Not Quite Shamans

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Publisher : Cornell University Press
ISBN 13 : 0801461413
Total Pages : 265 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (14 download)

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Book Synopsis Not Quite Shamans by : Morten Axel Pedersen

Download or read book Not Quite Shamans written by Morten Axel Pedersen and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2011-04-15 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.

The Land-without-Evil

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Publisher : University of Illinois Press
ISBN 13 : 9780252063510
Total Pages : 148 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (635 download)

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Book Synopsis The Land-without-Evil by : Hélène Clastres

Download or read book The Land-without-Evil written by Hélène Clastres and published by University of Illinois Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 148 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Lands of the Shamans

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Publisher :
ISBN 13 : 9781785709555
Total Pages : pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (95 download)

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Book Synopsis Lands of the Shamans by : Dragos Gheorghiu

Download or read book Lands of the Shamans written by Dragos Gheorghiu and published by . This book was released on 2018 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Shamanism' is a term with specific anthropological roots, but which is used more generally to cover a set of interactions between a practitioner or 'shaman' and a spiritual or religious realm beyond the reach of most members of the community. It has often been considered from an anthropological viewpoint, but this book gathers the most recent studies on a subject which has not been comprehensively studied by archaeologists. By putting together experts from two continents who have studied the phenomenon of shamanism, Lands of the Shamans through carefully selected case studies uses the archaeological evidence to construct the shamans' worldview, landscape and cosmology. Recent interdisciplinary studies support the idea of the existence of shamanistic representations as long ago as the Middle/Upper Palaeolithic, but at the same time, do not follow developments during the history of humankind. As ethnographic evidence shows, shamanistic activity represents a complex phenomenon that is extremely diversified, its spiritual activity possessing a large variety of expressions in the material culture. In other words, shamanism could be defined as a series of differing spiritual world views which model the material culture and the landscape. Throughout the archaeological record of all prehistoric and historic periods, there is a series of visual representations and objects and landscape alterations that could be ascribed to these differing world views, many thought to represent shamanistic cognition and activity. The shaman's landscape reveals itself to the world as one of multifaceted spiritual and material activity. Consequently, this first book dedicated completely to the shamanistic landscape presents in fresh perspective the landscapes of the lower and upper worlds as well as their phenomenological experience. Case studies come from Europe, North America and Asia.

Shamans of the World

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Publisher : Sounds True
ISBN 13 : 1591798310
Total Pages : 365 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (917 download)

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Book Synopsis Shamans of the World by : Nancy Connor

Download or read book Shamans of the World written by Nancy Connor and published by Sounds True. This book was released on 2008-06-01 with total page 365 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What would you see if you could view the world through the eyes of a Diné healer, a Zulu High Sanusi, or a Shaker from St. Vincent Island? The answer can be found in Shamans of the World, an intimate encounter with traditional healers from nine unique indigenous cultures. Through mesmerizing firsthand accounts of miraculous transformation and healing, Shamans of the World transports you to the otherworldly reality of the shaman. Your global adventure begins in the lands of the Diné Nation, as you meet Walking Thunder, the Medicine Woman who reveals the importance of living life with full appreciation. Next, you visit Brazil and faith healers Otavia and João, who embody "a love that breaks through all boundaries of reason and rationality." South Dakota and Lakota Yuwipi Man Gary Holy Bull come next, as you glimpse at the inner life of one dedicated to the service of spirit. Then it's off to the jungles of Paraguay, where the insights of Guarani Forest Shaman Ava Tape Miri unveil the immediate unity of all creation. The traditional healers of Bali share vital lessons on balanced living, before you explore the secrets of Japan's masters of seiki jutsu. After hearing from the Shakers of St. Vincent, who use the power of mourning and ecstatic prayer to create community-based healing, you conclude your journey in Africa, where you witness the ceremonial dances of Kalahari Bushman Mabolelo Shikwe, "the man who says and knows everything." With 24 pages of full-color photographs, and poetry and prayers from the shamans themselves, Shamans of the World brings you authentic "first wisdom" directly from its source. Here is an unprecedented collection of our spiritual roots that offers a radical new understanding of the planet we share. Note: Drawn from the ten-volume Profiles of Healing series edited by Bradford Keeney and published by Ringing Rocks Foundation.

