Editing Spirit possession (section)

====Ethiopia====
Among the [[Gurage people]] of Ethiopia, spirit possession is a common belief. William A. Shack postulated that it is caused by Gurage cultural attitudes about food and hunger, while they have a plentiful food supply, cultural pressures that force the Gurage to either share it to meet social obligations, or hoard it and eat it secretly cause feelings of anxiety. Distinctions are drawn between spirits that strictly possess men, spirits that possess women, and spirits that possess victims of either sex. A ritual illness that only affects men is believed to be caused by a spirit called ''awre''. This affliction presents itself by loss of appetite, nausea, and attacks from severe stomach pains. If it persists, the victim may enter a trance-like stupor, in which he sometimes regains consciousness long enough to take food and water. Breathing is often labored. Seizures and trembling overcome the patient, and in extreme cases, partial paralysis of the extremities.{{sfnp|Shack|1971|pp=40–43}}

If the victim does not recover naturally, a traditional healer, or ''sagwara'', is summoned. Once the ''sagwara'' has determined the spirit's name through the use of divination, he prescribes a routine formula to exorcise the spirit. This is not a permanent cure, it merely allows the victim to form a relationship with the spirit while subject to chronic repossession, which is treated by repeating the formula. This formula involves the preparation and consumption of a dish of ''[[ensete]]'', butter, and red pepper. During this ritual, the victim's head is covered with a drape, and he eats the ''ensete'' ravenously while other ritual participants participate by chanting. The ritual ends when the possessing spirit announces that it is satisfied. Shack notes that the victims are overwhelmingly poor men, and that women are not as food-deprived as men, due to ritual activities that involve food redistribution and consumption. Shack postulates that the ''awre'' serves to bring the possessed man to the center of social attention, and to relieve his anxieties over his inability to gain prestige from redistributing food, which is the primary way in which Gurage men gain status in their society.{{sfnp|Shack|1971|pp=40–43}}

The belief in spirit possession is part of the native culture of the [[Sidama people]] of southwest [[Ethiopia]]. [[Anthropologist]]s Irene and John Hamer postulated that it is a form of compensation for being deprived within Sidama society, although they do not draw from I.M. Lewis (see Cultural anthropology section under Scientific views). The majority of the possessed are women whose spirits demand luxury goods to alleviate their condition, but men can be possessed as well. Possessed individuals of both sexes can become healers due to their condition. Hamer and Hamer suggest that this is a form of compensation among deprived men in the deeply competitive society of the Sidama, for if a man cannot gain prestige as an [[orator]], warrior, or farmer, he may still gain prestige as a spirit healer. Women are sometimes accused of faking possession, but men never are.{{sfnp|Hamer|Hamer|1966}}