ISSN 1548-1409, 1559-9167
11 papers in the library · 168 citations · publishing 1993-2024
Anthropology & Humanism August 30, 2024 Atreyee Majumder 1 citation
This article is a meditation on the question of the soul as it may be approached in anthropology, through a close reading of Stefania Pandolfo's work on Islamic healing in Morocco, Knot of the Soul.
Anthropology & Humanism December 1, 2020 Joanna Cook
SummaryFocusing on the place of “embodiment” for therapists in mindfulness‐based cognitive therapy, this paper reveals that care often requires an on‐going commitment to “being with” forms of uncomfortable self‐experience. This work challenges the valorization of caregiving (as “natural,” “good,” or “rewarding”) in anthropology by revealing the unsettled nature of lived experience, replete with...
Anthropology & Humanism December 1, 2010 Bonnie Glass‐coffin 49 citations
SUMMARYFrom over 20 years of working with shamans and their apprentices in northern Peru and the United States, this article describes my own journey from scientist and skeptic to humanist and adept. It tells of the fundamental shift in consciousness I experienced as a result of a specific instance in which the veil between the seen and unseen worlds temporarily lifted, allowing me to engage...
Anthropology & Humanism November 21, 2010 Bruce Greyson 66 citations
SUMMARY The ubiquitous belief that, after death, our consciousness might persist in some discarnate form is fueled in part by phenomena like near‐death experiences (NDEs) and deathbed visions, mystical experiences reported on the threshold of death. Some NDEs, called “Peak in Darien” experiences, include visions of deceased people who are not known at the time to be dead. Cases of this kind...
Anthropology & Humanism November 21, 2010 Evgenia Fotiou 21 citations
SUMMARY Drawing from data collected during fieldwork from Westerners participating in ayahuasca ceremonies in the Peruvian Amazon, I discuss the ways they make contact with spirits. I particularly focus on the issue of sorcery, illustrating differences in the ways it is perceived by Westerners and Peruvians. I argue that although it is possible that both populations have the same or very...
Anthropology & Humanism December 1, 2007 George Mentore
This short article attempts to work within the craft of anthropology but, ultimately, seeks to do so against its historical intent to objectify. It describes and interprets a personal experience of sacred communion. In doing so, however, it argues that the success of any such processes eventually results in an obscene offence against the very experience of religious mystery.
Anthropology & Humanism December 1, 2001 Marjorie Mandelstam Balzer 18 citations
The agony of public and private changes in Russia (the Federation of Rossiia) has extended to indigenous peoples of Siberia. Focus on the Sakha Republic Yakutia) of the Far East enables analysis of diverse social, political, and spiritual transformations. Initial 1990s euphoria at the possibility of personal and community reform has yielded to confusion and soul searching. In such conditions,...
Anthropology & Humanism June 1, 1996 Daniel Halperin 6 citations
The increasing recognition of indigenous perspectives regarding religious practices such as shamanism and spirit possession offers a welcome respite from the excesses of scientific skepticism. Anthropologists may, however, become dogmatic in the opposite direction through accepting and even promoting at face value the officially presented "emic" view. At times, ritual practitioners themselves...
Anthropology & Humanism December 1, 1995 Janine Lewis
James Wafer. The Taste of Blood: Spirit Possession in Brazilian Candomble. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1991. xii. 219 pp. (Winner of the Victor Turner prize for Ethnography, 1992.) Daniel Touro Linger. Dangerous Encounters: Meanings of Violence in. Brazilian City. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1992. + 289 pp.
Anthropology & Humanism December 1, 1994 Charles D. Laughlin 5 citations
This article introduces and evaluates the problem of apodicticity raised by Edmund Husserl, that is, the problem of how to access and interpret scientifically the quality of absolute necessity and certainty of insight that frequently accompanies transpersonal experiences and intuitions in contemplation. An important distinction is drawn between pure and relative apodicticity, and the common...
Anthropology & Humanism June 1, 1993 Susan J. Rasmussen 2 citations
It is now recognized that spirit possession and a work of art share common properties. Yet few analyses stop to consider the transformative effects of possession artistry in diverse contexts, extending beyond the immediate ritual process: while visiting, in leisure, gossip, courtship, and festival settings, where local residents in effect re‐create possession in commentary about its music,...