Cette thèse est le résultat d'une étude menée grâce à une enquête de terrain multisituée dans plusieurs pays européens (France, Espagne, Belgique et Pays Bas)et sud-américains (Pérou, Bolivie, Ecuateur,Argentine et Brésil). Il s'agit de mettre en question, de décrire et de comprendre le fonctionnement de certains réseaux transnationaux de praticiens, de sympathisants et d'usagers de pratiques rituelles et de discours étiquetés comme "chamaniques". Les divers terrains sont analysés à partir du paradoxe d'un chamanisme entendu tant comme une sorte de "label" ayant un succés croissant sur le marché thérapeutique et spirituel contemporain qu'en tant que système de prise en charge et de réparation du malheur individuel et collectif ayant une histoire interethnique et interculturelle qui lui est propre et qui témoigne de la capacité d'adaptation et de persistance du système lui-même. / Doctorat en sciences sociales, Orientation anthropologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This thesis presents an analysis of Piaroa shamanic practices that combines elements of symbolic, psychobiological and phenomenological approaches. Theories from, and clinical findings in, neuroscience, pharmacology, psychology and psychoneuroimmunology are integrated with extended participant observation field study involving basic shamanic training to demonstrate how Piaroa shamans learn to understand and effect biopsychosocial adaptation and promote health. It is argued that Piaroa shamanism is a sophisticated means of interpreting ecological forces and emotional processes in the interests of minimising stress across related systems: self, society, ecosystem, and cosmos. Piaroa shamans should be cadres in the promotion of an ethos, the good life of tranquillity, which serves as the basis for low-stress social relations. Piaroa mythology is predicated upon human-animal-god reciprocity and provides the shaman with a series of informationprocessing templates, designed to be invoked with the use of hallucinogens, which assist him to understand inter-systemic relations. I analyse how Piaroa shamans develop the psychic skills to divine and regulate ecological relationships and emotional processes, while highlighting possible relationships among native symbolism, neurology, consciousness and the emotions. It is argued that Piaroa shamanic practices involve conditioning the mind to achieve optimal perceptive capacities that, in association with sensitive biopsychosocial study, facilitate accurate prediction and successful psychosocial prescription. A cultural neurophenomenological approach enables articulation of the psychocultural logic of ethos, epistemology, divination, sorcery, and curing, and a fuller picture of a South American indigenous society’s shamanic practices than less integrative approaches have afforded