival of reseltlers fro m northern parts ofrnEthiopia. The legacies and the consequences of conquest accompanied by these threernhistorical developments as well as other changes and continuities brought the socio-culturalrnt ran~form atio n among the inhabitants of the area. On the side of the ne}vly arrived reselliers,rntheir spontaneous advent and the continual changes in their sentiments increased theirrninteractions with the indigenous people. Consequently, combinations of cooperation andrnconf lict as well as interactions and isolationism characterized the relationships between thern/1Vo groups. AI/o st of the time, intensity of inter-ethnic su.spicion and isolationism exceeds thatrnof the cooperation and consistent peacefit! interactions. This problem emanates from andrnutmost related to the roles played by the exploitative and suppressive Ethiopian governments.rnAmong the newly introduced religions, Orthodox Christianity and Protestantism broughtrnremarkable socio-cultural tran~fo rmations. As the people adopted and added the ideologiesrnof the new religions to their own, many of them modified their social lives, food and foodrnhabits, marriage practices, fimeral system and their allitudes towards different rituals to thernextent that the ideologies of the two religions intermingled at least in the heart of the people.rnAs a part of the gadaa .system, the indigenous religion of the people had already beenrninternalized. Therefore, the newly designed administration system and the newly introducedrnreligions faced hardships in snatching the principles of indigenous culture. Therefore, thernpeople retained some aspects of their value system and indigenolls religion.