De Daasanech van zuid-west-Ethiopïe: begrippen rond welzijn en tegenspoed

• Main Author: Y. Houtteman
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Gents Afrika Platform, Afrika Brug 1998-01-01
• Series: Afrika Focus
• Subjects: Daasanech; Medical Anthropology; Rituals; Body; Cosmos
• Online Access: http://www.gap.ugent.be/africafocus/pdf/98-14-1-Houtteman.pdf

The question that is taken up in this lecture is how models which deal with prosperity and misfortune and with sickness and health are related to action-models of restoration and defence. I try to illuminate the connections between the experience of cosmos, body and social world, between rituals and the prosperity of the individual and his social group. Misfortune is always a consequence of a broken relationship between man and the social and cosmic order. As such, it can be seen as a "magical"punishment because of "wrong" behaviour. To restore health is to take away the punishment through appropriate action in which both the offender and the victim (or his social group) are involved. Starting from a short explication of the social, cosmic and bodily models, I concentrate on the concepts that deal with the causes of sickness and infertility and focus on some of the principles that shape the restoration-rituals.