Animism in rainforest and tundra Brightman, Marc; Grotti, Vanessa Elisa; Ulturgasheva, Olga
2012, 2014., 20120815, 2012-08-15, 20120101
eBook, Book
Amazonia and Siberia, classic regions of shamanism, have long challenged 'western' understandings of man's place in the world. By exploring the social relations between humans and non-human entities ...credited with human-like personhood (not only animals and plants, but also 'things' such as artifacts, trade items, or mineral resources) from a comparative perspective, this volume offers valuable insights into the constitutions of humanity and personhood characteristic of the two areas. The contributors conducted their ethnographic fieldwork among peoples undergoing transformative processes of their lived environments, such as the depletion of natural resources and migration to urban centers. They describe here fundamental relational modes that are being tested in the face of change, presenting groundbreaking research on personhood and agency in shamanic societies and contributing to our global understanding of social and cultural change and continuity.
This second edition of Historical Dictionary of Shamanism contains a chronology, an introduction, and extensive bibliography. The dictionary contains over 500 cross-referenced dictionary entries on ...individuals, groups, practices and cultures that have been called "shamanic". This book is an excellent access point for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Shamanism.
Social trends and historical contexts have popularized Eliade’s trance model in shamanism studies and have contributed to a famous academic debate. A case study on Manchu shamanism conducted in this ...article shows that a Manchu shaman functions primarily as a sacrificial specialist rather than a mental state adept. Three types of Manchu shamanism—court shamanism, clan shamanism, and wild shamanism—are examined based on historical and ethnographic analyses. This study deconstructs the trance model and demonstrates that shamanism among Manchus has a dynamic, reactive, constitutive, and unstable historical process.
Shamanism is generally considered to be humankind's original religious practice. Centuries of Russian oppression followed by more recent exposure to Western media culture may have weakened the ...transmission of traditions of the Sakha people in Arctic Siberia, but a new generation of Sakha healers still strives to keep their traditions alive in a modern world. These contemporary healers are heirs to an unbroken shamanic tradition dating back centuries. They form a living bridge to their ancestors. This article is a collaborative project-both in terms of conceptualization and writing-between a Californian psychotherapist and a member of the new generation of Siberian Sakha healers with the goal of bringing better understanding of the Sakha perspective while also looking at shamanism through a Jungian lens.
Shamanism-the practice of entering a trance state to experience
visions of a reality beyond the ordinary and to gain esoteric
knowledge-has been an important part of life for indigenous
societies ...throughout the Americas from prehistoric times until the
present. Much has been written about shamanism in both scholarly
and popular literature, but few authors have linked it to another
significant visual realm-art. In this pioneering study, Rebecca R.
Stone considers how deep familiarity with, and profound respect
for, the extra-ordinary visionary experiences of shamanism
profoundly affected the artistic output of indigenous cultures in
Central and South America before the European invasions of the
sixteenth century.
Using ethnographic accounts of shamanic trance experiences,
Stone defines a core set of trance vision characteristics,
including enhanced senses, ego dissolution, bodily distortions,
flying, spinning and undulating sensations, synaesthesia, and
physical transformation from the human self into animal and other
states of being. Stone then traces these visionary characteristics
in ancient artworks from Costa Rica and Peru. She makes a
convincing case that these works, especially those of the Moche,
depict shamans in a trance state or else convey the perceptual
experience of visions by creating deliberately chaotic and
distorted conglomerations of partial, inverted, and incoherent
images.
The issue of whether Wu 巫 and Xi 覡 mentioned in Guoyu, 'Chuyu Xia' 國語, 楚語下, can be categorised as shamans has been the subject of controversy for a long time. As there is no generally accepted ...definition of 'shaman', we cannot give a definite and universally acceptable answer. Based on a microanalysis of the semantic textual meaning of 'Chuyu Xia', this study argues that the meaning of 'Shang Xia Bi Yi' 上下比義 in this chapter is to implement the sacred principles of Heaven on Earth and that Wu and Xi were chosen by the spirits just because they were able to do this. The meaning of 'Ming Shen Jiang Zhi, Zai Nan Yue Xi, Zai Nü Yue Wu' 明神降之, 在男曰覡, 在女曰巫 is either 'Wu and Xi were possessed by the spirits from Heaven' or 'there was a certain form of direct communication between the spirits and Wu and Xi'. This study, thus, aims to provide a basis for accurately judging whether Wu and Xi can be categorised as shamans.
This issue of the Bulletin of the Chilean Museum of Pre-Columbian Art includes twelve works on art and shamanism, making use of a variety of tools, methodologies, and concepts. Next, the global use ...of the word shaman, shamanic practice and its applications to archaeology are considered, and an attempt is made to clarify the relationship between art and shamanism. Then, each of the articles collected in this volume of the Bulletin is briefly commented on. Happily, after overcoming various challenges, including the pandemic and a change in the Editorial Team, this volume coincides with the Shamanism exhibition, Visions out of time, held at the Chilean Museum of Pre-Columbian Art. The actions that fall within the shamanic sphere are diverse and variable. Each culture applies a name in the language that corresponds to it. Thus we find behique , mara'akame , machi, and many others. The term shaman offers us the opportunity to use a single word to refer to the ritual activities that lead to the ecstatic state; a category that encompasses the diversity of practitioners who share a series of characteristics, some of which will be listed below. Shamanism occurs in small-scale societies, with low hierarchical manifestations. Consequently, and from a certain point of view, it would not be correct to call complex societies with clear evidence of hierarchies such as those of Chavín, Moche, Wari or Tiwanaku shamanic. However, it might be advantageous to identify shamanic elements in the art of these cultures, in efforts to clarify certain aspects of the iconography that might otherwise remain obscure.
EDITORIAL Riesco, Benjamín Ballester
Boletín del Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino,
01/2023, Volume:
28, Issue:
1
Journal Article
After a long wait of more than three years as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, the change of the Chief Curator of the Chilean Museum of Pre-Columbian Art and the renewal of the Editorial Team of ...its Bulletin, the special issue on Art and Shamanism. An ambitious project that initially contemplated 19 manuscripts and that, little by little, matured until it took its final form, made up of 12 articles that are the result of research on the relationship between shamanism and artistic manifestations throughout the American continent and the Iberian Peninsula. As a whole, the published writings express in an extraordinary way the state of the art, the current debates and the new investigations on an anthropological problem as old as it is current, since shamanism is still present, in one way or another,neo or following the ancestral traditions.
Shamanism is one of the earliest and farthest-reaching magical and religious traditions, vestiges of which still underlie the major religious faiths of the modern world. The function of the shaman is ...to show his or her people the unseen powers behind the mere appearances of nature, as experienced through intuition, in trance states, or during ecstatic mystical visions. Shamans possess healing powers, communicate with the dead and the world beyond, and influence the weather and movements of hunting animals. The psychological exaltation of shamanism trance states is similar to the ecstasies of Yogis, Christian mystics and dervishes. Shamanism: An Introductiontraces the development of shamanism in its many fascinating global manifestations. Looking at shamanic practices from Siberia to China and beyond, it provides an accessible guide to one of the world's most ancient, notorious and frequently misrepresented spiritual traditions. Placing special emphasis on the climate, geographic and cultural pressures under which shanic customs arose and continue to be observed, Margaret Stutley summarizes and clearly explains the logic of a faith whose fantastical elements hold a special place in popular imagination.
