Werehyena: Difference between revisions

'''Were-hyenaWerehyena''' is a [[neologism]] coined in analogy to [[werewolf]] for [[Shapeshifting|therianthropy]] involving [[hyena]]s. It is common in the folklore of the [[Arabian Peninsula]], the [[Levant]], [[North Africa]], the [[Horn of Africa]], and the [[Near East]] as well as some adjacent territories. Unlike werewolves and other therianthropes, which are usually portrayed as being originally human, some werehyena lore tells of how they can also be hyenas disguised as humans.<ref name="Woodward">{{cite book | author= Woodward, Ian | title=The Werewolf Delusion | year=1979 | isbn= 0-448-23170-0 | page= 256 }}</ref>

In [[Somalia]], it is traditionally believed that '''''Qori Ismaris''''' ("One who rubs himself with a stick") was a man who could transform himself into a "hyena-man" by rubbing himself with a magic stick at nightfall and by repeating this process could return to his human state before dawn.<ref>{{Cite book |page=68 |url=https://wwwbooks.google.com/books/edition/Culture_and_Customs_of_Somalia/2Nu918tYMB8C?hlid=en&gbpv=12Nu918tYMB8C&pg=PA68&printsec=frontcover | title=Culture and Customs of Somalia | series=Culture and Customs of Africa |year=2001 | author=Mohamed Diriye Abdullahi | isbn=9780313313332 |publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group|Greenwood]]}}</ref>

In [[Ethiopia]], it is traditionally believed that every [[blacksmith]], whose trade is hereditary, is really a [[Magician (fantasy)|wizard]] or [[WitchcraftAfrican witchcraft|witch]] with the power to change into a hyena. These blacksmith werehyenas are believed to rob graves at midnight and are referred to as ''[[Buda (folk religionfolklore)|bouda]]''<ref name="Woodward" /> (also spelled ''buda'').<ref name=tyler/><ref name="Salamon" /> They are viewed with suspicion by most countrymen. Belief in the ''bouda'' is also present in [[Sudan]] and [[Tanzania]], as well as [[Morocco]], where some among the [[Berber peopleBerbers]] regard the ''bouda''them as a man or woman who nightly turns into a hyena and resumes human shape at dawn.<ref name="Woodward" /> Many Ethiopian [[Ethiopian Orthodoxy|Ethiopian Christians]] characterize [[Beta Israel|Ethiopian Jews]] as being bouda, accusing them of [[blood libel|unearthing Christian corpses and consuming them]]; the commonality of blacksmithing as a traditional profession for Jewish men in Ethiopia may be a reason for the connection between the two beliefs.<ref name="Salamon">{{cite book | author= Salamon, Hagar | title=The Hyena People: Ethiopian Jews in Christian Ethiopia | year=1999 | isbn= 0-520-21901-5 }}</ref>

In the [[Kanuri language]] of the former [[Bornu Empire]] in the [[Lake Chad]] region, werehyenas are referred to as '''''bultungin''''' which translates into "I change myself into a hyena".<ref name=tyler>{{cite book | title=Primitive culture Vol. 1 | url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.9024842334 | first=Edward Burnett | last=Tylor | author-link=Edward Burnett Tylor | publisher=John Murray | year=1920 | page=[https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.90248/page/n312 301]310 }}</ref> It was once traditionally believed that one or two of the villages in the region was populated entirely by werehyenas,<ref name="Woodward" /> such as Kabultiloa.<ref>{{cite book | title=The Natural Genesis – Vol.1 | first=Gerald | last=Massey | publisher=Cosimo, Inc. | year=2007 | isbn=978-1-60206-084-5 | page=73 }}</ref> Any such person is called ngadza.<ref name=koelle>{{cite book | title=African Native Literature | url=https://openlibrary.org/books/OL24821270M/African_native_literature_or_Proverbs_tales_fables_and_historical_fragments_in_the_Kanuri_or_Bornu_l | first=Sigismund Wilhelm | last=Koelle | author-link=Sigismund Koelle | year=1854 | page=275 | ol=24821270M }}</ref>

Members of the Korè cult of the [[Bambara people]] in [[Mali]] “become”"become" hyenas by imitating the animals' behavior through masks and roleplay. These are evocative of the hyenas' reviled habits and may also be used to evoke fear among the participants, leading them to avoid such habits and traits in their own lives.<ref name="Magic" />

[[Al-DoumairyDamiri]], in his 1371 ''HawayanḤayāt Alal-Koubraḥayawān al-kubrā'' (1406), wrote that hyenas are [[vampiric]] creatures that attack people at night and suck the blood from their necks. Arab folklore tells of how hyenas can mesmerise victims with their eyes or sometimes with their [[pheromone]]s.<ref name="ABI">{{cite book | author= Mounir R. Abi-Said | title=Reviled as a grave robber: The ecology and conservation of striped hyenas in the human -dominated landscapes of Lebanon | year=2006 }}</ref>

A [[PersiaNew Persian]]n medical treatise written in 1376 tells how to cure people known as ''kaftar,'', who are said to be “half"half-man, half-hyena",” who have the habit of slaughtering children.<ref name="Magic">{{cite web | url = http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/afs/pdf/a1246.pdf | title = The Magicality of the Hyena: Beliefs and Practices in West and South Asia | publisher = Asian Folklore Studies, Volume 57, 1998: 331–344 | access-date = 23 June 2008 | date = June 2008 | url-status = dead | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20080625072539/http://www.nanzan-u.ac.jp/SHUBUNKEN/publications/afs/pdf/a1246.pdf | archive-date = 2008-06-25 }}</ref>

{{unsourced|section|date=October 2022}}

[[Category:MythologicalHyenas caninesin popular culture]]

[[Category:TherianthropyMythological human–animal hybrids]]