Shamans and Elders: Experience, Knowledge, and Power Among the Daur Mongols - Couverture rigide

Humphrey, Caroline

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 0198279418 ISBN 13 : 9780198279419

Editeur : Clarendon Press, 1996

Synopsis

Shamans and Elders is a major study of Mongolian shamanism and society, past and present. It presents a wealth of new information, and offers a fresh understanding of the widespread phenomenon of shamanism. This unique and detailed analysis of a fascinating subject combines a discussion of Urgunge Onon's memories of shamanism with Caroline Humphrey's text- and field-based analytical knowledge of Central and North Asian shamanism. It covers among other things: notions of gender in Mongolian society, including male and female traditions in ritual, female shamans, and goddess worship; attitudes to death, and funeral rituals; the importance of old men and of ancestors; and Daur notions of landscape within their direct experience (the importance of the sky, of the mountains, of the forest, rivers, etc.) and beyond. In covering these diverse areas, the authors depart from the general cultural models usually offered in discussions of shamanism, providing a new vision of 'shamanism' as made up of fragmentary, non-formularized parts. It presents much-needed insight on a little-known world, and points to an original new way of doing anthropology. This book is intended for scholars of anthropology and of comparative religious studies; historians of, or other specialists on, China and Central or Inner Asia.

A propos du livre

Présentation de l'éditeur

Shamans and Elders is a major study of Mongolian shamanism and society, past and present. It presents a wealth of new information, and offers a fresh understanding of the widespread phenomenon of shamanism. This unique and detailed analysis of a fascinating subject combines a discussion of Urgunge Onon's memories of shamanism with Caroline Humphrey's text- and field-based analytical knowledge of Central and North Asian shamanism. It covers among other things: notions of gender in Mongolian society, including male and female traditions in ritual, female shamans, and goddess worship; attitudes to death, and funeral rituals; the importance of old men and of ancestors; and Daur notions of landscape within their direct experience (the importance of the sky, of the mountains, of the forest, rivers, etc.) and beyond. In covering these diverse areas, the authors depart from the general cultural models usually offered in discussions of shamanism, providing a new vision of 'shamanism' as made up of fragmentary, non-formularized parts. It presents much-needed insight on a little-known world, and points to an original new way of doing anthropology.

Revue de presse

this deep and complex work is full of vivid pictures of Daur life and belief (Alan J.K. Sanders, Asian Affairs, February 1997)

Though valuable for its detailed ethnographic accounts of Daur shamanism and culture, the book is vastly more than a straightforward ethnography ... an engrossing journey of interpretation through the ideas and recollections of a manifold, challenging "Other", on which readers are continuously challenged to reflect upon and mitigate for themselves. (Mark Bender, Central Asia)

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: Clarendon Press
• Date d'édition: 1996
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 0198279418
• ISBN 13: 9780198279419
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 410
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: Ufficio Anagrafiche Messaggerie; ufficio.anagrafiche@meli.it; ; Via Verdi, 8; Assago Milano; 20090; Italie