In October 2006 a drum embarked on what is possibly the most extensive journey of any drum at any time. The journey’s ambitions were similarly grand: to serve as a wakeup call to the needs of Mother ...Earth by linking people, things, and places. What follows is my take on this project in the context of the reclaiming of drums in Sápmi and globalizing discourses on Indigenous religion(s), as well as a focus on object agency and the modes and codes of Indigeneity on the move. I propose ‘drift matter’ (borrowed from the archaeological perspectives of Þóra Pétursdóttir and Bjørnar Olsen) as a concept to consider this case and for the unruliness of afterlives.
In October 2006 a drum embarked on what is possibly the most extensive journey of any drum at any time. The journey’s ambitions were similarly grand: to serve as a wakeup call to the needs of Mother ...Earth by linking people, things, and places. What follows is my take on this project in the context of the reclaiming of drums in Sápmi and globalizing discourses on Indigenous religion(s), as well as a focus on object agency and the modes and codes of Indigeneity on the move. I propose ‘drift matter’ (borrowed from the archaeological perspectives of Þóra Pétursdóttir and Bjørnar Olsen) as a concept to consider this case and for the unruliness of afterlives.
The Daur people are a minority living in Northeast China. They have adhered to a form of shamanism since ancient times. They believe that all things are spiritual. The Daur call an intermediary or ...messenger between the human world and the spirit worlds jad’ən (shaman). In addition, there are also different types of priests and healers, such as baɡʧi (healer and priest), barʃ (bone-setter), ʊtʊʃi (healer of child) and baræʧen (midwife), but only the jad’ən is a real shaman. The Daur’s system of deities is huge, complex, and diverse, mainly including təŋɡər (God of Heaven), xʊʤʊr barkən (ancestral spirit), njaŋnjaŋ barkən (Niang Niang Goddess), aʊləi barkən (spirit of mountain), nuʤir barkən (spirit of snake), ɡali barkən (God of Fire), etc. Among them, ancestral spirit is the most noble and important deity of the Daur, called xʊʤʊr barkən (spirit of ancestors). In the past, the social structure of the Daurs was based on the equal clan xal and its branches mokun. Xʊʤʊr barkən is the ancestral spirit of the mokun family. The shaman with xʊʤʊr barkən as the main patron is called xʊʤʊr jad’ən, that is, mokun shaman. The inheritance of the Daur shaman is very complicated. The xʊʤʊr jad’ən is strictly inherited along the patrilineal line, while the ordinary jad’ən can also inherit according to the maternal lineage. The inheritance rites of other types of shamans are also based mainly on the patrilineal lineage and occasionally the maternal lineage. The complexity of the Daur shaman inheritance is first and foremost related to the variety of the gods and spirits, secondly to their belief of polytheism, and finally to the constant split of the traditional clans and families, namely, the xal-mokun social structure.
En este trabajo se describe un objeto singular del pueblo ishir conservado en el Museo Etnográfico Juan B. Ambrosetti de la Universidad de Buenos Aires. Se hace referencia al contexto histórico y ...sociocultural de origen, mencionando los antecedentes de investigación. Los estudios realizados con respecto a la manufactura y el significado del tocado de plumas ishir permiten dar cuenta de la complejidad técnica y de un determinado sentido estético y simbólico; y plantear, a través de su biografía, un recorrido histórico hasta la actualidad política de los pueblos originarios del Gran Chaco.
En este trabajo se describe un objeto singular del pueblo ishir conservado en el Museo Etnográfico Juan B. Ambrosetti de la Universidad de Buenos Aires. Se hace referencia al contexto histórico y ...sociocultural de origen, mencionando los antecedentes de investigación. Los estudios realizados con respecto a la manufactura y el significado del tocado de plumas ishir permiten dar cuenta de la complejidad técnica y de un determinado sentido estético y simbólico; y plantear, a través de su biografía, un recorrido histórico hasta la actualidad política de los pueblos originarios del Gran Chaco.
This article is built around the author’s experience as a shaman’s assistant. This autobiographical account touches upon the poverty, beliefs in ghosts, and shamanistic practices in a Limbu hamlet of ...Kalimpong, which is a piece of land between Sikkim and Bhutan. Starting with a brief discussion on who a shaman is, the author describes the situation under which he became an assistant to a shaman whom he had to fetch to deal with the sickness of his brother. The author also brings out the issue of the shaman, or phedaṅgmā in the Limbu language, becoming rare because one could not become one by wishing so or by undergoing training under a senior shaman. He says that to become a shaman is a destiny and the signs of becoming one start to show quite early in childhood in the form of abnormal behaviour in specific cycles of months and on partaking of certain foods. In the end, the author shows concern for the future of shamanism, as it seems to be losing out to organised religions like Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity.
This report introduces a newly identified stone tube from the Lindenmeier site, Colorado. The artifact was recovered by Frank H. H. Roberts Jr in 1938 as he was excavating the Lindenmeier site for ...the Smithsonian Institution, and then incorrectly labeled in the field as an unmodified lump of sandstone from the Folsom component. It was subsequently accessioned in the collections with this description and forgotten. The object is a tubular rhizocretion modified via boring and grinding. It is similar to other objects identified in the archaeological and ethnographic record as either tubular pipes or shaman sucking tubes. These possible functions are briefly explored in light of the fact that the Lindenmeier stone tube could represent the earliest known example of Paleoindian shaman paraphernalia.
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