De-historification (1944–1948): Shamanic Magic and the Dialectic Movement between Mircea Eliade and Claude Lévi-Strauss
Flavio A. Geisshuesler
April 23, 2021 DOI: 10.1163/9789004457720_006 (opens in new tab)
Study at a glance
AI-extracted from the abstract| Characteristics | Historical analysis |
|---|---|
| Topics | Shamanism |
| Citations | 1 |
| Key points | The text traces de Martino's delayed engagement with Eliade: after Macchioro recommended Eliade's Yoga in 1936, de Martino left no traces of Eliade for a decade, omitted his 1946 shamanism article from The World of Magic, then praised Techniques of Yoga (1948) in a review, endorsing Eliade's interpretation of yoga as an archaic aspiration to abolish history and renew 'archetype time.' |
Abstract
The Integration of Eliade and Lévi-Strauss: Sacred Poles and Songs of Labor as Forms of De-historification After Vittorio Macchioro recommended Eliade's Yoga: An Essay on the Origins of Indian Mysticism (1936) to his new son-in-law shortly after its publication, de Martino's legacy leaves no traces of the Romanian giant for a decade.1Even though Eliade's lengthy article entitled "The Problem of Shamanism" (1946) is absent in de Martino's The World of Magic,2 it is around this same time that he recommenced to engage the work of his famous Romanian counterpart.Responding to the recently published Techniques of Yoga (1948), de Martino showed himself visibly impressed with it, particularly with its sensibility for the religious conception of time and history.3His review, published in Pettazzoni's prestigious journal Studies and Materials of History of Religions,4 was generous with praise.This work by Mircea Eliade responds very well to the general requirement for the Western culture to broaden its own humanism and to renew its own problems by means of the comprehension of forms of spirituality that are ideally distant from ours.According to the author, the paradox of Yoga (reintegration in all the forms of the indistinct, in the primordial unity) can be understood in light of the archaic aspiration to abolish history, to restore the auroral state, periodically and ritually renewing the "archetype time," the time of the origins.[…] Without a doubt, this interpretation of yoga and of its techniques is extremely suggestive and incisive.5 1 Mircea Eliade, Yoga: Essai sur les origines de la mystique indienne (Paris: Geuthner, 1936). 2 Mircea Eliade, "Le problème du chamanisme," Revue de l'histoire des religions 131, no. 1 (1946): 5-52.3 Mircea Eliade, Techniques du yoga (Paris:
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 |