Amhara Traditions of Knowledge - Spirit Mediums and their Clients is a study of how knowledge
is socially organised and used among the Amhara peasants in Yefat (North Shäwa). A major
challenge in analysing knowledge and practices related to curing and divination with the help
of mystical spiritual powers is their complexity and enormous variation. Unlike most studies
of Ethiopian spirit possession the author takes the ambiguities and variation as his start-ing
point. The analysis combines a hermeneutical and processual approach and is based on detailed
ethnographic data with an in-depth study of one spirit medium (balä weqabi) and the ebbs and
flows of the cult that developed around his activity. The variation in spirit beliefs and
knowledge systems among the Amhara can be understood in view of the nature of knowledge
transmission and management within the spirit cults. Amhara Traditions of Knowl-edge can also
be read as a study of the dynamic relationship be-tween great and little traditions between
the long traditions of the Ethiopian church and state on the one hand and the syncretic
creativity of folk religion on the other.
