Erika Bourguignon: A Portrait of the Anthropology of Consciousness
Grant J. Rich
Anthropology of Consciousness June 1, 1999 DOI: 10.1525/ac.1999.10.2-3.50 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Interview Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Shamanism |
| Keywords | Consciousness Possession linguistics Trance Ethos Anthropology Portrait Religious experience Psychoanalysis Religious studies Art history Theology Epistemology |
| Citations | 6 |
| Key points | Erika Bourguignon is recognized as a preeminent psychological anthropologist and the premier anthropological authority on trance, possession, and altered states of consciousness. |
Abstract
This is an interview with Erika Bourguignon, who has been a presence in the anthropology of consciousness for decades. Her work has examined possession, altered states of consciousness, religion, psychological anthropology, and shamanism. Her own fieldwork in Haiti has been augmented by book‐length comparative work with Lenora Greenbaum as well. In a 1996 article in Ethos, Melford Spiro notes that Bourguignon is a scholar who has resisted the trends of "postmodernists and interpretivists" and he describes her as "a preeminent psychological anthropologist as well as the premier anthropological authority on trance, possession, and altered states of consciousness."
Comparable studies
Other qualitative studies on shamanism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| "Plantas con madre": plants that teach and guide in the shamanic initiation process in the East-Central Peruvian Amazon. Curanderos, apprentices, and herbalists in East-Central Peru, including Mestizo,... | 2011 | Qualitative study | n = 36 |
| Purging and the body in the therapeutic use of ayahuasca Healers and participants in shamanic tourism contexts of the Peruvian Amazon and... | 2019 | Ethnography with literature review | n = 227 |
| The Globalization of Ayahuasca Shamanism and the Erasure of Indigenous Shamanism Western tourists and indigenous peoples in Iquitos, Peru | 2016 | Ethnography | |
| Shamanism and Rock Art in Far Western North America Historic hunter-gatherer cultures of California and the Great Basin | 1992 | Ethnographic review and analysis | |
| Working with “La Medicina”: Elements of Healing in Contemporary Ayahuasca Rituals Ayahuasqueros and Western participants in shamanic tourism in Iquitos, Peru | 2012 | Ethnography |