IRIS
December 15, 2019
Gabriella Brusa-Zappellini
L’art pariétal du Paléolithique supérieur présente, à côté d’un extraordinaire répertoire animalier bien diversifié, un grand nombre de signes qui ne trouvent pas d’équivalents dans la perception de la réalité sensible. Tandis que les images des humains ou des créatures mi-humaines mi-animales sont très rares, ces formes aniconiques, souvent géométrisantes et aisément classifiables, sont...
Online Journal of Complementary & Alternative Medicine
December 10, 2019
S. Krippner
Shamanic rituals typically consist of induction, deepening, suggestion, and enactment, the same stages that characterize most forms of contemporary hypnosis. Shamans claim to obtain information in ways not typically available to their peers, such as “visions” and “journeys.” They use this information to help and to heal community members. Tribal members who did not respond to the shaman’s...
Religion and Theology
December 10, 2019
P. Craffert
1 citation
The almost complete absence of any reference to the terms shaman and shamanism in Biblical Studies has its roots in the historical prejudice in Western scholarship against them, and originated from colonial ethnocentrism and Christian notions of superiority. However, the shaman, defined as a practitioner who based on the alteration of ordinary consciousness serves a community with particular...
Slovenský národopis / Slovak Ethnology
December 1, 2019
T. Bužeková
10 citations
Abstract Neo-shamanism or urban shamanism is a movement which concentrates on spiritual healing and aims to revive traditional shamanism. The aim of the paper is to explore the legitimation of charismatic neo-shamanic healers in relation to biomedicine which is a dominant authoritative body of medical knowledge in European societies. The paper presents the results of ethnographic research on...
Dance Research
November 19, 2019
Carole Kew
Mary Wigman's expressive dance (Ausdruckstanz) was a significant strand within Weimar dance that, although new in its inception, featured elements that recalled the ancient tradition of shamanic dance. Drawing on articles from the Weimar period and recent accounts of shamanism, as well as Wigman's own writing, this essay explores how this new but ancient practice acted as the foundational...
Eurasian Studies
November 14, 2019
Rosanna Budelli
Abstract: The story of the goldsmith Ḥasan al-Baṣrī in the Arabian Nights preserves numerous traces of more ancient stories and testimonies of cultures apparently distant geographically and historically. In particular, it is possible to identify various elements that refer to the symbols and customs of shamanism, although transformed and rewritten according to the Arab-Islamic culture. The same...
Eurasian Journal of Religious Studies
October 20, 2019
V. Kudashov, K. Begalinova, A. Begalinov
1 citation
The article deals with the problems of shamanism and its fate in the context of globalization. Nature is revealed, the essence of this unique phenomenon, dating back to the most ancient religious beliefs and continuing to live in modern conditions. The authors show that in the minds of most people in the past the idea was prevailing that the world is inhabited by many good and evil spirits, and...
Vestnik Tomskogo gosudarstvennogo universiteta
October 1, 2019
E. Nam
The article presents a phenomenological analysis of corporeality followed up by an analysis of key elements of shamanic ideolo-gy and practice by means of interpreting primary corporal and corporal-semantic situations. It is argued that the body acts as a media-tor between experience and the meaning this experience generates, and thus the body is the primary carrier of meaning as well as the...
Social Science & Medicine
August 31, 2019
Evgenia Fotiou, Alex K. Gearin
86 citations
Ayahuasca is a psychoactive plant mixture used in ceremonial contexts throughout Western Amazonia. Its use has expanded globally in recent decades and become popular among westerners who travel to the Peruvian Amazon in increasing numbers to experience its reportedly healing effects. Through a review of relevant literature on Amazonian shamanism, combined with the authors' ethnographic data...
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
June 4, 2019
Melanie J Miller, Juan Albarracin-Jordan, Christine K. Moore et al.
