Debtera: Difference between revisions

A '''debtera''' (or '''dabtara''';<ref name="Finneran">[https://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/30035127?uid=3739896&uid=2&uid=4&uid=3739256&sid=21100952249093 Ethiopian evil eye belief and the magical symbolism of iron working, by Niall Finneran, Folklore 114 (2003):427-433]</ref> [[Ge'ez language|Ge'ez]]/[[Tigrinya language|Tigrinya]]/[[Amharic language|Amharic]]: ደብተራ (''Däbtära)''; plural, Ge'ez\Tigrinya: ''debterat'', Amharic: ''debtrawoch'' <ref>Wolf Leslau, ''Comparative Dictionary of Geʻez (Classical Ethiopic): Geʻez-English, English-Geʻez, with an index of the Semitic roots'', Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 1987, {{ISBN|9783447025928}}, p. 122</ref>) is an [[wikt:itinerant|itinerant]] religious figure in the [[Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahedo Church|Ethiopian]] and [[Eritrean Orthodox Tewahedo Church]]es,<ref name="crc">[http://www.crcstudio.org/eritrean/Pages/glossary.php?s=glossary#DEBTERA Glossary], Eritrean Print and Oral Culture, hosted on Canada Research Chair Humanities Computing Studio.</ref> and the [[Beta Israel]],<ref name="Greenfield">Isaac Greenfield, "The Debtera and the education among Ethiopian Jewry until the arrival of Dr. Faitlovitch" in Menachem Waldman (ed.), ''Studies in the History of Ethiopian Jews'', Habermann Institute of Literary Research, 2011, pp. 109-135 (Hebrew)</ref>, who sings [[hymns]] and dances for churchgoers, and who performs [[exorcism]]s and [[white magic]] to aid the congregation.<ref name="Finneran" /><ref name="Mirecki">[https://books.google.com/books?id=xMDHgzjSU_MC&lpg=PA170&dq=debtera&pg=PA170#v=onepage&q=debtera&f=false Magic and Ritual in the Ancient World, Part 4 edited by Paul Allan Mirecki, Marvin W. Meyer, Published by BRILL, 2002, p.170]</ref><ref name="Turner">Turner, John W. "Ethiopian Orthodox Christianity: Faith and practices". [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/ettoc.html A Country Study: Ethiopia] (Thomas P. Ofcansky and LaVerle Berry, eds.) [[Library of Congress]] [[Federal Research Division]] (1991), [http://lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/about.html public domain]</ref> A debtera will claim an ecclesiastical identity<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=pF6MxGrqdUwC&lpg=PA134&dq=debtera&pg=PA134#v=onepage&q=debtera&f=false Encyclopedia of African and African-American Religions By Stephen D. Glazier, published by Taylor & Francis, 16 Jan 2001, p.134]</ref> and behave as in [[minor orders]].<ref name="Geleta">[http://www.lausanne.org/en/documents/all/nairobi-2000/187-ethiopian-case-study.html Case Study: Demonization and the Practice of Exorcism in Ethiopian Churches by Amsalu Tadesse Geleta]. The Lausanne Movement, Nairobi 2000.</ref> They may in fact be officially ordained as [[deacon]]s,<ref name="Finneran" /> or may act outside the Church hierarchy.<ref name="Glazier124">[https://books.google.com/books?id=pF6MxGrqdUwC&lpg=PA134&dq=debtera&pg=PA125#v=onepage&q=debtera&f=false Encyclopedia of African and African-American Religions By Stephen D. Glazier, published by Taylor & Francis, 16 Jan 2001, p.124]</ref> They are usually feared by the local population.<ref name="Mirecki"/><ref name="Finneran" />