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  • The Stranger at the Feast Prohibition and Mediation in an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Community by Tom Boylston
  • Sophia Dege-Müller
The Stranger at the Feast Prohibition and Mediation in an Ethiopian Orthodox Christian Community, by Tom Boylston
Oakland: University of California Press, 2018; pp. ix + 181. $17.52 paper, free ebook.

—Who eats alone, dies alone (Amharic saying)

Tom Boylston has presented a remarkable book, covering grounds that, for Ethiopian Studies, have been mostly neglected in the past. The Stranger at the Feast combines deep insights into the Christian Orthodox society of Zäge peninsula (written Zege)1 in northern Ethiopia, with a methodically grounded social anthropological background. The author based his book on several field seasons, conducted in the years 2008-14, during which he lived on the peninsula and was in close contact with its people, sharing their meals and fasts.

The main objective of Boylston's work is the connecting and at the same time dividing force of feasts and fasts. The question with whom you share a meal, and also with whom you hold a fast, is a very important one in Ethiopian Christian society. The author describes it as a defining factor [End Page 119] of segregation and integration. Dietary restrictions commonly differentiate between members of different religions in northern Ethiopia. In Zäge, however, where the majority of the inhabitants are Christian, they serve to mark the level of piousness of individual Christians, and as a means of feeling superior towards others, "to abstain is to enact a distinction between beings capable of regulating desire and those that are not" (11). Whereas fasting is a personal decision it constitutes an important element of the social life in Zäge, interfering with personal matters such as weddings, the calendric year, as well as harvest times.

Boylston indicates that mediators play an important role in the life of the people of the Zäge peninsula (chapters 1–3). As the most powerful mediators he lists Mary, Saints (here especially the locally important Bäträ Maryam, written Betre Maryam), angels, monks, priests, and däbtära (men with a church background; written debtera). He provides an analytical description of the ambivalent role of the däbtära (67–69) and their engagement in mediating affairs as well as being masters of dubious arts.

Chapters 4 and 5 are dedicated to marginalized groups, slavery and slave ancestry, Buda (spirit possession), and other representatives of the bottom half of society's hierarchy. Chapter 4 is "Blood, Silver, and Coffee," with slavery covering a large part of the chapter. Slavery and slave ancestry are influential markers within Zäge's social structures. After many generations, a neighbor would still know about one's slave descent and would make sure not to intermarry or cross any other boundaries. Although slavery was officially banned decades ago, it is still common to have servants, either in private households or businesses. Servants stand considerably lower in status than their employers, and face restrictions like those imposed on slaves in the past. In addition to this is what Boylston calls "The Buda crisis" (chapter 5), a reason to further marginalize groups within the society. Buda is a tradition of spirit possession, where those who are afflicted supposedly turn into evil spirits at night, mostly hyenas, which go around and "eat" people or cause other types of harm. In the light of Boylston's topic of food consumption, he considers this one of the defining factors of Buda—hyenas, being unclean animals, "are said to eat ashes of feces," which stands in full opposition to "what makes human human—the power of speech and avoiding impure foods" (90). Zäge's society is mostly made up of Orthodox Christians [End Page 120] agriculturists, with some Muslims who make their living as traders and shop owners in the nearest town. Buda is often associated with landlessness and caste-like artisan groups such as metalworkers, weavers, and potters, all of whom has made the Betä Ǝsraʾel2 especially vulnerable to being accused of being Buda. There are, however, almost no Betä Ǝsraʾel in Zäge, and thus it is mostly Muslim inhabitants or...

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