Anthropology of Consciousness
December 1, 1999
Eva Jane Neumann Fridman
1 citation
In the regeneration of shamanism in Buryatia, kinship and locale play a significant and, indeed, determining role. Shamans, as representatives of their clans and kinship lines, are the intermediaries between people and the sacred, between people and the spirits in nature, in particular spirits of a specific locale which is linked historically to a clan and to the ancestors who have been buried...
Anthropology of Consciousness
December 1, 1999
Andrei Vinogradov
3 citations
This paper is a brief survey of the history of Altai shamanism in the 20th Century, and of the main influences, both from "inside" (from within the Altai community) and from the outside onto shamanic beliefs and practices of the Altai, especially onto the shamanic revival. Based on my experiences living in 1988 and 1989 in Gorny Altai, the paper reports on aspects of present‐day shamanism, and...
Ancient Mesoamerica
July 1, 1999
Carolyn E. Tate
This article takes two new approaches to the “enigmas” of La Venta. First, it examines the form of the site in relation to the region from which the La Ventans procured their stone: primarily, the Isthmus of Tehuantepec. La Venta's north–south axis pointed to the nearest high mountain south of the site. The bar-and-four-dots design on the Mosaic Pavements corresponded to the duality of the...
Inner Asia
1999
Manduhai Buyandelgeriyn
AbstractThe number of shamans among the Buriats of Dornod in Mongolia has been dramatically increasing since the mid 1980s, when the gradual dissolution of the socialist system and Soviet domination took place. By placing the shamanic practices in a context of historico-political changes, the paper questions what constitutes a shamanic practice and what makes and what unmakes a shaman nowadays....
Journal of Psychoactive Drugs
December 1, 1998
Ralph Metzner
140 citations
Western psychotherapy and indigenous shamanic healing systems have both used psychoactive drugs or plants for healing and obtaining knowledge (called "diagnosis" or "divination" respectively). While there are superficial similarities between psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy and shamanic healing with hallucinogenic plants, there are profound differences in the underlying worldview and...
American Ethnologist
November 1, 1998
Shane Greene
In this article I juxtapose and integrate three distinct but interrelated lines of analysis: (1) a critique of “development” with respect to its (misconceptions of ethnomedicines as epistemologically and practically (that is, culturally) static; (2) an explication of how shamanic curing epitomizes such perceived stasis; and (3) an ethnographic analysis of a specific shamanic session (originally...
Pomegranate
November 1, 1998
Jenny Blain
The Saga of Eirik the Red describes the visit of a spákona, a seeress, to a Greenland farm, one thousand years ago. Her clothing and shoes, her staff and cloak, are detailed. She is asked to predict the progress of the community; she eats a meal of the hearts of the farm animals, and the next day a “high seat” is made ready for her, where she will sit to foretell. She engages in ritual...
Anthropology of Consciousness
June 1, 1998
Ana Mariella Bacigalupo
13 citations
Since the cessation of Mapuche guerrilla warfare against Chileans in 1881, machis who are predominantly women, have progressively incorporated aspects of traditional warring into their shamanic healing and performance of collective nguiUatun rituals. Guns, knives, war cries, and male pre‐war bonding acts are used by machis to "kill" or "defeat" illness, evil, and the effects of acculturation on...
Anthropology of Consciousness
March 1, 1998
David S. Whitley
68 citations
The combination of ethnographic and cognitive neuroscience research provides considerable insight into the origin and symbolism of Native Californian rock art. Although made by different social groups for different purposes in various parts of the state, the ethnographic record demonstrates that the art depicts the mental imagery and somatic hallucinations of trance, taken to represent...
Journal of Near-Death Studies
1998
Judith L. Green
5 citations
Article discussing the overlap between shamanism and near-death experiences (NDEs) and suggesting that the study of shamanism would be helpful in more fully understanding this phenomena and beginning the development of an applied methodology. Although it may be difficult to verify subjective accounts of NDEs and shamanic journeys, from a clinical standpoint it may not be necessary to do so in...