Sacred sites and ancestor veneration in Sidama, southwest Ethiopia: A socio-ecological perspective

Abstract

This paper attempts to show the importance of sacred natural sites (SNS) among indigenous peoples and local communities serving as the locus of maintenance, continuity and expressions of religious identity drawing lessons from Sidama nation of Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples’ Regional State of Ethiopia. The paper further addresses the relationship between SNS and ancestor veneration and their mutual interdependence and preservation, exploring the socio-ecological and biocultural foundations of the interrelationship between the two systems, the dynamics of religious syncretism, and the resilience and challenges of threat facing the two systems. The paper argues that SNS and ancestor worship systems and the mutual interrelationships that exist therein are resilient social-ecological systems, created and maintained dynamically as biocultural diversity realities in historical ecological framework through human–environment interactions over millennia; and that SNS are, therefore, critical in supporting nature protection and strengthening local traditions and institutions such as ancestor worship as form of religious identity expression.