Shamanism: An Encyclopedia of World Beliefs, Practices, and Culture (2 Volume Set)

✍ Scribed by Mariko Namba Walter, Eva Jane Neumann Fridman

• Publisher: ABC-CLIO
• Year: 2004
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 1088
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This two-volume reference is the first international survey of shamanistic beliefs from prehistory to the present day. In nearly 200 detailed, readable entries, leading ethnographers, psychologists, archaeologists, historians, and scholars of religion and folk literature explain the general principles of shamanism as well as the details of widely varied practices.What is it like to be a shaman? Entries describe, region by region, the traits, such as sicknesses and dreams, that mark a person as a shaman, as well as the training undertaken by initiates. They detail the costumes, music, rituals, artifacts, and drugs that shamans use to achieve altered states of consciousness, communicate with spirits, travel in the spirit world, and retrieve souls. Unlike most Western books on shamanism, which focus narrowly on the individual's experience of healing and trance, Shamanism also examines the function of shamanism in society from social, political, and historical perspectives and identifies the ancient, continuous thread that connects shamanistic beliefs and rituals across cultures and millennia.

✦ Table of Contents

Contents......Page 6
Foreword......Page 10
Preface......Page 12
Introduction......Page 16
Alphabetical List of Entries......Page 30
A......Page 36
B......Page 62
C......Page 68
D......Page 104
E......Page 140
F......Page 160
G......Page 164
H......Page 170
I......Page 186
M......Page 194
N......Page 220
O......Page 230
P......Page 234
R......Page 252
S......Page 258
T......Page 276
U......Page 298
V......Page 300
W......Page 304
Overview: North America......Page 308
Overview: Central and South America......Page 398
Overview: Europe......Page 498
Overview: Eurasia......Page 556
Overview: Korea and Japan......Page 686
Overview: China and Sino-Asia......Page 738
Overview: South Asia, The Himalayas, and Tibet......Page 774
Overview: Southeast Asia......Page 832
Overview: Australasia and Oceania......Page 884
Overview: Africa......Page 918
Bibliography......Page 996
Advisory Board......Page 1060
Contributors......Page 1062
Index......Page 1068
About the Authors......Page 1088