Ambiguous Relations
Joe Ellis
Current Anthropology June 16, 2026 DOI: 10.1086/741916 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Theoretical or philosophical paper Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Topics | Shamanism |
| Keywords | Ambiguity Conceptualization Argument complex analysis Contradiction Context archaeology Politics Reductionism |
| Key points | Argues that women's shamanic practice in Ulaanbaatar's ger districts emerges amid domestic violence, yet resists functionalist causation. Proposes that ritual ambiguity, not resolution, enables women's political empowerment and capacity to challenge violence. |
Abstract
This paper examines the relationship between women in the ger districts of Ulaanbaatar who visit and become shamans and the violence they experience. It shows that in many cases, women’s engagement with shamanism arises in the context of physical violence from their husband or male kin. Yet this paper also resists functionalist explanations that render violence as the sole cause of shamanic practice. Such an account both risks dated theoretical reductionism and would speak in direct contradiction to the very claims and political tactics of women who become shamans. This paper shows that shamanic ritual is indeed a moral arena within which attributions of responsibility for violence are made. However, rather that providing a functional palliation of trauma, the ambiguity of the ritual articulates with the contradictions of intimate relations. Critically, women’s capacity to challenge violence is possible through maintaining and harnessing this shroud of ambiguity rather than removing it. This paper therefore attempts to write with this ambiguity instead of resolve it. The final argument is that a refusal of theoretical resolution can be a vehicle to a more successful conceptualization of social and gendered political empowerment rather than a failure.
Comparable studies
Other theoretical and historical papers on shamanism, most cited first.
| Study | Year | Design | Participants |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ayahuasca Shamanism in the Amazon and Beyond | 2014 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Shamanism as the Original Neurotheology | 2004 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| Cognitive Neuroscience, Shamanism and the Rock Art of Native California | 1998 | Theoretical or philosophical paper | |
| From Culture to Experience: Shamanism in the Pages of the Soviet Anti-Religious Press | 2020 | Historical analysis | |
| Anthropology, Shamanism, and Alternate Ways of Knowing–Being in the World: One Anthropologist's Journey of Discovery and Transformation | 2010 | Reflective essay or personal narrative |
Citations in the library
Cites 4
- spirits and selves in Northern Sudan: the cultural therapeutics of possession and trance American Ethnologist February 1, 1988
- Dealing with uncertainty: Shamans, marginal capitalism, and the remaking of history in postsocialist Mongolia American Ethnologist February 1, 2007
- Assembling Contexts Inner Asia April 21, 2015
- The Sakalava Poiesis of History: Realizing the Past Through Spirit Possession in Madagascar American Ethnologist May 1, 1998