Soldiers, Saints, and Shamans

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Publisher : University of Arizona Press
ISBN 13 : 0816541027
Total Pages : 393 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (165 download)

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Book Synopsis Soldiers, Saints, and Shamans by : Nathaniel Morris

Download or read book Soldiers, Saints, and Shamans written by Nathaniel Morris and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2020-09-29 with total page 393 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Mexican Revolution gave rise to the Mexican nation-state as we know it today. Rural revolutionaries took up arms against the Díaz dictatorship in support of agrarian reform, in defense of their political autonomy, or inspired by a nationalist desire to forge a new Mexico. However, in the Gran Nayar, a rugged expanse of mountains and canyons, the story was more complex, as the region’s four Indigenous peoples fought both for and against the revolution and the radical changes it bought to their homeland. To make sense of this complex history, Nathaniel Morris offers the first systematic understanding of the participation of the Náayari, Wixárika, O’dam, and Mexicanero peoples in the Mexican Revolution. They are known for being among the least “assimilated” of all Mexico’s Indigenous peoples. It’s often been assumed that they were stuck up in their mountain homeland—“the Gran Nayar”—with no knowledge of the uprisings, civil wars, military coups, and political upheaval that convulsed the rest of Mexico between 1910 and 1940. Based on extensive archival research and years of fieldwork in the rugged and remote Gran Nayar, Morris shows that the Náayari, Wixárika, O’dam, and Mexicanero peoples were actively involved in the armed phase of the revolution. This participation led to serious clashes between an expansionist, “rationalist” revolutionary state and the highly autonomous communities and heterodox cultural and religious practices of the Gran Nayar’s inhabitants. Morris documents confrontations between practitioners of subsistence agriculture and promoters of capitalist development, between rival Indian generations and political factions, and between opposing visions of the world, of religion, and of daily life. These clashes produced some of the most severe defeats that the government’s state-building programs suffered during the entire revolutionary era, with significant and often counterintuitive consequences both for local people and for the Mexican nation as a whole.

Lamas, Shamans and Ancestors

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Author :
Publisher : BRILL
ISBN 13 : 9004167064
Total Pages : 429 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (41 download)

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Book Synopsis Lamas, Shamans and Ancestors by : Anna Balikci

Download or read book Lamas, Shamans and Ancestors written by Anna Balikci and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2008-01-01 with total page 429 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This careful study of the co-existence over time of Buddhism and shamanism among the Lhopo (Bhutia) people of Sikkim sheds new light on their supposedly hostile relationship. It examines the working relationships between Buddhist lamas and practitioners of "bon," taking into consideration the sacred history of the land as well as its more recent political and economic transformation. Their interactions are presented in terms of the contexts in which lamas and shamans meet, these being rituals of the sacred land, of the individual and household, and of village and state. Village lamas and shamans are shown to share a conceptual view of reality which is at the base of their amiable coexistence. In contrast to the hostility which, the recent literature suggests, characterizes the lama-shaman relationship, their association reveals that the real confrontation occurs when village Buddhism is challenged by its conventional counterpart.

Shamans and Kushtakas

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Publisher : Graphic Arts Books
ISBN 13 : 0882409719
Total Pages : 86 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (824 download)

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Book Synopsis Shamans and Kushtakas by : Mary Giraudo Beck

Download or read book Shamans and Kushtakas written by Mary Giraudo Beck and published by Graphic Arts Books. This book was released on 2003-06-01 with total page 86 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shaman and Kushtaka, both struck terror in the hearts of the Tlingit and Haida, for both possessed frightening supernatural powers. Among the Natives of the Pacific Northwest Coast, the shaman was honored as a person who could heal the body and spirit as well as see into the future. In his struggles to protect his people, he fought the kushtaka an evil spirit being who was half human and half land hotter for the souls of dying persons. Theirs was a battle between the forces of good and evil, and today it remains a cornerstone in Tlingit and Haida mythology. Mary Giraudo Beck provides a powerful mix of history, legend, and adventure to dramatize the values and traditions of Tlingit and Haida societies. The heroic and wondrous incidents in these stories transcend time and culture and, as tales of myth and magic, provide compelling reading for young and old alike.