171 citations
Over several millennia, various native plant species in South America have been used for their healing and psychoactive properties. Chemical analysis of archaeological artifacts provides an opportunity to study the use of psychoactive plants in the past and to better understand ancient botanical knowledge systems. Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS/MS) was used to analyze...
Journal of Psychedelic Studies
June 1, 2019
Tom Hatsis
A commonly misunderstood area of Western psychedelic history involves psychoactive ointments that have become part of popular lore during the early modern and Renaissance eras. These substances amorphously considered as “flying ointments” have various histories. This paper addresses four separate histories regarding these beliefs: (a) one conveyed in the writings of anthropologist Michael...
Sibirskie istoricheskie issledovaniya
June 1, 2019
Валентина Ивановна Харитонова
3 citations
Я ИДУ СКВОЗЬ ТЕБЯ»: К ВОПРОСУ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЯ
Journal of Psychedelic Studies
June 1, 2019
Michael Winkelman
63 citations
This introduction to the special issue reviews research that supports the hypothesis that psychedelics, particularly psilocybin, were central features in the development of religion. The greater response of the human serotonergic system to psychedelics than is the case for chimpanzees’ serotonergic receptors indicates that these substances were environmental factors that affected hominin...
NeuroQuantology
May 31, 2019
A. Saniotis
Since prehistory, shapeshifting has been a feature of several shamanic societies. Shapeshifting refers to a physical transformation of a shaman into an animal; and second, a shaman or other person behaving like a specific animal. This phenomenon has informed several mythological traditions. Prehistoric and extant shapeshifting provides a platform for understanding transformative elements of...
National Academy of Managerial Staff of Culture and Arts Herald
May 28, 2019
L. Shynkaruk, T. Danylova, O. Fedyk
The purpose of the study is to explore neo-shamanism as a cultural, spiritual and psychological phenomenon through the lens of polycultural space of postmodernity. Methodology of the study. The authors have used integrative anthropological approach, multidisciplinary analysis, comparative, cultural-historical, and descriptive methods. The scientific novelty. Rejecting classical rationality,...
Anthropology Today
April 1, 2019
Ruth Goldstein
37 citations
Elaborating on conversational exchanges with a Brazilian shaman about biopiracy and interweaving scholarly literature from the ontological and ‘botanical’ turn, the author examines the disciplinary as well as the political ramifications of plant healers and practitioners – particularly indigenous ones – going largely uncited in plant‐centred discussions. In Brazil, indigenous claims for...
Journal of Humanistic Psychology
March 1, 2019
David Kowalewski
A surprising development over the past half-century has been the revival of the ancient tradition of shamanism. Evidence for the renaissance is everywhere. But what is going on? I offer a structural view, suggesting that a global–historical conjuncture is responsible. The most important structures of civilization—governments, religions, sciences—have all suffered from popular alienation, most...
Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis
January 16, 2019
Birgitte Sonne
The professional ecstatic is a religious specialist, who has become recognized as a person able to carry out an ecstatic ritual, corresponding with the local cultural expectations in force. The ecstatic ritual per se comprises a number of persons, i.e. it is a collective ritual. Part of the criteria that may be employed as a measure of the professional ecstatic's social status, is covered by...
Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis
January 16, 2019
Anna-Leena Siikala
21 citations
Changes in the field of observation and body image, attenuated grasp of reality and self-control, which may lead to identification with authority in the case of the shaman with supranormal powers, are all identifying features of shamanic ecstasy. It also appears that some of the basic elements of the shamanic tradition can be explained on the basis of typical marks of identification of altered...
International Journal of Psychotherapy Practice and Research
January 2, 2019
Jan M. Keppel Hesselink, Jan M. Keppel Hesselink
Since the 2nd part of last century neo-shamanic rituals using mind-altering extracts from plants or animals have become increasingly popular in Europe and the USA. The first rituals coming to the west were based on drinking a special Amazonian tea, Ayahuasca, based on 2 different plants, with active compounds belonging to the class of the beta-carbolines (harmala alkaloids) and tryptamines. The...