Thesis (M.S.)--Florida State University, 2005. / Advisor: Bruce Grindal, Florida State University, College of Arts and Sciences, Dept. of Anthropology. Title and description from dissertation home page (viewed Jan. 26, 2006). Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 83 pages. Includes bibliographical references.

Humans have unique capacities to enhance and degrade landscapes. Many indigenous peoples embody conceptual systems that perceive, value and interact within landscapes differently than capitalist models of conservation and development. This thesis examines the spiritual ecology of the circum-Roraima landscape atop the Guiana Shield in South America. An extensive interdisciplinary literature review contextualizes primary data collected during 15 months of multi-sited ethnogeographic fieldwork among Pemon and Ka'pon members of the Carib linguistic family. Data in the form of narratives are interpreted within the theoretical framework of landscape that links subfields of historical, spiritual and political ecology. A detailed research program designed to collect qualitative emic data draws methods from ethnography, ethnoecology, historical ecology, grounded theory and decolonizing methodologies. An analysis of the adaptive capacities of situated spiritual ecological knowledge and practices is an important component of this research, since this dimension of landscape is often neglected in conservation and development studies. Ultimately, the project documents and analyzes endangered knowledge systems, reveals new historical details of the syncretic Areruya highland revitalization movement and articulates a shamanic land ethic.

The following paper presents a comparative examination of shamanism as practised traditionally among a number of British Columbian Northwest Coast Indian groups. Case studies representing groups about which information is readily available, from each of the six major linguistic divisions in the area, have been presented in terms which indicate the ordered relationships between shamanistic beliefs and practises, and an attempt has been made to suggest structural links with other aspects of culture in each case. The major ethnographic works pertaining to each group were examined intensively and as many independent sources as possible were consulted for cross-checking the data. It was found that while in outward appearance patterns of belief and action show considerable similarity from one group to another, the emphasis and structural implications of these beliefs and practises are different for each group. Some of these differences are expressed most clearly by the variations present in the public initiation of novice shamans. At this time principles such as rank, kinship, inheritance or residence are, to varying degrees, recognised or affirmed, counterbalancing the shaman's identification with the supernatural, as spirit intermediary. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

The People's Republic of China is home to numerous beliefs, practices, and customs dating back hundreds, if not thousands of years. In the time since the death of Mao Zedong, many practices have been revived, including the practice of spirit possession. Through careful examination of books, articles, videos, and other sources, I have come to the conclusion that individuals now capable of being possessed in China are a break from previously documented spirit-mediums, nor do they fit into the category termed `shamans' best defined by Mircea Eliade and I.M. Lewis. These individual are heirs to a long history, but have innovated as well as revived previous practices. They now embody a new category, one I have termed spirit-worker. Spirit-workers incorporate aspects of both traditional spirit-mediumship as well as what has been termed shamanism. Although I did not have a chance to do my own fieldwork, through looking at the various sources, we can come to understand how spirit-workers have begun to emerge in China, and what the future may hold for these individuals.

Ship of Fools is a novel excerpt. The title comes from Plato’s Republic as well as the book Stultifera Navis by Sebastian Brant, published in 1494. There is also a painting by Hieronymus Bosch (c. 1490–1500) with the same name. Influences include Jungian psychology, Joseph Campbell’s “The Masks of God” series, and anthropological studies of Amazonian shamanism.

Submitted to the Faculty of Arts, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Philosophy of Arts in Psychology. / This thesis involved a psychological study of the shamanic trance states of South African shamans. Literature on shamanism has marginalized or neglected Africa. The aim of this study was to establish the main elements unique to South African shamanic trance states, as well as to establish common factors with other traditions of shamanism. The developmental aspect of the South African trance states was investigated in order to highlight and explore possible pathological or transcendental aspects of such trance states.(Abbreviation abstract) / Andrew Chakane 2020

Ng, Shuk Kwan. / Thesis (M.Phil.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2009. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 254-268). / Abstracts in English and Chinese; includes Chinese characters. / Abstract --- p.iv / Chapter Chapter One - --- Introduction --- p.1 / Chapter Chapter Two - --- Shamanism in Hong Kong - A Background Description of the Shaman --- p.48 / Chapter Chapter Three - --- The Construction of the Shamanic World --- p.83 / Chapter Chapter Four - --- The Construction of the Shaman Efficacy: The Interpretation and Reinterpretation of Cultural Symbols --- p.132 / Chapter Chapter Five - --- The Client´ةs Experience: A Paradox of Faith in Shamanic Power --- p.173 / Chapter Chapter Six - --- Conclusion --- p.239 / Appendices --- p.252 / Bibliography --- p.254