Sacred Messengers of Shamanic Africa

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Publisher : Simon and Schuster
ISBN 13 : 1591432928
Total Pages : 413 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (914 download)

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Book Synopsis Sacred Messengers of Shamanic Africa by : Carley Mattimore

Download or read book Sacred Messengers of Shamanic Africa written by Carley Mattimore and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2018-07-17 with total page 413 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A guide to connecting with the wisdom and energies of ancient Africa and awakening the lion-hearted spiritual warrior within • Reveals the wisdom and love of the White Lions of Timbavati, who have returned to help us remember our divine origins • Explores how to reconnect to our original roots in Africa hidden deep within our DNA and remember our sacred contract to guard and protect the natural world • Offers shamanic journeys to connect with African power animals as well as the energetic hologram of the 31st meridian, the spine of Mother Earth It was predicted by indigenous tribes in Africa that when the White Lions return to their sacred lands in Timbavati we would be in a time of evolutionary and spiritual awakening. On Christmas Day in the year 2000, Marah the White Lion was born, the first “way-shower” to arrive and help us awaken to our divine origins, when we were one with all life in Zep Tepi, the land of first time. Our spiritual warrior selves are being summoned to heal the separation between us and nature, to be the change agents of heart, as we evolve to a higher consciousness. Exploring how to awaken to the energies and messengers of ancient Africa that reside along the 31st meridian, the spine of Mother Earth, Carley Mattimore and Linda Star Wolf take you on a journey to connect with our original roots in Africa, hidden deep within our DNA. They share shamanic journeys and teachings to connect with the strengths of Africa’s spirit animals, including the inner authority and heart of Lion, the loyalty and wisdom of Elephant, the love and compassion of Giraffe, and the shadow side of Hyena. They explore the power of shamanic sacred sites and offer teachings on the African Tree of Life and the energetic hologram of the 31st meridian. Sharing wisdom from Mhondoro Mandaza Kandemwa, Grandmother Twylah Nitsch, and other wisdom keepers, the authors explain how, as we connect with the messengers along the 31st meridian, we begin to remember our sacred contract to protect the natural world. Offering a guide to reconnect with the ancient African wisdom of love and higher consciousness buried in our cellular memory, the authors show how we can help reopen the heart of humanity and heal the world around us.

Contemporary Shamanisms in Norway

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Publisher : Oxford University Press
ISBN 13 : 0190678844
Total Pages : 249 pages
Book Rating : 4.1/5 (96 download)

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Book Synopsis Contemporary Shamanisms in Norway by : Trude Fonneland

Download or read book Contemporary Shamanisms in Norway written by Trude Fonneland and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-08-01 with total page 249 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of the fastest growing religious movements in the Western world, neo-shamanism embraces notions and techniques borrowed from various tribal peoples and adapted to the life of contemporary urban dwellers. Until the twenty-first century, the neo-shamanism found in northern Europe differed little from neo-shamanism elsewhere in the Western world. In the new millennium, a Sámi and Nordic version of neo-shamanism came into being, along with a new focus on the uniqueness of the arctic north, expressed through New Age courses and events. The Norwegian New Age scene is increasingly overrun with Sámi and Nordic shamans, symbols, and traditions. Contemporary Shamanisms in Norway examines the construction of this Sámi neo-shamanistic movement and argues that it fits into the broader ethno-political search for a Sami identity. Drawing on ten years of ethnographic research, Trude Fonneland highlights the values important to neo-shamans' self-development and their marketing of shamanistic products and services. She explores Sáami and Nordic neo-shamans' promotion of Arctic nature, their negotiations of gender in neo-shamanism, and their ritual inventions. Focusing on contemporary shamanism in Norway and Nordic contexts, Fonneland argues that the spiritual quest in Nordic countries has developed surprising and innovative forms of spirituality that call for a reevaluation of the relationship between religion and the secular world.

The White Shaman Mural

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Publisher : University of Texas Press
ISBN 13 : 1477310304
Total Pages : 220 pages
Book Rating : 4.4/5 (773 download)

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Book Synopsis The White Shaman Mural by : Carolyn E. Boyd

Download or read book The White Shaman Mural written by Carolyn E. Boyd and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2016-11-29 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Folded plate (1 leaf, 39 x 61 cm, folded to 19 x 16 cm) in pocket.

