Overview
In Darkness and Secrecy brings together ethnographic examinations of Amazonian assault sorcery, witchcraft, and injurious magic, or ""dark shamanism."" Anthropological reflections on South American shamanism have tended to emphasize shamans' healing powers and positive influence. This collection challenges that assumption by showing that dark shamans are, in many Amazonian cultures, quite different from shamanic healers and prophets. Assault sorcery, in particular, involves violence resulting in physical harm or even death. While highlighting the distinctiveness of such practices, In Darkness and Secrecy reveals them as no less relevant to the continuation of culture and society than curing and prophecy. The contributors suggest that the persistence of dark shamanism can be understood as a form of engagement with modernity. These essays, by leading anthropologists of South American shamanism, consider assault sorcery as it is practiced in parts of Brazil, Guyana, Venezuela, and Peru. They analyze the social and political dynamics of witchcraft and sorcery and their relation to cosmology, mythology, ritual, and other forms of symbolic violence and aggression in each society studied.They also discuss the relations of witchcraft and sorcery to interethnic contact and the ways that shamanic power may be co-opted by the state. In Darkness and Secrecy includes reflections on the ethical and practical implications of ethnographic investigation of violent cultural practices. Contributors: George Mentore; Donald Pollock; Fernando Santos-Granero; Marnio Teixeira-Pinto; Silvia Vidal; Neil L. Whitehead; Johannes Wilbert; Robin Wright
Full Product Details
Author: Neil L. Whitehead ,
Robin Wright
Publisher: Duke University Press
Imprint: Duke University Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.40cm
, Height: 2.70cm
, Length: 23.50cm
Weight: 0.603kg
ISBN: 9780822333333
ISBN 10: 0822333333
Pages: 277
Publication Date: 03 June 2004
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
The great merit of this volume is that it amply documents the wide variety of ideas and practices that can be classified as shamanistic in Amazonia and, in so doing, establishes that dark shamanism is an essential element of the worldviews and moral philosophies of peoples of this region. --David Maybury-Lewis, Harvard University In Darkness and Secrecy takes sectors of Amazonian ethnography to a new level of productive and provocative excellence. --Norman Whitten, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign This book has an original and valuable focus: it is about the 'dark side' of shamanism in Amazonia. --Jrnl of Contemporary Religion, Vol 21, No. 1, 2006 ... a stimulating repository of ideas in this informed, intelligent, and important contribution to the comparative investigation of shamanism. --ANTHROPOS, 101.2006
The great merit of this volume is that it amply documents the wide variety of ideas and practices that can be classified as shamanistic in Amazonia and, in so doing, establishes that dark shamanism is an essential element of the worldviews and moral philosophies of peoples of this region. --David Maybury-Lewis, Harvard University In Darkness and Secrecy takes sectors of Amazonian ethnography to a new level of productive and provocative excellence. --Norman Whitten, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign This book has an original and valuable focus: it is about the 'dark side' of shamanism in Amazonia. --Jrnl of Contemporary Religion, Vol 21, No. 1, 2006 ... a stimulating repository of ideas in this informed, intelligent, and important contribution to the comparative investigation of shamanism. --ANTHROPOS, 101.2006
Author Information
Neil L. Whitehead is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Among his most recent books are Dark Shamans: KanaimÀ and the Poetics of Violent Death (published by Duke University Press) and Beyond the Visible and the Material: The Amerindianization of Society in the Work of Peter RiviÈre (coedited with Laura Rival). Robin Wright is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Research in Indigenous Ethnology at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas in Brazil. He is the author of Cosmos, Self, and History in Baniwa Religion: For Those Unborn and the editor of several books in Spanish.
