Among the bone eaters : encounters with hyenas in Harar

• Main Authors: Baynes-Rock, Marcus, Thomas, Elizabeth Marshall
• Format: eBook Book
• Language: English
• Published: University Park, PA Pennsylvania State University Press 2015; Penn State University Press
• Edition: 1
• Series: Animalibus: Of Animals and Cultures
• Subjects: Behavior; Ecology; Effect of human beings on; Ethiopia; Harari (African people); Harari (African people) > Ethiopia > Hārer > Social life and customs; Harari (African people)-Ethiopia-Hārer-Social life and customs; Hārer (Ethiopia)-Social life and customs; Human-animal relationships; Human-animal relationships > Ethiopia > Hārer; Human-animal relationships-Ethiopia-Hārer; Hyenas; Hyenas > Behavior > Ethiopia > Hārer; Hyenas > Effect of human beings on > Ethiopia > Hārer; Hyenas-Behavior-Ethiopia-Hārer; Hyenas-Effect of human beings on-Ethiopia-Hārer; Hārer; Hārer (Ethiopia) > Social life and customs; Life Sciences; SCIENCE; Social life and customs; SOCIAL SCIENCE; SOCIAL SCIENCE / Anthropology / Cultural & Social; Ethiopia; Hārer
• ISBN: 0271067209; 9780271067209; 027107406X; 9780271074061
• DOI: 10.1515/9780271074061

Biologists studying large carnivores in wild places usually do so from a distance, using telemetry and noninvasive methods of data collection. So what happens when an anthropologist studies a clan of spotted hyenas, Africa's second-largest carnivores, up close—and in a city of a hundred thousand inhabitants? In Among the Bone Eaters, Marcus Baynes-Rock takes us to the ancient city of Harar in Ethiopia, where the gey waraba (hyenas of the city) are welcome in the streets and appreciated by the locals for the protection they provide from harmful spirits and dangerous "mountain" hyenas. They've even become a local tourist attraction. At the start of his research in Harar, Baynes-Rock contended with difficult conditions, stone-throwing children, intransigent bureaucracy, and wary hyena subjects intent on avoiding people. After months of frustration, three young hyenas drew him into the hidden world of the Sofi clan. He discovered the elements of a hyena's life, from the delectability of dead livestock and the nuisance of dogs to the unbounded thrill of hyena chase-play under the light of a full moon. Baynes-Rock's personal relations with the hyenas from the Sofi clan expand the conceptual boundaries of human-animal relations. This is multispecies ethnography that reveals its messy, intersubjective, dangerously transformative potential.