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Buda (folklore)
Buda (), in Ethiopian and Eritrean folk religion, is the power of the evil eye and the ability to werehyena, change into a hyena. Buda is a power held and wielded by those in a different social group, for example, among the Beta Israel or metalworkers.Wagaw, Teshome G. ''For Our Soul: Ethiopian Jews in Israel''. Detroit: Wayne State Univ. Press, 1993. The belief is also present in Sudan, Tanzania, and among the Berbers of Morocco. Belief in the evil eye, or buda, is still widespread in Ethiopia.Turner, John W. "Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity: Faith and practices". A Country Study: Ethiopia'. Thomas P. Ofcansky and LaVerle Berry, eds. Washington: Library of Congress Federal Research Division, 1991. The Beta Israel, or Ethiopian Jews, are often characterized by others as possessing buda. Other castes, such as ironworkers, are often labelled as bearing the buda., the Amharic word for manual worker, ''tabib'', is also used to denote "one with the evil eye."Beckwith, Carol, Angel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hyena Bestiary
Hyenas or hyaenas ( ; from Ancient Greek , ) are feliformia, feliform carnivoran mammals belonging to the Family (biology), family Hyaenidae (). With just four extant species (each in its own genus), it is the fifth-smallest family in the order Carnivora and one of the smallest in the class Mammalia. Despite their low diversity, hyenas are unique and vital components of most African ecosystems. Although phylogenetics, phylogenetically closer to Felidae, felines and Viverridae, viverrids, hyenas are Ethology, behaviourally and Morphology (biology), morphologically similar to canidae, canids in several elements due to convergent evolution: both hyenas and canines are non-arboreal, cursorial hunters that catch prey with their teeth rather than claws. Both eat food quickly and may store it, and their calloused feet with large, blunt, nonretractable claws are adapted for running and making sharp turns. However, hyenas' grooming, scent marking, defecation habits, mating, and parental ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church
The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church () is the largest of the Oriental Orthodox Churches. One of the few Christian churches in Africa originating before European colonization of the continent, the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church dates back to the Christianization of the Kingdom of Aksum in 330, and has between 36 million and 51 million adherents in Ethiopia. It is a founding member of the World Council of Churches. The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church is in communion with the other Oriental Orthodox churches (the Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church, the Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria, the Malankara Orthodox Syrian Church, the Armenian Apostolic Church, and the Syriac Orthodox Church). The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church had been administratively part of the Coptic Orthodox Church, Coptic Orthodox Church of Alexandria from the first half of the 4th century until 1959, when it was granted autocephaly with its own patriarch by Pope Cyril VI of Alexandria, Pope o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eyes In Culture
An eye is a sensory organ that allows an organism to perceive visual information. It detects light and converts it into electro-chemical impulses in neurons (neurones). It is part of an organism's visual system. In higher organisms, the eye is a complex optical system that collects light from the surrounding environment, regulates its intensity through a diaphragm, focuses it through an adjustable assembly of lenses to form an image, converts this image into a set of electrical signals, and transmits these signals to the brain through neural pathways that connect the eye via the optic nerve to the visual cortex and other areas of the brain. Eyes with resolving power have come in ten fundamentally different forms, classified into compound eyes and non-compound eyes. Compound eyes are made up of multiple small visual units, and are common on insects and crustaceans. Non-compound eyes have a single lens and focus light onto the retina to form a single image. This type o ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Shapeshifting
In mythology, folklore and speculative fiction, shapeshifting is the ability to physically transform oneself through unnatural means. The idea of shapeshifting is found in the oldest forms of totemism and shamanism, as well as the oldest existent literature and Epic poetry, epic poems such as the ''Epic of Gilgamesh'' and the ''Iliad''. The concept remains a common literary device in modern fantasy, children's literature and popular culture. Examples of shapeshifters are vampires and werewolves. Folklore and mythology Popular shapeshifting creatures in folklore are werewolf, werewolves and vampires (mostly of European, Canadian, and Native American/early American origin), ichchhadhari naag (shape-shifting cobra) of India, shapeshifting fox spirits of East Asia such as the huli jing of China, the obake of Japan, the Navajo skin-walkers, and gods, goddesses and demons and demonesses such as the Norse mythology, Norse Loki or the Greek mythology, Greek Proteus. Shapeshifting to th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hyenas
Hyenas or hyaenas ( ; from Ancient Greek , ) are feliformia, feliform carnivoran mammals belonging to the Family (biology), family Hyaenidae (). With just four extant species (each in its own genus), it is the fifth-smallest family in the order Carnivora and one of the smallest in the class Mammalia. Despite their low diversity, hyenas are unique and vital components of most African ecosystems. Although phylogenetics, phylogenetically closer to Felidae, felines and Viverridae, viverrids, hyenas are Ethology, behaviourally and Morphology (biology), morphologically similar to canidae, canids in several elements due to convergent evolution: both hyenas and canines are non-arboreal, cursorial hunters that catch prey with their teeth rather than claws. Both eat food quickly and may store it, and their calloused feet with large, blunt, nonretractable claws are adapted for running and making sharp turns. However, hyenas' grooming, scent marking, defecation habits, mating, and parental ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
African Witchcraft
