The Living Ancestors

Shamanism, Cosmos and Cultural Change among the Yanomami of the Upper Orinoco

Zeljko Jokic (Autor)

Buch | Softcover

296 Seiten

2020
Berghahn Books (Verlag)
978-1-78920-758-3 (ISBN)

Artikel merken

This ethnography focuses on Yanomami shamanism, especially in the context of cultural change. The author interweaves ethnographic material with theoretical components of a holographic principle, or the “part is equal to the whole.” This book fills a gap in the study of Yanomami people and enriches understanding of this ancient phenomenon.

This phenomenologically oriented ethnography focuses on experiential aspects of Yanomami shamanism, including shamanistic activities in the context of cultural change. The author interweaves ethnographic material with theoretical components of a holographic principle, or the idea that the “part is equal to the whole,” which is embedded in the nature of the Yanomami macrocosm, human dwelling, multiple-soul components, and shamans’ relationships with embodied spirit-helpers. This book fills an important gap in the regional study of Yanomami people, and, on a broader scale, enriches understanding of this ancient phenomenon by focusing on the consciousness involved in shamanism through firsthand experiential involvement.

Zeljko Jokic received his PhD in Social Anthropology in 2004 at the University of Sydney. Since then he lectured at various universities, conducted a short-term fieldwork in Siberia and worked as a Research Assistant at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. He also spent several years working as a consultant for the Inter-American Organization for the Elimination of Onchocerciasis at the Amazonian Centre for Investigation and Control of Tropical Diseases, Puerto Ayacucho, Venezuela. Currently, he is a Policy Officer at the Health and Medical Research Office of the Australian Government Department of Health.

List of Illustrations

Preface and Acknowledgements

Introduction

Shamanism: Origins and Key Features

Yanomami Shamanism: A Cross-Cultural Perspective

The Book’s Subject Matter and its Guiding Principles

Fieldwork Setting and Methodology

The Book’s Outline

Chapter 1. Life on Top of the Old Sky: Yanomami Habitat, Ethnographic Setting and Local Histories

Yanomami Habitat

Historical Migratory Movements and Encounters

The Sweeping Winds of Change and its Consequences

Platanal and Sheroana-theri at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century

Chapter 2. Inside the Boa’s Abdomen: The Yanomami Cosmos

Holographic Totality of the Yanomami Cosmos

No Patapi tëhë: The Ever-present Mythical Time of Creation

Origin Myths

Chapter 3. Hekura, Body and Illness

Shamans and Hekura

Epena: Transformative Substance and Aliment for Hekura

Shamanism in Myths and in Contemporary Context

Yanomami Conception of a Person and Causes of Illness

Chapter 4. Hekuraprai: Corporeal Cosmogenesis

Summary of the Initiatory Ordeal

Transformation into Hekura: Day-by-Day Process

Cosmic Body and its Dynamism

First Trance: Re-experience of Death and the Beginning of Hekuramou

Chapter 5. Oneiric Encounters

Hekuramou and Expansion of Shamanistic Powers

Dreams and Shamanism

Dream Lucidity and the Transitional States of Dream Consciousness

Dreams, Illness and Healing

Chapter 6. Shamanic Battlefield: The Pendulum of Life and Death

Shapori’s New Identity and Social Obligation on the Intracommunal Level

The Dialectics between Defensive and Offensive Hekuramou

Body Intrusion and the Dynamics of the Cosmic Flow

Shaporimou and Intersubjective Knowledge Diffusion

Chapter 7. Two Pathways to Curing and in Between: Biomedical and Shamanic Treatment in the Life of Yanomami

Shamanism and Biomedicine: Compatibility and Differences

Dynamics of Doctor-Shapori-Patient Interaction

Yanomami Responses to Diarrhoea, Malaria and Respiratory Infections

Chapter 8. Return of the Ancestors: The All-pervading Shawara, The End of the World and the Beginning of a New Epoch

The Origin of Shawara Epidemics

Further Expansion of the Shawara Concept

The End of the World and the Beginning of Another Cosmic Cycle

Postscript: Recent Developments

Glossary of Yanomami Terms

Bibliography

Index

Erscheinungsdatum	03.08.2020
Verlagsort	Oxford
Sprache	englisch
Themenwelt	Geschichte ► Allgemeine Geschichte ► Altertum / Antike
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Weitere Religionen
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
	Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie ► Spezielle Soziologien
ISBN-10	1-78920-758-4 / 1789207584
ISBN-13	978-1-78920-758-3 / 9781789207583
Zustand	Neuware