The Hyena People: Ethiopian Jews in Christian Ethiopia (Contraversions: Critical Studies in Jewish Literature, Culture, and Society) (0520219015) - Reviews and Prices
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The Hyena People: Ethiopian Jews in Christian Ethiopia (Contraversions: Critical Studies in Jewish Literature, Culture, and Society) (0520219015) - Customer Reviews, Information, Ratings, and Prices
The Hyena People: Ethiopian Jews in Christian Ethiopia (Contraversions: Critical Studies in Jewish Literature, Culture, and Society) (0520219015) - Reviews and Prices
The Jews (Falasha) of northwestern Ethiopia are a unique example of a Jewish group living within an ancient, non-Western, predominantly Christian society. Hagar Salamon presents the first in-depth study of this group, called the "Hyena people" by their non-Jewish neighbors. Based on more than 100 interviews with Ethiopian immigrants now living in Israel, Salamon's book explores the Ethiopia within as seen through the lens of individual memories and expressed through ongoing dialogues. It is an ethnography of the fantasies and fears that divide groups and, in particular, Jews and non-Jews. Recurring patterns can be seen in Salamon's interviews, which thematically touch on religious disputations, purity and impurity, the concept of blood, slavery and conversion, supernatural powers, and the metaphors of clay vessels, water, and fire. The Hyena People helps unravel the complex nature of religious coexistence in Ethiopia and also provides important new tools for analyzing and evaluating inter-religious, interethnic, and especially Jewish-Christian relations in a variety of cultural and historical contexts.
Customer Reviews:
Avg. Customer Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
Some White Washing:
I really appreciate the author getting this information out of our modern history and plight. But I have the opinion the author should have exercised more caution not to manipulate the wording which can change the whole character and concept of the stories. Being a Beta-Israel or "Falasha" of direct Ethiopian heritage I found it annoying that the author uses the eurocentric term "Jew" to describe our people instead of "Hebrew" which are those Ethiopians who practice the ancestral rituals of the... more info
Well-done, but incomplete:
Excellent academic account of Ethiopian Jewish-Christian rivalry in native Ethiopia. The author has conducted "exit"-style interviews, anthro style, with Ethiopian Jewish emigrees to Israel, once settled in the Holy Land, about their experiences with Christian neighbors back in Ethiopia. The info gleaned is priceless, unsettling, and invited as many questions as answers. The profundity of the Ethiopian Jewish experience is something Global Jewry is only beginning to grasp (caught up earlier, unfortunately,... more info
good, but academic:
This book was fascinating. Unfortuanetly, it is written in a highly academic style, making it a bit dry. I found the first couple of chapters slow, buit then it got more interesting, with great quotes, really getting into the subject of what it was like ot be a Jew in Ethiopia.
