Mind the doxastic space : examining the social epistemology of the Ethiopian wax and gold tradition

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dc.contributor.author Girma, Mohammed
dc.date.accessioned 2024-11-04T11:05:40Z
dc.date.available 2024-11-04T11:05:40Z
dc.date.issued 2023-09-21
dc.description DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT : Data sharing not applicable. en_US
dc.description.abstract The wax and gold tradition is mainly known as an Ethiopian literary system that plays with layers of meanings. It has also established itself as a system of knowledge and/or belief production and validation. However, its social ramifications have presented scholars with conundrums that divide their views. For some, it is an Ethiopian traditional society’s crowning achievement of erudition—a poetic form that infiltrated communication, psychology, and social interaction. For others, it is a breeding ground for social vices, i.e., mutual suspicion, deception, duplicity, etc., because its autochthonous nature means it is inept in terms of modernizing and unifying the society. In this essay, I aim to argue that there is one critical historical element that holds the key to the conflicting social ramifications of the wax and gold system and, yet, is neglected by both sides of the debate: the original doxastic space of qine (poetry) and sem ena werq (wax and gold system)—a hermeneutic tool that deciphers the meaning of poems. This literary system was born in the space of worship and liturgy. I will contend, therefore, that a shift of doxastic space from sacred to saeculum (the world) is the reason not only for the behavior of doxastic agents but also for the social outcome of the knowledge they create. en_US
dc.description.department Science of Religion and Missiology en_US
dc.description.librarian am2024 en_US
dc.description.sdg SDG-11:Sustainable cities and communities en_US
dc.description.uri https://www.mdpi.com/journal/religions en_US
dc.identifier.citation Girma, Mohammed. 2023. Mind the Doxastic Space: Examining the Social Epistemology of the EthiopianWax and Gold Tradition. Religions 14: 1214. https://DOI.org/10.3390/rel14091214. en_US
dc.identifier.issn 2077-1444
dc.identifier.other 10.3390/rel14091214
dc.identifier.uri http://hdl.handle.net/2263/98910
dc.language.iso en en_US
dc.publisher MDPI en_US
dc.rights © 2023 by the author. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license. en_US
dc.subject Ethiopia en_US
dc.subject Wax and gold en_US
dc.subject Social epistemology en_US
dc.subject Social harmony en_US
dc.subject Cultural innovation en_US
dc.subject Indigenous knowledge en_US
dc.subject SDG-11: Sustainable cities and communities en_US
dc.title Mind the doxastic space : examining the social epistemology of the Ethiopian wax and gold tradition en_US
dc.type Article en_US


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