The Experts below are selected from a list of 12915 Experts worldwide ranked by ideXlab platform
Robert J. Wallis - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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Historical Dictionary of Shamanism
2020Co-Authors: Graham Harvey, Robert J. WallisAbstract:Few religious traditions have generated such diversity and stirred imaginations as Shamanism. In their engagements with other worlds, shamans have conversed with animals and ancestors and have been empowered with the knowledge to heal patients, advise hunters, and curse enemies. Still other shamans, aided by rhythmic music or powerful plant helpers, undertake journeys into different realities where their actions negotiate harmony between human and other than human communities. Once relegated to paintings on cave walls, today Shamanism can be seen in performances at rave clubs and psychotherapeutic clinics. The Historical Dictionary of Shamanism has the duel task of exploring the common ground of shamanic traditions and evaluating the diversity of both traditional indigenous communities and individual Western seekers. This is done in an introduction, a bibliography, a chronology, and hundreds of cross-referenced dictionary entries, which explore the consistent features of a variety of shamans, the purposes Shamanism serves, the function and activities of the shaman, and the cultural contexts in which they make sense.
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Shamans/Neo-Shamans: Ecstasies, Alternative Archaeologies and Contemporary Pagans
2003Co-Authors: Robert J. WallisAbstract:List of illustrations Preface Acknowledgements Introduction A Native at Home: Producing Ethnographic Fragments of Neo-Shamanisms 1. 'White-Shamans': Sources for Neo-Shamans 2. Plastic Medicine Men? Appraising the 'Great Pretenders' 3. Taliesin's Trip, Wyrd Woden: Druid and Heathen Neo-Shamans 4. 'Celtic' and 'Northern' Shamanisms? Contesting the Past 5. 'Sacred' Sites? Neo-Shamans and Prehistoric Heritage 6. Waking Neolithic Ancestors: Further Controversies and 'Reburial' 7. Invading Anthros, Thieving Archos, Wannabe Indians: Academics, Neo-Shamans and Indigenous Communities Conclusion: Neo-Shamans in Post-modernity Appendix Resolution of the 5th Annual Meeting of the Tradition Elders Circle & AIM Resolution References Index
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queer shamans autoarchaeology and neo Shamanism
World Archaeology, 2000Co-Authors: Robert J. WallisAbstract:Neo-Shamanism is a largely unexplored spiritual practice among Western peoples that, by virtue of its queerness, has pressing implications for archaeologists. In their practices, Druidic neo-shamans increasingly make pilgrimages to ancient sites and express strong views on the socio-politics of their presentation and management. Rather than avoid the 'fringe' and dismiss these engagements with archaeology outright, as a normative archaeology tends to, I explore Druidic neo-Shamanism from a queer perspective; a predominantly self-conscious, self-reflective standpoint. This autoarchaeology, outside normative archaeological inquiry, recognizes aspects of the 'fringe' that archaeologists prefer to ignore, such as a British reburial issue. My findings are not wholly polemical since current relations between site managers and neo-shamans look towards future harmonizing engagements.
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Altered States, Conflicting Cultures: Shamans, Neo‐shamans and Academics
Anthropology of Consciousness, 1999Co-Authors: Robert J. WallisAbstract:In anthropology, archaeology and popular culture, Shamanism may be one of the most used, abused and misunderstood terms, to date. Researchers are increasingly recognizing the socio-political roles of altered states of consciousness and Shamanism in past and present societies, yet the rise of Neo-Shamanism and its implications for academics and their subjects of study are consistently neglected. Moreover, many academics marginalize "neo-shamans," and neo-shamanic interaction with anthropology, archaeology and indigenous peoples is often regarded as neocolonialism. To complicate the matter, indigenous peoples express multivocal opinions of neo-Shamanism, from blatant condemnation to active encouragement. I first trace the roots of neo-Shamanism in order to compare neo-shamanic and academic approaches. Criticisms of neo-Shamanism as expressed by academic and native critics are presented, and I suggest these conflicting views are potentially reconcilable. Essentially, post-processualist praxis should be implemented via programs of research and communication.
Antti Lahelma - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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between the worlds rock art landscape and Shamanism in subneolithic finland
Norwegian Archaeological Review, 2005Co-Authors: Antti LahelmaAbstract:The Finnish rock paintings, dated to ca. 5000–1500 cal. BC, form a significant but so far relatively poorly known body of rock art in Northern Europe. The paintings are made with red ochre on steep cliffs rising at lakeshores and typically feature images of elks, men, boats, handprints and geometric designs. Traditional interpretations associate the art with Shamanism. This interpretation, it is argued, finds additional support from the presence of a group of images that appear to portray experiences of metamorphosis, of falling in trance and of summoning zoomorphic spirit helper beings. Moreover, the location of the paintings can similarly be viewed in the light of a shamanistic cosmology. Ethnographic analogies are sought in aspects of Saami Shamanism and the cult of the sieidi, rock formations worshipped as expressing a supernatural power.