Lands of the Shamans

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Publisher : Oxbow Books Limited
ISBN 13 : 9781785709548
Total Pages : 208 pages
Book Rating : 4.7/5 (95 download)

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Book Synopsis Lands of the Shamans by : Dragos Gheorghiu

Download or read book Lands of the Shamans written by Dragos Gheorghiu and published by Oxbow Books Limited. This book was released on 2018-08-17 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Lands of the Shamans, through carefully selected case studies from Europe, uses the archaeological evidence to construct the shamans' worldview, landscape, and cosmology.

Wayward Shamans

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Publisher : University of California Press
ISBN 13 : 0520275322
Total Pages : 288 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (22 download)

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Book Synopsis Wayward Shamans by : Silvia Tomášková

Download or read book Wayward Shamans written by Silvia Tomášková and published by University of California Press. This book was released on 2013-05-03 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wayward Shamans tells the story of an idea that humanity’s first expression of art, religion and creativity found form in the figure of a proto-priest known as a shaman. Tracing this classic category of the history of anthropology back to the emergence of the term in Siberia, the work follows the trajectory of European knowledge about the continent’s eastern frontier. The ethnographic record left by German natural historians engaged in the Russian colonial expansion project in the 18th century includes a range of shamanic practitioners, varied by gender and age. Later accounts by exiled Russian revolutionaries noted transgendered shamans. This variation vanished, however, in the translation of shamanism into archaeology theory, where a male sorcerer emerged as the key agent of prehistoric art. More recent efforts to provide a universal shamanic explanation for rock art via South Africa and neurobiology likewise gloss over historical evidence of diversity. By contrast this book argues for recognizing indeterminacy in the categories we use, and reopening them by recalling their complex history.

The Way of the Shaman

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Publisher : Harper Collins
ISBN 13 : 0062038125
Total Pages : 210 pages
Book Rating : 4.0/5 (62 download)

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Book Synopsis The Way of the Shaman by : Michael Harner

Download or read book The Way of the Shaman written by Michael Harner and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2011-07-26 with total page 210 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This classic on shamanism pioneered the modern shamanic renaissance. It is the foremost resource and reference on shamanism. Now, with a new introduction and a guide to current resources, anthropologist Michael Harner provides the definitive handbook on practical shamanism – what it is, where it came from, how you can participate. "Wonderful, fascinating… Harner really knows what he's talking about." CARLOS CASTANEDA "An intimate and practical guide to the art of shamanic healing and the technology of the sacred. Michael Harner is not just an anthropologist who has studied shamanism; he is an authentic white shaman." STANILAV GROF, author of 'The Adventure Of Self Discovery' "Harner has impeccable credentials, both as an academic and as a practising shaman. Without doubt (since the recent death of Mircea Eliade) the world's leading authority on shamanism." NEVILL DRURY, author of 'The Elements of Shamanism' Michael Harner, Ph.D., has practised shamanism and shamanic healing for more than a quarter of a century. He is the founder and director of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies in Norwalk, Connecticut.

Mysteries of the Jaguar Shamans of the Northwest Amazon

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Author :
Publisher : U of Nebraska Press
ISBN 13 : 0803246811
Total Pages : 407 pages
Book Rating : 4.8/5 (32 download)

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Book Synopsis Mysteries of the Jaguar Shamans of the Northwest Amazon by : Robin M. Wright

Download or read book Mysteries of the Jaguar Shamans of the Northwest Amazon written by Robin M. Wright and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2013-06-01 with total page 407 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mysteries of the Jaguar Shamans of the Northwest Amazon tells the life story of Mandu da Silva, the last living jaguar shaman among the Baniwa people in the northwest Amazon. In this original and engaging work, Robin M. Wright, who has known and worked with da Silva for more than thirty years, weaves the story of da Silva’s life together with the Baniwas’ society, history, mythology, cosmology, and jaguar shaman traditions. The jaguar shamans are key players in what Wright calls “a nexus of religious power and knowledge” in which healers, sorcerers, priestly chanters, and dance-leaders exercise complementary functions that link living specialists with the deities and great spirits of the cosmos. By exploring in depth the apprenticeship of the shaman, Wright shows how jaguar shamans acquire the knowledge and power of the deities in several stages of instruction and practice. This volume is the first mapping of the sacred geography (“mythscape”) of the Northern Arawak–speaking people of the northwest Amazon, demonstrating direct connections between petroglyphs and other inscriptions and Baniwa sacred narratives as a whole. In eloquent and inviting analytic prose, Wright links biographic and ethnographic elements in elevating anthropological writing to a new standard of theoretically aware storytelling and analytic power.

