May 11, 2020
Danielle Bastos Lopes
This paper is the result of anthropological research conducted among the Mbya - Guarani, from the Southeast of Brazil and Northern Argentina. Based on the ethnographic method, the paper analyzes indigenous schooling through the shamanism plan and the different conceptions of body, knowledge, and notions of indigenous persons. This study discusses the conflicts between school and alterities,...
May 1, 2020
F. Apffel-Marglin
This chapter advocates for integral ecological healing, particularly by attending to the practices of indigenous Amazonian communities. The use of psychedelic plant medicines in Amazonian shamanism exemplifies the kind of non-rational ways of knowing that expand human consciousness beyond the individual ego and into intimate communion with the more-than-human world.
Человек и культура
May 1, 2020
Nataliia Ksenofontovna Danilova
The object of this research is ritual attributes applied in different ceremonies, associated with the spirits Ichchi and celestial deities of Aya, which possess a superior modeling and communicative function. The article describes the ritual sacred items that were not used in everyday life, such as the sacrificial spoon of the Aya-shaman, kumis ladle, fortunetelling spoon, and spatula of the...
Latin American Culture and the Limits of the Human
May 1, 2020
Joey Whitfield
Ciro Guerra’s El abrazo de la serpiente (2015) pushes at the limits of the human in several ways. It addresses the genocidal consequences of extractive capitalism, the transcendent promise of both shamanism and religious fanaticism, and communication between humans, animals, and plants, especially via the use of hallucinogenic plants such as ayahuasca. Set in a similar upper Amazon context to...
April 27, 2020
Aline Souza
Shamanism and health: sociocultural approach. In the current context of a globalized world, shamanism can be interpreted as something primitive, archaic or outdated, especially when related to health. This study is a literature review on the different adhered to demonstrate the shamanic universe as a cosmological and cosmopolitical system. It shows the central role of shaman present not only in...
English language notes
April 1, 2020
Enrique Bernales Albites
Abstract:In Ciro Guerra's film Embrace of the Serpent (2015), cultural exchanges between the central characters reveal the origin narratives and the curative power of plants valued by Indigenous cultures of the Amazon. This article analyzes how Embrace of the Serpent expresses Indigenous rationality in the origin narratives as the shaman Karamakate confronts Western travelers and scientists....
March 1, 2020
F. Watts
Several accounts of the evolution of religion distinguish two phases: an earlier shamanic stage and a later doctrinal stage. Similarly, several theories of human cognition distinguish two cognitive modes: a phylogenetically older system that is largely intuitive and a later, more distinctively human system that is more rational and articulate. This article suggests that cognition in the earlier...
Ethos
March 2020
Tony V Pham, Rishav Koirala, Brandon A Kohrt
To explore the relationship between traditional healers and conventional psychotherapy, we conducted a combined ethnographic study and structured observational rating of healers in the middle hill region of central Nepal. We conducted in-depth interviews and ethnographic observations of healing with 84 participants comprising 29 traditional healers and 55 other community members. Overall, our...
Anthropology of Consciousness
March 1, 2020
Charles D. Laughlin, Melanie Takahashi
AbstractThe authors, both anthropologists who study alternative states of consciousness (ASC), explore the psychodynamics of mystical experience (ME). An affect that is a key factor for and integral to the phenomenology of ME is what they term “mystical love.” In many respects, ME refers to ASC that is diametrically opposite to everyday ego‐centered, materialist consciousness. In this article...
Nova Religio: The Journal of Alternative and Emergent Religions
February 1, 2020
Christopher Partridge
119 citations
This article discusses the relationship between inner space (the mind/consciousness) and perceptions of outer space (the extraterrestrial) in Western psychedelic cultures. In particular, it analyses the writings and lectures of Terence McKenna, the most influential psychedelic thinker since the 1960s. Assimilating a broad range of ideas taken from esotericism, shamanism, and science fiction,...