Dark Shamans

Dark Shamans PDF Author: Neil L. Whitehead
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 0822384302
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 325

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Book Description
On the little-known and darker side of shamanism there exists an ancient form of sorcery called kanaimà, a practice still observed among the Amerindians of the highlands of Guyana, Venezuela, and Brazil that involves the ritual stalking, mutilation, lingering death, and consumption of human victims. At once a memoir of cultural encounter and an ethnographic and historical investigation, this book offers a sustained, intimate look at kanaimà, its practitioners, their victims, and the reasons they give for their actions. Neil L. Whitehead tells of his own involvement with kanaimà—including an attempt to kill him with poison—and relates the personal testimonies of kanaimà shamans, their potential victims, and the victims’ families. He then goes on to discuss the historical emergence of kanaimà, describing how, in the face of successive modern colonizing forces—missionaries, rubber gatherers, miners, and development agencies—the practice has become an assertion of native autonomy. His analysis explores the ways in which kanaimà mediates both national and international impacts on native peoples in the region and considers the significance of kanaimà for current accounts of shamanism and religious belief and for theories of war and violence. Kanaimà appears here as part of the wider lexicon of rebellious terror and exotic horror—alongside the cannibal, vampire, and zombie—that haunts the western imagination. Dark Shamans broadens discussions of violence and of the representation of primitive savagery by recasting both in the light of current debates on modernity and globalization.

Dark Shamans

Dark Shamans PDF Author: Neil L. Whitehead
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 0822384302
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 325

Get Book Here

Book Description
On the little-known and darker side of shamanism there exists an ancient form of sorcery called kanaimà, a practice still observed among the Amerindians of the highlands of Guyana, Venezuela, and Brazil that involves the ritual stalking, mutilation, lingering death, and consumption of human victims. At once a memoir of cultural encounter and an ethnographic and historical investigation, this book offers a sustained, intimate look at kanaimà, its practitioners, their victims, and the reasons they give for their actions. Neil L. Whitehead tells of his own involvement with kanaimà—including an attempt to kill him with poison—and relates the personal testimonies of kanaimà shamans, their potential victims, and the victims’ families. He then goes on to discuss the historical emergence of kanaimà, describing how, in the face of successive modern colonizing forces—missionaries, rubber gatherers, miners, and development agencies—the practice has become an assertion of native autonomy. His analysis explores the ways in which kanaimà mediates both national and international impacts on native peoples in the region and considers the significance of kanaimà for current accounts of shamanism and religious belief and for theories of war and violence. Kanaimà appears here as part of the wider lexicon of rebellious terror and exotic horror—alongside the cannibal, vampire, and zombie—that haunts the western imagination. Dark Shamans broadens discussions of violence and of the representation of primitive savagery by recasting both in the light of current debates on modernity and globalization.

In Darkness and Secrecy

In Darkness and Secrecy PDF Author: Neil L. Whitehead
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 082238583X
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 337

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Book Description
In Darkness and Secrecy brings together ethnographic examinations of Amazonian assault sorcery, witchcraft, and injurious magic, or “dark shamanism.” Anthropological reflections on South American shamanism have tended to emphasize shamans’ healing powers and positive influence. This collection challenges that assumption by showing that dark shamans are, in many Amazonian cultures, quite different from shamanic healers and prophets. Assault sorcery, in particular, involves violence resulting in physical harm or even death. While highlighting the distinctiveness of such practices, In Darkness and Secrecy reveals them as no less relevant to the continuation of culture and society than curing and prophecy. The contributors suggest that the persistence of dark shamanism can be understood as a form of engagement with modernity. These essays, by leading anthropologists of South American shamanism, consider assault sorcery as it is practiced in parts of Brazil, Guyana, Venezuela, and Peru. They analyze the social and political dynamics of witchcraft and sorcery and their relation to cosmology, mythology, ritual, and other forms of symbolic violence and aggression in each society studied. They also discuss the relations of witchcraft and sorcery to interethnic contact and the ways that shamanic power may be co-opted by the state. In Darkness and Secrecy includes reflections on the ethical and practical implications of ethnographic investigation of violent cultural practices. Contributors. Dominique Buchillet, Carlos Fausto, Michael Heckenberger, Elsje Lagrou, E. Jean Langdon, George Mentore, Donald Pollock, Fernando Santos-Granero, Pamela J. Stewart, Andrew Strathern, Márnio Teixeira-Pinto, Silvia Vidal, Neil L. Whitehead, Johannes Wilbert, Robin Wright