Old Magic

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Publisher : Sunbelt Publications
ISBN 13 : 9781941384053
Total Pages : 0 pages
Book Rating : 4.3/5 (84 download)

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Book Synopsis Old Magic by : Nicholas Clapp

Download or read book Old Magic written by Nicholas Clapp and published by Sunbelt Publications. This book was released on 2014 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For a thousand generations, desert shamans of the far West sought order in the stars and in the mysteries and wonder of their grand, if unforgiving landscape. When summoned, they doctored the stricken, be they stoic elders or frightened little children. They conjured rains. Taking leave of reality, they rode whirlwinds and soared in magical flight. They epitomized a native American ability "to relate to the land in ways beyond a Western way of thinking." They're gone now. But there remain telling accounts of how, day-to-day, they lived: how omens foretold a shaman's destiny, how he learned his craft, how he could exercise his power for both good and evil. How a shaman could travel to the land of the dead and (hopefully) return. Drawing on the lore of a dozen tribes, Old Magic conjures the year-to-year life of a shaman - a life of service to his people, a life fraught with torment and danger, a life often taking a man or woman to the edge of madness.

The Falling Sky

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Publisher : Harvard University Press
ISBN 13 : 0674292138
Total Pages : 649 pages
Book Rating : 4.6/5 (742 download)

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Book Synopsis The Falling Sky by : Davi Kopenawa

Download or read book The Falling Sky written by Davi Kopenawa and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2023-01-31 with total page 649 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Anthropologist Bruce Albert captures the poetic voice of Davi Kopenawa, shaman and spokesman for the Yanomami of the Brazilian Amazon, in this unique reading experience—a coming-of-age story, historical account, and shamanic philosophy, but most of all an impassioned plea to respect native rights and preserve the Amazon rainforest.

CIVILIZED SHAMANS PB

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Publisher : Smithsonian
ISBN 13 : 9781560986201
Total Pages : 725 pages
Book Rating : 4.9/5 (862 download)

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Book Synopsis CIVILIZED SHAMANS PB by : SAMUEL GEOFFREY

Download or read book CIVILIZED SHAMANS PB written by SAMUEL GEOFFREY and published by Smithsonian. This book was released on 1995-09-17 with total page 725 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Civilized Shamans examines the nature and evolution of religion in Tibetan societies from the ninth century up to the Chinese occupation in 1950. Geoffrey Samuel argues that religion in these societies developed as a dynamic amalgam of strands of Indian Buddhism and the indigenous spirit-cults of Tibet. Samuel stresses the diversity of Tibetan societies, demonstrating that central Tibet, the Dalai Lama's government at Lhasa, and the great monastic institutions around Lhasa formed only a part of the context within which Tibetan Buddhism matured. Employing anthropological research, historical inquiry, rich interview material, and a deep understanding of religious texts, the author explores the relationship between Tibet's social and political institutions and the emergence of new modes of consciousness that characterize Tibetan Buddhist spirituality. Samuel identifies the two main orientations of this religion as clerical (primarily monastic) and shamanic (associated with Tantric yoga). The specific form that Buddhism has taken in Tibet is rooted in the pursuit of enlightenment by a minority of the people - lamas, monks, and yogins - and the desire for shamanic services (in quest of health, long life, and prosperity) by the majority. Shamanic traditions of achieving altered states of consciousness have been incorporated into Tantric Buddhism, which aims to communicate with Tantric deities through yoga. The author contends that this incorporation forms the basis for much of the Tibetan lamas' role in their society and that their subtle scholarship reflects the many ways in which they have reconciled the shamanic and clerical orientations. This book, the first full account of Tibetan Buddhism in two decades, ranges as no other study has over several disciplines and languages, incorporating historical and anthropological discussion. Viewing Tibetan Buddhism as one of the great spiritual and psychological achievements of humanity, Samuel analyzes a complex society that combines the literacy and rationality associated with centralized states with the shamanic processes more familiar among tribal peoples.