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The homeland of the Boreda people—the highlands of southern Ethiopia—sits on the western edge of the Rift Valley, which has long been considered the birthplace of humanity. In Boreda oral traditions, caves birthed the first Boreda people and stories of Dinkinesh (Lucy, Australopithecus afarensis) intertwine with accounts of cave dwellings, stone tools, and the making of leather clothing. Caves today are perceived to be one of the three wombs of the earth according to Boreda Indigenous ontology, Etta Woga. Equated with hollows of fig trees and houses, caves are reproductive liminal spaces. Here, Boreda implore ancestors and nature spirits through technological, therapeutic, and ideological rituals to protect, heal, and transform humans. Caves are part of a network of ancestral sacred grounds that include other significant landscape formations such as high peaks, springs, and forests. Together the interaction of rock (caves), earth (mountains), water (springs), and trees (Fig) on sacred ground is held as evidence that all these elements are beings that have the agency to impact human lives. In turn humans have the responsibility to care and nurture these sacred grounds.
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Living a Path of Mutual Respect: Technological Stone Ontologies in the Horn of Africa
Boreda Indigenous knowledge prescribed that humans respect all entities with whom they co-inhabit, including stone. Humans, stone, and water’s reciprocal relationships prompted their participation in each other becoming fetuses, infants, children, youth, married adults, mature adults, elders, and ancestors. Life was a co-production between humans and non-humans, such that stone and water could inflict harm or bring well-being to humans. Non-human beings, such as flaked stone tools, were evidence of engaging in correct interaction ‘practice’ (time, place, and actor) with other beings – a process of mutual respect and responsibility and one in which there was no end or final “product”.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1916933
- PAR ID:
- 10530651
- Publisher / Repository:
- Archaeologies
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Archaeologies
- Volume:
- 20
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 1555-8622
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 327 to 351
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1007/s11759-024-09500-0
