Buda or Bouda Werehyena Tradition
- Date of account
- Long-duration tradition; documented in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Ethiopian accounts
- Location
- Ethiopia, especially Amhara and northern highland regions
- Source
- model_recalled_reference
- Record updated
- 2026-10-10
Record summary
Buda is a widely reported Ethiopian belief concerning people, often associated with particular occupational or marginalized groups, who can assume hyena form or possess a dangerous relationship with hyenas. Accounts vary substantially by region and period, and the term may refer both to a suspected person and to a hereditary or occupational status. The tradition matters for comparison because it links shapeshifting, social stigma, craft specialization and nocturnal predation. Researchers should distinguish local belief descriptions from outsider interpretations that treated Buda as evidence of literal transformation.
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