Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Discourses of Loss and Bereavement in Tigray, Ethiopia

  • Published:
Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Western trauma frameworks, such as PTSD-focused inventories and interventions, are embedded in a psychosocial discourse saying that highly distressing experiences must be expressed and confronted. This study, which is based on six months of focused ethnographic research in postwar Tigray, Ethiopia, reveals authoritative Tigrayan discourses that encourage people to avoid disclosing and expressing emotional pain. Dogmas of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, saying that grieving and crying would have negative physical and spiritual consequences, were found to have a broad consensus in the society. The ethnography suggests that the Tigrayan psychosocial discourses make sense and may be functional in their context, as the marginal socioeconomic conditions of Tigray force individuals to concentrate on their day-to-day struggle for survival. Findings are discussed in terms of implications for the cross-cultural applicability of conventional frameworks of Western trauma psychology.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • About Religion in Ethiopia 2004 Electronic document, http://atheism.about.com/sitesearch.htm?terms=ethiopia&SUName=atheism &TopNode=2928&type=1, accessed June 15

  • Alem, Atalay, D. Kebede, G. Woldesemiat, L. Jacobsson, and G. Kullgren 1999 The Prevalence and Socio-Demographic Correlates of Mental Distress in Butajira, Ethiopia. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 100:48

    Google Scholar 

  • Alem, Atalay, T. Shibre, D. Kebede, G. Kullgren, and L. Jacobsson 2002 The Butajira Study—A Comprehensive Ethiopian Study on Mental Disorders. European Psychiatry 17:47S

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • American Psychiatric Association (APA) 1980 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 3rd ed. Washington, DC: APA

    Google Scholar 

  • 2000 Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. 4th ed. rev. Washington, DC: APA

    Google Scholar 

  • Argenti Pillen, Alexandra 2000 The Discourse on Trauma in Non-Western Cultural Contexts: Contributions of an Ethnographic Method. In International Handbook of Human Response to Trauma. A. Y. Shalev and R. Yehuda, eds., pp. 87–102. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum

    Google Scholar 

  • Bracken, Patrick J. 1998 Hidden Agendas: Deconstructing Posttraumatic Stress Disorder. In Rethinking the Trauma of War. P. J. Bracken and C. Petty, eds., pp. 38–59. London: Free Association Books.

    Google Scholar 

  • Breslau, Joshua 2004 Cultures of Trauma: Anthropological Views of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in International Health. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 28(2):113–126

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • deGirolamo, Giovanni, and Alexander C. McFarlane 1996 The Epidemiology of PTSD: A Comprehensive Review of the International Literature. In Ethnocultural Aspects of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: Issues, Research and Clinical Applications. A. J. Marsella, M. J. Friedman, E. T. Gerrity, and R. M. Scurfield, eds., pp. 33–85. Washington, DC: American Psychiatric Association

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • de Jong, Joop T.V. M., Ivan de Komproe, Mark H. van Ommeren, Mustafa El Masri, Mesfin Araya, Nourredine Khaled, Willem van de Put, and Daya Somasundaram 2001 Lifetime Events and Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in Four Postconflict Settings. Journal of the American Medical Association 286(5):555–562

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • deVries, Martin W. 1996 Trauma in Cultural Perspective. In Traumatic Stress: The Effects of Overwhelming Experience on Mind, Body, and Society. B. A. van der Kolk, A. C. McFarlane, and L. Weisaeth, eds., pp. 398–413. New York: Guilford Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Eagle, Gillian T. 1998 Promoting Peace by Integrating Western and Indigenous Healing in Treating Trauma. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology 4(3):271–282

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Eisenbruch, Maurice 1992a The Ritual Space of Patients and Traditional Healers in Cambodia. Bulletin de l’Ecole Française d’Extrême Orient 79(2):283–316

    Google Scholar 

  • 1992b Toward a Culturally Sensitive DSM: Cultural Bereavement in Cambodian Refugees and the Traditional Healer as Taxonomist. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 180(1):8–10

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Englund, Henri 1998 Death, Trauma and Ritual: Mozambican Refugees in Malawi. Social Science and Medicine 46(9):1165–1174.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ethiopian Embassy UK 2004 The State of Tigray. Electronic document, http://www.ethioembassy.org.uk/fact%20file/az/Regional%20States/The%20State%20of%20Tigray.htm, accessed April 16

  • Giel, Robert 1986 Some Observations on Ethiopian Psychiatry. Israel Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences 23(1):39.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1999 The Prehistory of Psychiatry in Ethiopia. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 100:2.

