Accidental Environmentalists
In the highlands of Ethiopia, the only remaining stands of native forest are around churches of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church. Though hailed as community-conserved areas by environmentalists, we argue that the conservation of such forest is not intentional, but rather an indirect result of...
| VerfasserInnen: | ; |
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| Medienart: | Elektronisch Aufsatz |
| Sprache: | Englisch |
| Verfügbarkeit prüfen: | HBZ Gateway |
| Journals Online & Print: | Lade...
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| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Veröffentlicht: |
Brill
2018
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| In: |
Worldviews
Jahr: 2018, Band: 22, Heft: 2, Seiten: 113-142 |
| normierte Schlagwort(-folgen): | B
Äthiopische Kirche
/ Heiligtum
/ Wald
/ Bedeutung
/ Brauch
/ Schutz
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| RelBib Classification: | CB Christliche Existenz; Spiritualität CH Christentum und Gesellschaft KBN Subsahara-Afrika KCD Hagiographie; Heilige KDF Orthodoxe Kirche NBA Dogmatik NCB Individualethik RB Kirchliches Amt; Gemeinde |
| weitere Schlagwörter: | B
Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church
Ethiopia
church forests
sacred natural sites
sacred groves
sacred geography
community-conservation area
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| Online Zugang: |
Vermutlich kostenfreier Zugang Volltext (Verlag) |
| Zusammenfassung: | In the highlands of Ethiopia, the only remaining stands of native forest are around churches of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church. Though hailed as community-conserved areas by environmentalists, we argue that the conservation of such forest is not intentional, but rather an indirect result of the religious norms, beliefs and practices surrounding the sites. In actuality, the religiosity surrounding church forests maintains the purity of the most holy space in the center of the shrine, the tabot, a replica of the Ark of the Covenant, which ensures that the church is a legitimate and effective portal to the divine. An underlying cultural logic of purity and pollution structures the spatial organization of the site outward into a series of concentric circles of diminishing purity and shapes the social order into an elegant hierarchy. This article seeks to understand the norms, beliefs and practices of this sacred geography in its social and religious context, arguing that ignorance of or inattention to these can undermine the conservation goals that have brought these forests, along with so many other sacred natural sites, to the attention of environmentalists around the world. |
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| ISSN: | 1568-5357 |
| Enthält: | In: Worldviews
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15685357-02201101 |