This dissertation examines the process of shamanic healing and recovery with an emphasis on client's perspective and offers an interpretive framework within which patients' experience can be understood. The thesis is based on field research and in-depth interviews with clients of shamanic healing. Based on their accounts, the thesis examines, how they perceive, describe and experience shamanic healing. Then seeks to answer the question of how and what shamanic healing "really" heals and cures. This thesis first examines the broader topics and then proceeds into deeper detail. The first chapter deals with defining and situating contemporary shamanism within the milieu of contemporary alternative religiosity. It understands "alternative spirituality" - through a definition focused on religious practice - as a "religion" and shamanism as its "configuration". The second part of the thesis undertakes a historical analysis of the discursive understanding of the word "shaman" and shows how the meaning of the word "shaman" has changed over time to the contemporary popular understanding of the shaman as a healer. The following chapters deal directly with shamanic healing. The third chapter deals with shamanism in terms of ethnomedical classification and through the concepts that shamans use in healing....

Early Irish literature, other Celtic literatures and later folklore are rich with descriptions of personal contact with the sacred. The Otherworld, or spiritual aspect of reality, is a constant and vivid presence in the legends. This reality does not seem distant, but rather, always ready to break through into physical reality, transforming those who encounter it. In earlier times, druids, and sometimes heroes and saints, seem to function fully as shamans as described by Mircea Eliade in his definitive work on shamanism, undertaking spirit journeys into the Otherworld. and returning with gifts for their people. In later times, when overtly primal shamanic practice was increasingly repressed, personal contact with the sacred became in many cases less defined and more individual. However, we continue to see contact with the Otherworld in folklore. hagiography and the mystical experiences fostered by later spiritual movements. While scholars such as Carey, Nagy and Melia have recognised and explored some of the shamanic themes present in Early Irish literature, the full complex of these themes, along with their implications for our understanding of Early Irish and Celtic culture, have not yet been hlly examined. A holistic approach to these difficult issues indicates that one must not just dissect the texts themselves for meaning, but take into account the research of archaeologists, anthropologists, psychologists and neuroscientists as well as Celticists. By doing so, I hope to show not only the evidence for Celtic shamanism itself, but suggest possible fbnctions of shamanic experience in Early Irish, and more broadly, Celtic culture, Because shamanic traditions typically have a clear cosmology and ideas about spiritual growth, I have also considered if the early Irish and, more broadly, the Celts may have had such a cosmology and ideas of harmonising with the sacred they came into such intense contact with.