    Google Scholar 

  • Giel, Robert, and J. N. Vanliujk 1969 Psychiatric Morbidity in a Small Ethiopian Town. British Journal of Psychiatry 115(519):149

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • 1970 Psychiatric Morbidity in a Rural Village in South-Western Ethiopia. International Journal of Social Psychiatry 16(1):63

    Google Scholar 

  • Giel, Robert, M. Bishaw, and J. N. Vanluijk 1969 Behaviour Disorders in Ethiopian Children. Psychiatria Neurologia Neurochirurgia 72(4):395

    Google Scholar 

  • Giel, Robert, Y. Gezahegn, and J. N. Vanluijk 1968a Faith-Healing and Spirit-Possession in Ghion, Ethiopia. Social Science and Medicine 2(1):63

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • 1968b Psychiatric Morbidity in 200 Ethiopian Medical Outpatients. Psychiatria Neurologia Neurochirurgia 71(2):169

    Google Scholar 

  • Giel, Robert, Y. Kitaw, F. Workneh, and R. Mesfin 1974 Ticket to Heaven—Psychiatric Illness in a Religious Community in Ethiopia. Social Science and Medicine 8(11-1):549

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Global Information Network in Education 2003 Trauma Projects. Electronic document, http://www.ginie.org/ginie-crises-links/trauma/projects.html, accessed February 23

  • Honwana, Alcinda M. 1997 Healing for Peace: Traditional Healers and Post-War Reconstruction in Southern Mozambique. Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology 3(3):293–305

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Horowitz, Mardi J., N. Wilner, and W. Alvarez 1979 Impact of Event Scale: A Measure of Subjective Stress. Psychosomatic Medicine 41(3):209–218

    Google Scholar 

  • Huberman, A. Michael, and Matthew Miles 1994 Data Management and Analysis Methods. In Handbook of Qualitative Research. N. K. Denzin and Y. Lincoln, eds., pp. 428–444. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

    Google Scholar 

  • Institute of Peace and Conflict Studies 2003 Armed Conflict Report 2003. Electronic document, http://www.ploughshares.ca/CONTENT/ACR/ACR00/ACR00-EthErit.html, accessed April 16, 2004

  • Jacobsson, Lars 1985a Mental-Disorders in Patients Admitted to a General-Hospital in Western Ethiopia 1960-1970. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 71(4):410.

    Google Scholar 

  • 1985b Psychiatric Morbidity and Psychosocial Background in an Outpatient Population of a General-Hospital in Western Ethiopia. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica 71(4):417

    Google Scholar 

  • Janesick, Valerie J. 1994 The Dance of Qualitative Research Design: Metaphor, Methodolatry, and Meaning. In Handbook of Qualitative Research. N. K. Denzin and Y. Lincoln, eds., pp. 209–219. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

    Google Scholar 

  • Kagee, Ashraf 2004 Present Concerns of Survivors of Human Rights Violations in South Africa. Social Science and Medicine 59(3):625–635

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kinzie, J. David, K. A. Tran, A. Breckenridge, and J. D. Bloom 1980 An Indochinese Refugee Psychiatric Clinic: Culturally Accepted Treatment Approaches. American Journal of Psychiatry 137:1429–1432

    Google Scholar 

  • Levine, Donald N. 1965 Wax and Gold: Tradition and Innovation in Ethiopian Culture. Chicago: University of Chicago Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Machel, Graca 1996 Promotion and Protection of the Rights of Children: Impact of Armed Conflict on Children. Report A/51/306. New York: United Nations

  • McNally, Richard, R. Bryant, and A. Ehlers 2003 Does Early Psychological Intervention Promote Recovery from Posttraumatic Stress. Psychological Science in the Public Interest 4(2):45–79

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Mjaaland, Thera 2004 Ane sugh’ ile. I Keep Quiet. Master’s thesis, University of Bergen.

