Thesis topic "Witch cults and alternative treatment methods in equatorial Africa" deals with the problems of shamanism and treatment methods in Africa, mainly in the equatorial area. Introduces witchcraft and compares it to shamanism, healing and other methods of the African aboriginal tribes and specific healing methods which are practised by shamans, medicine men and healers. At the same time it compares these methods to the quality of the medical services which are available in the given area. Practical part shows research solutions analysing the relations of the citizens from an Ugandan village Nyakyera and surrounding areas to healthcare and their attitude towards the shaman healers.

The diploma thesis deals with witchcraft and other mystic phenomena in conception of Edward Evan Evans-Pritchard. It is focused especially on the notion of witchcraft in connection with magic, shamanism and oracles. It describes relation of all these phenomena towards religious belief and various attitudes towards them. It defines respective practices and explains differences between them. Last but not least, it introduces usual reactions to them. Via concrete situation it also shows interconnection of all described phenomena and presents them as a coherent and logical system.

This diploma thesis deals with what one must do in order to become an ayahuasca neo-shaman, or what specific ayahuasca neo-shaman habitus one must acquire in order to be considered a neo-shaman and to be able to perform ayahuasca rituals. For this the author used methods of carnal ethnography and autoetnography. Ayahuasca rituals are embedded in a broader anthropological theory of rites of passage and are examined in the framework of carnal ethnography by the method of observed participation, while semi-structured interviews with neo-shamans are used also. As part of the autoetnography, the author experienced a neo-shaman habitus on himself, which allowed him to easily look into the otherwise non-transferable structure of the neo-shaman habitus. This research has shown that there are three key parts for the ayahuasca neo-shaman habitus, ie the "ecstatic", "didactic" and "material", but their forms are different for each neo-shaman, due to their specific life trajectories. The resulting ritual is then the product of the specific bricolage of each neo-shaman and mixes elements and techniques of different traditions and cultures. Keywords shaman, shamanism, neo-shaman, neo-shamanism, ayahuasca, habitus, carnal ethnography, autoetnography, ritual, rites of passage

This doctoral thesis discusses the manifestations of animism among Khmers in Cambodia and in south Vietnam. The subject is viewed from the culturally-anthropological perspective and attention is paid primarily to the specifics that are present in the everyday life of Khmers. The paper characterizes the manifestations of animism within the scope of the selected hypotheses and perceives this topic through various ethnological paradigms. The doctoral thesis marginally introduces animism as a phenomenon, the Khmer as a people, animistic rituals, and traditional Khmer feasts. Furthermore, the paper focuses on the importance of the shaman and other spiritual figures in the Khmer religious conception, the topic of healing, rites of passage, specific Khmer supernatural entities, and places where they are worshipped. The entire thesis includes the comparison of theoretical knowledge with the results of empirical research in selected areas. Using specific examples, it is demonstrated that animism is a part of syncretism, which is still an important component of the Khmer culture and significantly influences important life decisions. Rather than a unified discourse that would strictly subscribe to linear composition, the doctoral thesis is a prolegomenon to the phenomenon of animism in the Khmer culture and...

Author's name: Magdalena Hošková School: Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Arts Department: Institute of Linguistics and Finno-Ugric Studies Title: Spells as a Part of Finnish Folklore Supervisor: Mgr. Jan Dlask, Ph.D. Number of pages: 77 Key words: spell, Finnish spells, Finnish folklore, Kalevala, Finnish mythology, tietäjä, shaman, prayer, healing magic, homoeopathic magic, John Abercromby, James Frazer, neoshamanism, neopaganism This thesis deals with spells as a part of Finnish folklore. It depicts the circumstances of the spells' genesis, as well as their structural features and different purposes of their use. It is considered that most spells were created during the era of late paganism and early Christianity. This is true not only of Finland but also of Europe in general. The thesis also analyses the role of the shaman as the spiritual leader of Finnish people living in the era before the spells' creation and thereafter analyses the role of the shaman's successor: the tietäjä, the charmer who created spells and used them to help people in his community. So the tietäjä used his spells for the same purpose as his predecessor, the shaman, used trance states, which he entered via drumming, chanting and dancing. In the trance state, he talked to animal spirits and ancestors' spirits and...

RESUMÉ V ANGLICKÉM JAZYCE Since the 1980s, a revival of religious traditions, whose continuity was disrupted considerably in the Soviet-era Russia, has been in motion in the entire area of Siberia and Central Asia, among the so called 'rooted nations'. While major religious groups, such as buddhism and islam, could successfully pick up the threads of their religious traditions thanks to their written resources; religions based mainly on oral transmission are facing the opposite situation, shamanism not being an exception. Intense tension coming from the spirituality of their own ethnic traditions, which spontaneously opened after many years of the Communist secularization, in the case of shamanism hit the barriers of how to adequately re- establish the disrupted traditions (lack of living bearers and experts on their own traditions, initiated and uninitiated shamans, and other ceremony specialists, ignorance of symbolism). The whole process of rebirth, revival or revitalisation of shamanism is entirely consistent with the context of current issues concerning constituent societies, which naturally carries the legacy of Soviet culture. Political and economic changes in the post- Soviet space also enabled the bearers of traditions to become open to a wide range of new influences from abroad. Revitalization...

Tato práce je vícevrstevným zamyšlením nad tématem prázdnoty. Její prvotní inspirací jsou Bondyho úvahy na toto téma. Nejde o to, ukazovat na neukazatelné, či popisovat nepopsatelné, to by byla spíše filosofická statistika; prázdnota je tu primárně chápána spíše na způsob krajního horizontu, jehož bytostné připuštění zakládá možnost pravého setkání podobném smyslu uvažuje nad souvislostí prázdnoty a milosti a otevírá možnost chápat prázdnotu nikoliv jako axiologickou neurčenost, ale právě jako horizont zvláštního setkání se světem. Takto nahlížená prázdnota otevírá bytostnou plnost a zároveň braných souvislostí těchto myšlenek o mezích ontologie - Plótínovou koncepcí emanační ontologie, či se substanční ontologií ze Spinozovy Protože se v průběhu tohoto rozboru dostává do popředí problém statického a předsudečného chápání ontologické substance (která takové vlastnosti nemůže mít, vyjdeme jako krajního ontologického horizontu), otevírá se otázka původu tohoto problému; v Myšlení vnějšku) a Berďajevem následuje hodnocení možnosti ontologii, což je přeneseně otevření otázky vztahu moci a ontologie či prolínání mocenského hlediska do ontologické úvahy (prázdnota by v yslu představovala zřeknutí se moci). Druhá kapitola práce se návazně zabývá formami zřeknutí se tohoto mocenského hlediska, coby praktikovaného...