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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue |
Title: | Haläqqa Bärhé and the organization of ethnomedical systems of healing and curing in Áddi Ya'eqob in Eritrea |
Author: | Kifleyesus, Abbebe |
Year: | 2004 |
Periodical: | Journal of Eritrean Studies (Asmara) |
Volume: | 3 |
Issue: | 1 |
Period: | May |
Pages: | 53-67 |
Language: | English |
Notes: | biblio. refs. |
Geographic terms: | Eritrea Northeast Africa |
Subjects: | healers traditional medicine Health and Nutrition History and Exploration Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Religion and Witchcraft Anthropology, Folklore, Culture culture Traditional medicine diseases |
Abstract: | The author examines the world of illness and healing from an anthropological perspective that sees systems of illness and healing as cultural systems that revolve around organized patterns of thinking, judging, and behaving shared by members of society, in order to show that local, indigenous medicinal explanations of the world of illness and healing are valid. He uses Haläqqa Bärhé, a 'däbtära' (a magician healer who owns and monopolizes the resources necessary for the production of prophylactic, therapeutic and pathogenic medicine) in Áddi Ya'eqob, near Asmara in Eritrea, as a case study in his examination of how ethnomedical knowledge of illness and healing is explained and who knows best when someone is ill; how Haläqqa Bärhé'seray' or magic-based healing and curing powers are conceptualized; and how Haläqqa Bärhé monopolizes and manipulates these magical powers. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. [ASC Leiden abstract] |