Sorcery and well-being: bodily transformation at Beckeranta.
Anthropology & medicine March 2021 DOI: 10.1080/13648470.2020.1807726 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis Peer reviewed |
|---|---|
| Population | Amerindians of the Mount Roraima border region (Brazil, Guyana, Venezuela) in the 1840s, as described in a single historical account |
| Topics | Shamanism |
| Keywords | Guyana Well-being Bodily transformation Millenarianism Sorcery |
| Key points | Argues that the 1840s Beckeranta millenarian movement, whose sole historical account describes up to 400 Amerindians reportedly killed in a quest for bodily transformation into white people, shows how sorcery and shamanism work 'beyond the body'. The paper contends that such bodily transformations, often activated by strong emotions, can be tied to desires for well-being, and that Amazonian notions of bodily transformation can expand medical anthropology's concepts of the body. |
Abstract
This paper examines bodily transformation and well-being within the context of a millenarian movement that emerged during the 1840s in the area surrounding Mount Roraima at the periphery of Brazil, Guyana (British Guiana at the time), and Venezuela. The site of this movement was Beckeranta - meaning 'Land of the Whites' - where up to 400 Amerindians were reportedly killed in a quest that is described in its sole historical account as centred around a goal of bodily transformation into white people. In examining this movement, the paper engages with longstanding debates in medical anthropology concerning the body, as well as conversations among Amazonianists concerning the social formation of bodies, and examines sorcery and shamanism as practices that go 'beyond the body'. Notions of bodily transformation in Amazonia, which are often activated by strong emotions, facilitate conceptual expansions of the body in medical anthropology. The paper suggests that bodily transformations tied to sorcery and shamanism are in some contexts, such as at Beckeranta, associated with desires for well-being.Supplemental data for this article is available online at https://doi.org/10.1080/13648470.2020.1807726.
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 |