Maria Cruz Berrocal - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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analogical evidence and Shamanism in archaeological interpretation south african and european palaeolithic rock art
Norwegian Archaeological Review, 2011Co-Authors: Maria Cruz BerrocalAbstract:Rock art studies have been strongly reliant on ethnography in recent decades. Since the 1970s, the (re)turn to ethnography has been considered short of a paradigmatic change, and it has indeed stirred a lot of theoretical discussion in the very under-theorized field of rock art research. The ethnographic turn has been mainly built around Shamanism, very loosely defined here as the causal association that researchers establish between shamanic practices and rock art, and from which explanations have been sought. The application of this approach has changed through time, depending on 1) the archaeological context in which it was to be applied, 2) the use of additional sources of evidence (namely, neuropsychology), 3) the role of Shamanism as a hypothesis or as an established fact. As a hypothesis it has been built on the basis of three different kinds of analogies: ethnographic, formal and uniformitarian. This paper addresses the shifting character of Shamanism in South African and European Palaeolithic roc...
Mark Graham - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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the role of Shamanism in mesoamerican art a reassessment comments authors reply
Current Anthropology, 2002Co-Authors: Ceceliaf. Klein, Elisac. Mandell, Eulogio Guzman, Maya Stanfieldmazzi, Claudefrancois Baudez, James A Brown, Christopher Chippindale, David A Freidel, Peter T Furst, Mark GrahamAbstract:Increasing numbers of scholars are relying on the concept of Shamanism to interpret pre-Columbian artworks without examining its origins and questioning its viability. This essay explores the historical roots of this field's romance with the shaman and offers an explanation of its appeal. We argue that by avoiding such terms as priest, doctor, and political leader, the words shaman and Shamanism have helped scholars to other pre-Columbian peoples by portraying them as steeped in magic and the spiritual. We begin with a look at when, where, and why this reductive representation emerged in pre-Columbian art studies, suggesting that it originated as an idealist aversion to materialist explanations of human behavior. We then examine the sources and validity of the principal criteria used by Pre-Columbianists to identify Shamanism in works of art and look at some possible reasons for Shamanism's popularity among them. We conclude that there is a pressing need to create a more refined, more nuanced terminology that would distinguish, cross-culturally, among the many different kinds of roles currently lumped together under the vague and homogenizing rubric of shaman.
Ceceliaf. Klein - One of the best experts on this subject based on the ideXlab platform.
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The Role of Shamanism in Mesoamerican Art
Current Anthropology, 2015Co-Authors: Ceceliaf. Klein, Eulogio Guzmn, Elisac. Mandell, Maya Stanfield-mazziAbstract:Increasing numbers of scholars are relying on the concept of Shamanism to interpret preColumbian artworks without examining its origins and questioning its viability. This essay explores the historical roots of this fields romance with the shaman and offers an explanation of its appeal. We argue that by avoiding such terms as priest, doctor, and political leader, the words shaman and Shamanism have helped scholars to other preColumbian peoples by portraying them as steeped in magic and the spiritual. We begin with a look at when, where, and why this reductive representation emerged in preColumbian art studies, suggesting that it originated as an idealist aversion to materialist explanations of human behavior. We then examine the sources and validity of the principal criteria used by PreColumbianists to identify Shamanism in works of art and look at some possible reasons for Shamanisms popularity among them. We conclude that there is a pressing need to create a more refined, more nuanced terminology that w...
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the role of Shamanism in mesoamerican art a reassessment comments authors reply
Current Anthropology, 2002Co-Authors: Ceceliaf. Klein, Elisac. Mandell, Eulogio Guzman, Maya Stanfieldmazzi, Claudefrancois Baudez, James A Brown, Christopher Chippindale, David A Freidel, Peter T Furst, Mark GrahamAbstract:Increasing numbers of scholars are relying on the concept of Shamanism to interpret pre-Columbian artworks without examining its origins and questioning its viability. This essay explores the historical roots of this field's romance with the shaman and offers an explanation of its appeal. We argue that by avoiding such terms as priest, doctor, and political leader, the words shaman and Shamanism have helped scholars to other pre-Columbian peoples by portraying them as steeped in magic and the spiritual. We begin with a look at when, where, and why this reductive representation emerged in pre-Columbian art studies, suggesting that it originated as an idealist aversion to materialist explanations of human behavior. We then examine the sources and validity of the principal criteria used by Pre-Columbianists to identify Shamanism in works of art and look at some possible reasons for Shamanism's popularity among them. We conclude that there is a pressing need to create a more refined, more nuanced terminology that would distinguish, cross-culturally, among the many different kinds of roles currently lumped together under the vague and homogenizing rubric of shaman.
