article
The evil eye belief among the Amhara of Ethiopia
Ethnology • 13 (3) • Published In 1974 • Pages: 279-291
By: Reminick, Ronald A..
AbstractBrief abstract written by HRAF anthropologists who have done the subject indexing for the document
Living among the Amhara in separate villages are a caste of landless, skilled artisans, called the BUDA people, who specialize in the manufacture of clay pots, iron tools and cloth. These artisans are feared by the Amhara for possessing the evil eye. The Amhara are forbidden to marry or have sexual relations with the BUDA people, and furthermore, must always be on their guard around them, never to show their true emotions, lest they take offense and fix them with their stare. The victim of evil eye soon sickens and dies, his or her corpse is then dug up by the BUDA, brought back to life, and used as a slave in their homes. Cures for the evil eye vary according to the religious practitioner employed. Reminick argues that the Amhara belief in the BUDA's evil eye has a projective function, displacing the real envy within the Amhara society between equal status siblings who end up inheriting unequal shares of their family's estate, and the subsequent fears of dependency and domination by those who end up with less.
- SubjectsDocument-level OCM identifiers given by the anthropology subject indexers at HRAF
- Castes
- Sorcery
- cultureCulture name from the Outline of World Cultures (OWC)
- Amhara
- HRAF PubDateThe date HRAF published the document
- 1998
- RegionThe area the document pertains to
- Africa
- Sub RegionThe more specific area the document pertains to, which is located within the Region
- Eastern Africa
- Document TypeMay include journal articles, essays, collections of essays, monographs, or chapters/parts of monographs
- article
- Evaluation
- Creator TypeThe type of person writing the document, e.g. Ethnographer, Missionary, Archaeologist, Folklorist, Linguist, Indigenous Person, and so on.
- Ethnologist
- Document Rating A ranking done by HRAF anthropologists based on the strength of the source material on a scale of 1 to 5, as follows: 1 - poor; 2 - fair; 3 - good, useful data, but not uniformly excellent; 4 - excellent secondary data; 5 - excellent primary data.
- 5: Excellent Primary Data
- AnalystThe HRAF anthropologist who subject indexed the document and prepared other materials for the eHRAF culture/tradition collection
- Ian Skoggard ; 1996
- Field DateThe date the researcher conducted the fieldwork or archival research that produced the document
- 7/1967-3/1969
- Coverage DateThe date or dates that the information in the document pertains to
- 1960s
- Coverage PlaceLocation of the research culture or tradition (often a smaller unit such as a band, community, or archaeological site)
- Shoa Province, Ethiopia
- NotesAdditional notes
- Ronald A. Reminick
- Includes bibliographical references (p. 291)
- LCCNLibrary of Congress Control Number
- 64005713
- LCSHLibrary of Congress Subject Headings
- Amhara (African people)