  • Morse, Janice M. 2002 Read Me First for a User’s Guide to Qualitative Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

    Google Scholar 

  • Patton, Michael Q. 1990 Qualitative Evaluation and Research Methods. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage

    Google Scholar 

  • Peltzer, Karl 1998 Ethnocultural Construction of Posttraumatic Stress Symptoms in African Contexts. Journal of Psychology in Africa 1:17–30

    Google Scholar 

  • Pupavac, Vanessa 2001 Therapeutic Governance: Psychosocial Intervention and Trauma Risk Management. Disasters 25(4):358–372

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Refugees International 1999 Ethiopia: Internally Displaced Desperately Need Food, Shelter. Electronic document, http://www.refugeesinternational.org/content/article/detail/703/, accessed April 23, 2005

  • Shweder, Richard A., and Edmund Bourne 1984 Does the Concept of the Person Vary Cross-Culturally? In Culture Theory: Essays on Mind, Self, and Emotion. R. Shweder and R. LeVine, eds., pp. 158–199. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Silove, Derrick 2004 The Challenges Facing Mental Health Programs for Post-Conflict and Refugee Communities. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine 19(1):90–96

    Google Scholar 

  • Silver, Steven M., and John P. Wilson 1988 Native American Healing and Purification Rituals for War Stress. In Human Adaptation to Extreme Stress: From the Holocaust to Vietnam. J. P. Wilson and Z. Harel, eds., pp. 337–355. New York: Plenum Press

    Google Scholar 

  • Silverman David (2000) Doing Qualitative Research: A Practical Handbook. Sage, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Silverman, David 2000 Doing Qualitative Research: A Practical Handbook. London: Sage

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Stubbs, Paul 2005 Transforming Local and Global Discourses: Reassessing the PTSD Movement in Bosnia and Croatia. In Forced Migration and Mental Health: Rethinking the Care of Migrants and Displaced Persons. D. Ingleby, ed., pp. 53-66. New York: Springer

    Google Scholar 

  • Summerfield, Derek 1999 A Critique of Seven Assumptions behind Psychological Trauma Programmes in War-Affected Areas. Social Science and Medicine 48(10):1449–1462

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tronvoll, Kjetil 2003 Identities in Conflict: An Ethnography of War and the Politics of Identity in Ethiopia. Dissertation thesis, London School of Economics and Political Science

  • Utviklingsfondet 2004 Regional Profile—Tigray. Electronic document, http://www.u-fondet.no/sw294.asp, accessed May 14

  • Victims' Web 2005 Impact of Event Scale. Electronic document, http://www.swin.edu.au/victims/resources/assessment/ptsd/ies-r.html, accessed November 9

  • Wessells, Michael G. 1999 Culture, Power, and Community: Intercultural Approaches to Psychosocial Assistance and Healing. In Honoring Differences: Cultural Issues in the Treatment of Trauma and Loss. N. Dubrow and K. Nader, eds., pp. 267–282. Philadelphia: Brunner/Mazel

    Google Scholar 

  • Workneh, Fikre, and Robert Giel 1975 Medical Dilemma—Survey of Healing Practice of a Coptic Priest and an Ethiopian Sheik. Tropical and Geographical Medicine 27(4):431

    Google Scholar 

  • World Bank, The 2004 Ethiopia: A Country Status Report on Health and Poverty. Report 28963-ET. Washington, DC: The World Bank

  • Zarowsky, Christina 2000 Trauma Stories: Violence, Emotion and Politics in Somali Ethiopia. Transcultural Psychiatry 37(3):383–402

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • 2004 Writing Trauma: Emotion, Ethnography, and the Politics of Suffering among Somali Returnees in Ethiopia. Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 28(2):189–209

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zur, Judith 1996 From PTSD to Voices in Context: From an "Experience-Far" to an "Experience-Near" Understanding of Responses to War and Atrocity across Cultures. International Journal of Social Psychiatry 42(4):305–317

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Helse Bergen RHF, Resource Centre for Violence, Traumatic Stress and Suicide Prevention – Western Norway (RVTS West), Ulriksdal 2, 5009, Bergen, Norway

    Dag Nordanger

Authors
  1. Dag Nordanger
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Dag Nordanger.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Nordanger, D. Discourses of Loss and Bereavement in Tigray, Ethiopia. Cult Med Psychiatry 31, 173–194 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11013-007-9050-6

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11013-007-9050-6

Keywords

Search

Navigation