To Whom to Pray?: The Booranticha Offering and Competitive Religious Premising (Oromo/Ethiopia)

The article discusses Booranticha, a sacrificial ritual among Oromo and some Amhara for the well-being of the family, its herds, and possessions, which is performed once a year by husband and wife in many farming households of central Ethiopia. During the ritual, food offerings are made and a higher...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Numen
Main Author: Nicolas, Andrea (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Brill 2022
In: Numen
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains:B Äthiopische Kirche / Galla / Sacrifice / Addressee / Competition / Interfaith dialogue
IxTheo Classification:AD Sociology of religion; religious policy
AG Religious life; material religion
AX Inter-religious relations
BB Indigenous religions
CC Christianity and Non-Christian religion; Inter-religious relations
KBN Sub-Saharan Africa
KDF Orthodox Church
Further subjects:B northeast Africa
B Galla
B Monotheism
B Ritual
B Sacrifice
B Exegesis
B Offering
B Ethiopia
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Summary:The article discusses Booranticha, a sacrificial ritual among Oromo and some Amhara for the well-being of the family, its herds, and possessions, which is performed once a year by husband and wife in many farming households of central Ethiopia. During the ritual, food offerings are made and a higher spiritual being, also called Booranticha, is addressed in prayer. Contestation through monotheism, particularly by the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, however, has led to some major linguistic and performative shifts concerning which divinity is being addressed in the offering, and how the ritual is performed. The article suggests that competition in religiously pluralist settings may constitute a major initializing and catalyzing factor for new exegetical propositions about the nature of the divine. Such conceptualization of contestation as a “trigger” for change invites a closer look at the relationship between religiously pluralist settings, the shaping of moral discourses and the evolvement of new hermeneutic interpretations in sacrificial performances.
ISSN:1568-5276
Contains:Enthalten in: Numen
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1163/15685276-12341656