Not Quite Shamans

Not Quite Shamans PDF Author: Morten Axel Pedersen
Publisher: Cornell University Press
ISBN: 0801461413
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 265

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Book Description
The forms of contemporary society and politics are often understood to be diametrically opposed to any expression of the supernatural; what happens when those forms are themselves regarded as manifestations of spirits and other occult phenomena? In Not Quite Shamans, Morten Axel Pedersen explores how the Darhad people of Northern Mongolia's remote Shishged Valley have understood and responded to the disruptive transition to postsocialism by engaging with shamanic beliefs and practices associated with the past.For much of the twentieth century, Mongolia's communist rulers attempted to eradicate shamanism and the shamans who once served as spiritual guides and community leaders. With the transition from a collectivized economy and a one-party state to a global capitalist market and liberal democracy in the 1990s, the people of the Shishged were plunged into a new and harsh world that seemed beyond their control. "Not-quite-shamans"—young, unemployed men whose undirected energies erupted in unpredictable, frightening bouts of violence and drunkenness that seemed occult in their excess— became a serious threat to the fabric of community life. Drawing on long-term fieldwork in Northern Mongolia, Pedersen details how, for many Darhads, the postsocialist state itself has become shamanic in nature.In the ideal version of traditional Darhad shamanism, shamans can control when and for what purpose their souls travel, whether to other bodies, landscapes, or worlds. Conversely, caught between uncontrollable spiritual powers and an excessive display of physical force, the "not-quite-shamans" embody the chaotic forms—the free market, neoliberal reform, and government corruption—that have created such upheaval in peoples' lives. As an experimental ethnography of recent political and economic transformations in Mongolia through the defamiliarizing prism of shamans and their lack, Not Quite Shamans is an attempt to write about as well as theorize postsocialism, and shamanism, in a new way.

Shaman Warrior

Shaman Warrior PDF Author: Park Joong-Ki
Publisher: Dark Horse Comics
ISBN: 1593077491
Category : Comic books, strips, etc
Languages : en
Pages : 216

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Book Description
Master wizard Yarong and his faithful servant Batu are sent to remote desert wastelands on a grave mission from their king. These two mysterious warriors have yet to realize that a whirlwind of political movements and secret plots will change their lives forever. When Yarong is mortally injured, Batu must fulfill his promise to leave Yarong's side to protect his master's child. As Batu seeks to find and hide the infant, Yarong reveals another secret to those who have tracked him down to finish him off--the deadly, hidden power of a Shaman Warrior.

Shamanic Awakening

Shamanic Awakening PDF Author: Sandra Corcoran
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1591437598
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 220

