The Beauty of the Primitive: Shamanism and Western ImaginationOxford University Press, 2007 M07 16 - 464 páginas For the past forty years shamanism has drawn increasing attention among the general public and academics. There is an enormous literature on shamanism, but no one has tried to understand why and how Western intellectual and popular culture became so fascinated with the topic. Behind fictional and non-fictional works on shamanism, Andrei A. Znamenski uncovers an exciting story that mirrors changing Western attitudes toward the primitive. The Beauty of the Primitive explores how shamanism, an obscure word introduced by the eighteenth-century German explorers of Siberia, entered Western humanities and social sciences, and has now become a powerful idiom used by nature and pagan communities to situate their spiritual quests and anti-modernity sentiments. The major characters of The Beauty of the Primitive are past and present Western scholars, writers, explorers, and spiritual seekers with a variety of views on shamanism. Moving from Enlightenment and Romantic writers and Russian exile ethnographers to the anthropology of Franz Boas to Mircea Eliade and Carlos Castaneda, Znamenski details how the shamanism idiom was gradually transplanted from Siberia to the Native American scene and beyond. He also looks into the circumstances that prompted scholars and writers at first to marginalize shamanism as a mental disorder and then to recast it as high spiritual wisdom in the 1960s and the 1970s. Linking the growing interest in shamanism to the rise of anti-modernism in Western culture and intellectual life, Znamenski examines the role that anthropology, psychology, environmentalism, and Native Americana have played in the emergence of neo-shamanism. He discusses the sources that inspire Western neo-shamans and seeks to explain why lately many of these spiritual seekers have increasingly moved away from non-Western tradition to European folklore. A work of intellectual discovery, The Beauty of the Primitive shows how scholars, writers, and spiritual seekers shape their writings and experiences to suit contemporary cultural, ideological, and spiritual needs. With its interdisciplinary approach and engaging style, it promises to be the definitive account of this neglected strand of intellectual history. |
Dentro del libro
Resultados 1-5 de 77
Página vii
... northern European ancestry. Jim is a real estate agent, and Caroline works in the University of Alaska health system. They are highly educated people, voracious readers, and very tolerant of other cultures, experiences, and religions ...
... northern European ancestry. Jim is a real estate agent, and Caroline works in the University of Alaska health system. They are highly educated people, voracious readers, and very tolerant of other cultures, experiences, and religions ...
Página 7
... northern Scandinavia. To contemporary Europeans, the latter were classic magicians and sorcerers. Incidentally, Strahlenberg was also the first to report about the hallucinogenic effects of the fly mushroom. At the same time, the way he ...
... northern Scandinavia. To contemporary Europeans, the latter were classic magicians and sorcerers. Incidentally, Strahlenberg was also the first to report about the hallucinogenic effects of the fly mushroom. At the same time, the way he ...
Página 8
... northern Altai, among the Shor people, whom he called Tatars and the Teleut, Mu ̈ller had a chance to observe a shamanistic se ́ance. The whole performance did not impress him: ''It suffices for me to say that all of them [se ́ances] ...
... northern Altai, among the Shor people, whom he called Tatars and the Teleut, Mu ̈ller had a chance to observe a shamanistic se ́ance. The whole performance did not impress him: ''It suffices for me to say that all of them [se ́ances] ...
Página 12
... northern Asian shamanism and Hindu beliefs were polytheistic pointed to the genetic ''Indian connection'' in shamanism. The historian also reasoned that if Buddhism had spread from India to Tibet, China, Mongolia, and even to Siberia ...
... northern Asian shamanism and Hindu beliefs were polytheistic pointed to the genetic ''Indian connection'' in shamanism. The historian also reasoned that if Buddhism had spread from India to Tibet, China, Mongolia, and even to Siberia ...
Página 14
... northern and even central Asian natives all described their priests and magicians by the word schaman.20 The philosopher believed that the Buddhist samaneans, proto-shamans, were squeezed northward as a result of their conflict with ...
... northern and even central Asian natives all described their priests and magicians by the word schaman.20 The philosopher believed that the Buddhist samaneans, proto-shamans, were squeezed northward as a result of their conflict with ...
Contenido
3 | |
Regionalists Anthropologists and Exiled Ethnographers | 39 |
Shamans through the Eyes of Psychology | 79 |
Psychedelic Culture Meets Tribal Spirituality | 121 |
Mircea Eliade and Carlos Castaneda | 165 |
6 Anthropology Castanedas Healing Fiction and Neoshamanism Print Culture | 205 |
Shamanism in the Modern West | 233 |
From Native Americana to European Pagan Folklore | 273 |
Adventures of the Metaphor in Its Motherland | 321 |
Epilogue | 363 |
Notes | 371 |
Bibliographical Essay | 417 |
Index | 425 |
Otras ediciones - Ver todas
The Beauty of the Primitive: Shamanism and Western Imagination Andrei A. Znamenski Vista previa limitada - 2007 |
The Beauty of the Primitive: Shamanism and Western Imagination Andrei A. Znamenski Vista previa limitada - 2007 |
The Beauty of the Primitive: Shamanism and Western Imagination Andrei A. Znamenski Vista previa limitada - 2007 |
Términos y frases comunes
academic American Indian ancient anthropologist archaic arctic hysteria ayahuasca became began behavior beliefs Black Elk Bogoras Buryat Carlos Castaneda Celtic ceremonies Christian classic contemporary core shamanism countercultural cultural Czaplicka Don Juan ecstasy edited Eliade Eliade’s esotericism ethnographic European Evenki eventually example experiences explorers famous fly agaric folklore Furst Gordon Wasson hallucinogens Harner healers healing Huichol human Ibid indigenous spirituality intellectual journey Lakota magic manism medicine Michael Harner Mircea Eliade modern mushroom Native American spirituality native spiritual nature neo-shamanism non-Western Nordic North America northern person peyote plastic shamans popular Potanin primitive psychedelic Radloff reality regionalists religion ritual Romantic Russian sacred Sakha scholar scholarship session Shaman’s Drum shamanism practitioners Shirokogoroff Siberian shamanism social society Soviet spir spiritual practices spiritual practitioners spiritual seekers stressed Sun Bear Sun Dance symbolism techniques tradition tribal spiritual Tungus turned Tuva Tuvan University vision Wasson Western seekers woman writer wrote York