Durant le dernier demi-siècle, la religion, comme tous les autres domaines d’activité humaine, a connu plusieurs transformations importantes. La diminution considérable, durant cette période, de la pratique religieuse institutionnalisée est accompagnée de l’apparition d’une multitude de nouvelles formes de spiritualités qui tentent de répondre aux besoins religieux de l’homme occidental. Parmi les multiples manifestations de ce genre, on découvre une spiritualité distincte, appelée néo-chamanisme ou chamanisme urbain, réunissant de nombreuses pratiques contemporaines qui se définissent comme chamaniques. Dans le cadre de ce mémoire, nous nous sommes concentrés sur l’étude du phénomène néo-chamanique de Michael Harner, ex-professeur et directeur du département d’anthropologie au Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research à New York, et fondateur de la Foundation for Shamanic Studies (à l’avenir : FSS). La présente recherche a pour but d’analyser le néo-chamanisme de Harner et de définir sa place parmi les nouvelles formes de religiosités. La théorie de la recomposition du religieux de Danièle Hervieu-Léger sert de cadre d’analyse pour cette nouvelle forme de spiritualité. Dans la première partie, nous traitons le phénomène religieux contemporain sous l’angle socioreligieux. Nous présentons un aperçu global des transformations que celui-ci subit en modernité sous l’impact de la sécularisation. À l’aide de la théorie des nouvelles formes religieuses de Danièle Hervieu-Léger, nous mettons en lumière les principales règles selon lesquelles une nouvelle configuration du religieux se déploie dans le contexte occidental contemporain. Dans la seconde partie, nous examinons le chamanisme traditionnel sous l’angle anthropologique. Nous faisons la lecture d’études classiques sur le chamanisme. Il apparaît que le chamanisme classique est communautaire, réservé à quelques personnes choisies par les esprits et que le processus laborieux d’initiation permettant d’accéder à cette fonction implique certains éléments spécifiques parmi lesquels on compte la maladie initiatique, la mort rituelle et la résurrection de la personne. Dans la troisième partie, nous examinons le néo-chamanisme de Harner. Nous rendons compte de son ouvrage majeur La voie spirituelle du chamane : Le Secret d'un sorcier indien d’Amérique du Nord et nous examinons l’expérience chamanique de la Foundation for Shamanic Studies (FSS). Il se dégage de cette étude que l’approche de Harner se veut l’expression d’un chamanisme fondamental et universel adapté à la société contemporaine. La pratique néo-chamanique de Harner se focalise sur le voyage chamanique et sur le contact avec le monde des esprits comme des éléments qui sont au cœur du chamanisme traditionnel. C’est une pratique axée principalement sur l’individu à des fins d’accomplissement de soi et d’(auto)guérison. Elle attire généralement des personnes dont le niveau de scolarité est élevé, disposées à payer pour les services fournis par la fondation. À la fin de notre étude, nous dégageons les conclusions générales suivantes : le néo-chamanisme de Harner s’éloigne de la tradition chamanique et la transforme en une spiritualité nouvelle adaptée aux besoins des Occidentaux; il reflète les transformations subies par le fait religieux pendant la période moderne; il s’adresse principalement à un public en quête de services spirituels ciblés et ponctuels et il favorise une forme de communalisation temporaire et intense; cependant, l’individuation de la pratique chamanique est porteuse de ses effets politiques et néocoloniaux. / Since the last half century, religion as all the other human working fields has passed through lots of significant transformations. The considerable diminishing, during that period, of the institutionalized religious practice is accompanied by the apparition of a multitude of new forms of spirituality that tempt to answer to the western human religious needs. Through the multiple manifestations of this kind it has been discovered a distinct spirituality named neo-shamanism or urban shamanism that gathers under this name a multitude of contemporaneous practices that are defined as shamanic. We focused on Michael Harner’s study about the neo-shamanism phenomenon, ex-professor and manager of the department of anthropology to Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research in New York and founder of The Foundation for Shamanic Studies (from now: FSS). The present research objective is to analyze Harner’s neo-shamanism and to identify its place between the new religious contemporary forms .The concept of recomposing Harner’s religious ideology becomes the focus of the analysis of this new form of spirituality. In the first part, we address the religious contemporary phenomenon from a socio religious point of view. We present a global view over the transformations that this phenomenon suffered during the modern period under the influence of secularisation. With the help of the new religious forms theory of Danièle Hervieu-Léger, we emphasize the main rules that run the religious configuration in the contemporary western context. In the second part we analyse the traditional shamanism from an anthropological point of view. We are skimming the prior classical studies about shamanism. It seems that the classical shamanism is communitarian, reserved to some persons that are chosen by spirits and that the hardworking process of initiation allowing to have access to this function implies some specific elements like the initiatic illness, the ritual death and the person’s resurrection. In the third part, we analyse Harner’s neo-shamanism. We focused our analyzing on his main work La voie spirituelle du chamane: Le Secret d'un sorcier indien d’Amérique du Nord and we analyse the shamanic experience from Foundation for Shamanic Studies. The idea that gets out from this study is that Harner’s shamanic approach wants to be the expression of a fundamental one and universally adapted to the contemporary society. Harner’s neo-shamanic practice is focused on the shamanic trip and on the contact with the spirit’s world as being elements that make up the core of the traditional shamanism. It’s a practice mainly focused on the individual that has self accomplishments and (self) healing ends. It appeals generally to persons highly educated and ready to pay for the foundation’s services. At the end of our study, we get out the following conclusions: Harner’s neo-shamanism gets distance from the shamanic tradition and turns it into a new spirituality adapted to western people’s needs; Harner’s neo-shamanism reflects the transformations that the religions suffers during the modern period. It addresses mainly to a public in quest of concrete spiritual services and it gives advantage to a form of temporary and intense communalisation; however, the individualisation of the shamanic practice is carries its political and neo-colonial effects.