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Book Description
One woman’s mystical path through grief into renewal, expanded awareness, and discovery of her own healing capabilities • Offers a lens into a wide variety of wisdomkeeping traditions and alternative healing paradigms throughout the Americas and Europe • Shows how the mystical path enables us to find renewal in times of profound loss • Details the author’s awakening to the energies of the cosmos, which can guide us toward our destiny, balanced between our soul’s dark and light energies How do you find renewal after loss, especially the loss of a child? How do you find purpose and courage when loss is your constant teacher? After weeks of profound grief following the loss of her young daughter, Sandra Corcoran found herself inexplicably at a life-changing workshop on indigenous teachings and energy healing. With the first glimpse of the light that called her to the workshop, Corcoran found herself beginning a 30-year metaphysical journey within, initially to heal her grief but eventually leading her from the darkness into the light of her own soul’s evolution. Working with Native elders and indigenous wisdomkeepers throughout North, Central, and South America, Corcoran opened her heart to the immensity of the living energies of the cosmos and discovered her shamanistic gifts as an intuitive counselor, dreamtime decoder, and facilitator for others’ self-healing. As she learned to discern these living energies and work with them, she also discovered the middle path between the soul’s dark and luminous energies, striking the balance that allows us to fulfill our destiny. Sharing the core teachings of her many indigenous and esoteric mentors, including lessons in synchronicity, metaphysics, the extraordinary power of the heart, multi-dimensional realms, and energy healing, Corcoran leads readers on an adventure across continents through birth, death, ceremony, and ritual to renewal and the frontiers of expanded consciousness. She shows that no matter how far outside of the familiar we are led, we are guided back to ourselves and offered another opportunity to embrace our world and, ultimately, find our place in it.

Shamanic Dialogues with the Invisible Dark in Tuva, Siberia

Shamanic Dialogues with the Invisible Dark in Tuva, Siberia PDF Author: Konstantinos Zorbas
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 9781527564121
Category : Incantations, Shamanist
Languages : en
Pages : 126

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Book Description
Intentional acts of â oeassault sorceryâ , involving operations of extracting the souls of unsuspecting victims or eliminating oneâ (TM)s antagonists, are central to the perceived proliferation of occult threats and shamanic assassins in Tuva, Siberia. Following the restoration of shamanism as an official religion in the region, indigenous spiritual practitioners have propagated a vindictive strand of rituals, associated with supernatural retaliation and political assassination. This book probes the unforeseen implications of state-sanctioned appropriations of religious revival, through an unsettling context of encounters with various agencies embodying â oedark shamanismâ . The invisible presence of this shamanic complex is manifested in the bookâ (TM)s presentation of a shamanâ (TM)s thoughts about an epidemic of curses, his counter-cursing rituals for Russians and ethnic Tuvans, and his dialogues with dead shamanic ancestors and spectres experiencing ideological tensions.

In Darkness and Secrecy

In Darkness and Secrecy PDF Author: Neil L. Whitehead
Publisher: Duke University Press
ISBN: 9780822333456
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 340

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Book Description
In Darkness and Secrecy brings together ethnographic examinations of Amazonian assault sorcery, witchcraft, and injurious magic, or “dark shamanism.” Anthropological reflections on South American shamanism have tended to emphasize shamans’ healing powers and positive influence. This collection challenges that assumption by showing that dark shamans are, in many Amazonian cultures, quite different from shamanic healers and prophets. Assault sorcery, in particular, involves violence resulting in physical harm or even death. While highlighting the distinctiveness of such practices, In Darkness and Secrecy reveals them as no less relevant to the continuation of culture and society than curing and prophecy. The contributors suggest that the persistence of dark shamanism can be understood as a form of engagement with modernity. These essays, by leading anthropologists of South American shamanism, consider assault sorcery as it is practiced in parts of Brazil, Guyana, Venezuela, and Peru. They analyze the social and political dynamics of witchcraft and sorcery and their relation to cosmology, mythology, ritual, and other forms of symbolic violence and aggression in each society studied. They also discuss the relations of witchcraft and sorcery to interethnic contact and the ways that shamanic power may be co-opted by the state. In Darkness and Secrecy includes reflections on the ethical and practical implications of ethnographic investigation of violent cultural practices. Contributors. Dominique Buchillet, Carlos Fausto, Michael Heckenberger, Elsje Lagrou, E. Jean Langdon, George Mentore, Donald Pollock, Fernando Santos-Granero, Pamela J. Stewart, Andrew Strathern, Márnio Teixeira-Pinto, Silvia Vidal, Neil L. Whitehead, Johannes Wilbert, Robin Wright

Shamanic Dialogues with the Invisible Dark in Tuva, Siberia

Shamanic Dialogues with the Invisible Dark in Tuva, Siberia PDF Author: Konstantinos Zorbas
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN: 1527566226
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 125