In Africa, ''witchcraft'' refers to various beliefs and practices. These beliefs often play a significant role in shaping social dynamics and can influence how communities address challenges and seek spiritual assistance. Much of what "witchcraft" represents in Africa has been susceptible to misunderstandings and confusion, due to a tendency among western scholars to approach the subject through a comparative lens ''vis-a-vis'' European witchcraft. The definition of "witchcraft" can differ between Africans and Europeans which causes misunderstandings of African conjure practices among Europeans. For example, the Maka people of Cameroon believe in an occult force known as ''djambe'', that dwells inside a person. It is often translated as "witchcraft" or "sorcery", but it has a broader meaning that encompasses supernatural harm, healing and shapeshifting; this highlights the problem of using European terms for African concepts. While some 19th–20th century Scramble for Africa, Eur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
East African Legendary Creatures
East is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the fact that east is the direction where the Sun rises: ''east'' comes from Middle English ''est'', from Old English ''ēast'', which itself comes from the Proto-Germanic *''aus-to-'' or *''austra-'' "east, toward the sunrise", from Proto-Indo-European *aus- "to shine," or "dawn", cognate with Old High German ''*ōstar'' "to the east", Latin ''aurora'' 'dawn', and Greek ''ēōs'' 'dawn, east'. Examples of the same formation in other languages include Latin oriens 'east, sunrise' from orior 'to rise, to originate', Greek ανατολή anatolé 'east' from ἀνατέλλω 'to rise' and Hebrew מִזְרָח mizraḥ 'east' from זָרַח zaraḥ 'to rise, to shine'. ''Ēostre'', a Germanic goddess of dawn, might have been a personification of both da ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
African Folklore
The Culture of Africa is varied and manifold, consisting of a mixture of countries with various peoples depicting their unique characteristic and trait from the continent of Africa. It is a product of the diverse populations that inhabit the continent of Africa and the African diaspora. Generally, Culture can be defined as a collective mass of distinctive qualities belonging to a certain group of people. These qualities include laws, morals, beliefs, knowledge, art, customs, and any other attributes belonging to a member of that society. Culture is the way of life of a group of people. Africa has numerous ethnic nationalities all with varying qualities such as language, dishes, greetings, dressing, dances and music. However, each of the regions of Africa share a series of dominant cultural traits which distinguish various African regional cultures from each other and the rest of the world. For example, social values, religion, morals, political values, economics, and aesthe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berber Culture
Berbers, or the Berber peoples, also known as Amazigh or Imazighen, are a diverse grouping of distinct ethnic groups indigenous to North Africa who predate the arrival of Arabs in the Maghreb. Their main connections are identified by their usage of Berber languages, most of them mutually unintelligible, which are part of the Afroasiatic language family. They are indigenous to the Maghreb region of North Africa, where they live in scattered communities across parts of Morocco, Algeria, Libya, and to a lesser extent Tunisia, Mauritania, northern Mali and northern Niger. Smaller Berber communities are also found in Burkina Faso and Egypt's Siwa Oasis. Descended from Stone Age tribes of North Africa, accounts of the Imazighen were first mentioned in Ancient Egyptian writings. From about 2000 BC, Berber languages spread westward from the Nile Valley across the northern Sahara into the Maghreb. A series of Berber peoples such as the Mauri, Masaesyli, Massyli, Musulamii, Gaetuli ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Religion In Tanzania
Christianity is the largest religion in Tanzania, with a substantial Muslim minority. Smaller populations of Animism, Animists, practitioners of other faiths, and Non-religious, religiously unaffiliated people are also present. Tanzania is a secular state and freedom of religion is enshrined in the country's constitution. Both Christian and Islamic feasts are recognized as public holidays. Statistics Current statistics on the relative sizes of various religions in Tanzania are limited because religious questions have been eliminated from government census reports since 1967. Estimates for 2010 published by the Pew Research Center in 2012 indicated that 61.4% of the population were Christian, 35.2% Muslim, 1.8% practiced traditional folk religions and 1.4% were unaffiliated. A projection by the Pew Research Center based on these numbers estimated that 63% of the population in 2020 were Christian, 34% Muslim, 2% unaffiliated and 1% adhered to various Folk religions. According to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Religion In Sudan
The dominant religion in Sudan is Islam practiced by around 90.7% of the nation's population. Christianity is the largest minority faith in country accounting for around 5.4% of the population. A substantial population of the adherents of traditional faiths is also present. The ancient Nubian kingdoms in modern day Sudan were bastions of Coptic Christianity, but were increasingly threatened by the Islamic expansion from 7th century onwards, with the southernmost of these kingdoms, Alodia, surviving until 1504. Nevertheless, the indigenous Nubian Coptic Christians continued to compose a substantial portion of the regions' population up until the nineteenth century, when almost all of them were forcibly converted to Islam under the Mahdist State. Christianity was reintroduced to the country through European missionaries in the early 20th century. Islam Up until 2010 (before the secession of South Sudan in 2011), the country was 80% Muslim; as of 2015, the proportion ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Religion In Morocco
The main religion in Morocco is Sunni Islam, which is also the state religion of the country. Officially, 99% of the population are Muslim, and virtually all of those are Sunni. The second-largest religion in the country is Christianity, but most Christians in Morocco are foreigners. There is a community of the Baháʼí Faith. Only a fraction of the former number of Maghrebi Jews have remained in the country, many having moved to Israel. Islam According to The World Factbook maintained by the American Central Intelligence Agency, and a 2009 report by the Pew Research Center, about 99% of Moroccans are Muslims. Almost all of those are Sunni, although Pew reported in 2012 that when asked which sect they belong to, 67% of those surveyed answered Sunni, while 30% volunteered only that they were Muslim. Islam reached Morocco in 680 CE, taken to the country by the Arab Umayyad dynasty of Damascus. The first Islamic dynasty to rule Morocco were the Idrisid dynasty, Idrissids. Article ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