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Book Description
Intentional acts of “assault sorcery”, involving operations of extracting the souls of unsuspecting victims or eliminating one’s antagonists, are central to the perceived proliferation of occult threats and shamanic assassins in Tuva, Siberia. Following the restoration of shamanism as an official religion in the region, indigenous spiritual practitioners have propagated a vindictive strand of rituals, associated with supernatural retaliation and political assassination. This book probes the unforeseen implications of state-sanctioned appropriations of religious revival, through an unsettling context of encounters with various agencies embodying “dark shamanism”. The invisible presence of this shamanic complex is manifested in the book’s presentation of a shaman’s thoughts about an epidemic of curses, his counter-cursing rituals for Russians and ethnic Tuvans, and his dialogues with dead shamanic ancestors and spectres experiencing ideological tensions.

Shamanism [2 volumes]

Shamanism [2 volumes] PDF Author: Mariko Namba Walter
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
ISBN: 1576076466
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 1088

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Book Description
A guide to worldwide shamanism and shamanistic practices, emphasizing historical and current cultural adaptations. This two-volume reference is the first international survey of shamanistic beliefs from prehistory to the present day. In nearly 200 detailed, readable entries, leading ethnographers, psychologists, archaeologists, historians, and scholars of religion and folk literature explain the general principles of shamanism as well as the details of widely varied practices. What is it like to be a shaman? Entries describe, region by region, the traits, such as sicknesses and dreams, that mark a person as a shaman, as well as the training undertaken by initiates. They detail the costumes, music, rituals, artifacts, and drugs that shamans use to achieve altered states of consciousness, communicate with spirits, travel in the spirit world, and retrieve souls. Unlike most Western books on shamanism, which focus narrowly on the individual's experience of healing and trance, Shamanism also examines the function of shamanism in society from social, political, and historical perspectives and identifies the ancient, continuous thread that connects shamanistic beliefs and rituals across cultures and millennia.

Psychedelic Revival

Psychedelic Revival PDF Author: Sean P Lawlor
Publisher: Sounds True
ISBN: 1683649559
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 349

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Book Description
For psychotherapists and inner explorers, an expansive, multidimensional odyssey into the history, practice, and potential of psychedelic healing Now that the stigmas against psychedelic medicine are finally lifting, there’s a lot of curiosity—and confusion—about these powerful compounds. How can psychedelics be used safely? What are the risks? Can they truly help heal the wide variety of conditions that has garnered such international attention? In Psychedelic Revival, Sean Lawlor invites you on a deep dive into the science, spirituality, and practice of psychedelic healing—a revival of both the first wave of pre-1960s research and ancient healing traditions with plant medicines. Join this respected author and researcher to gain a full-spectrum understanding of the possibilities and limits of psychedelics, including: • The Western history of psychedelic medicine and recreational use • The millennium-spanning legacy of Indigenous plant medicine traditions • In-depth chapters on psilocybin, LSD, MDMA, ketamine, mescaline, ibogaine, peyote, ayahuasca, DMT, and more • Practical insights, from microdosing to psychedelic-assisted psychotherapy to transformative mystical experiences • The shadow dimensions of psychedelics—bad trips, scientific stigmatization, inequality of access, and many other essential topics Informed by solid research and direct wisdom from perceptive firsthand accounts, Lawlor guides you into the psychedelic landscape, covering treatment methods, realistic benefits, and the legitimate perils psychedelics can induce. Along the way, he shares exclusive interviews with luminaries such as Michael Pollan, Rick Doblin, Camille Barton, Carl Hart, Jim Fadiman, Rick Strassman, Natalie Ginsberg, Sandor Iron Rope, and many more. Psychedelics have tremendous healing potential, yet all evocative modalities should be handled with care. To make good choices, we need quality information about the prospects and pitfalls of these emerging therapeutic tools. Psychedelic Revival is an invaluable resource for navigating this exciting frontier in Western healing.