Overview

'Shamanism' is a term with specific anthropological roots, but which is used more generally to cover a set of interactions between a practitioner or `shaman' and a spiritual or religious realm beyond the reach of most members of the community. It has often been considered from an anthropological viewpoint, but this book gathers the most recent studies on a subject which has not been comprehensively studied by archaeologists. By putting together experts from two continents who have studied the phenomenon of shamanism, Lands of the Shamans through carefully selected case studies uses the archaeological evidence to construct the shamans' worldview, landscape and cosmology. Recent interdisciplinary studies support the idea of the existence of shamanistic representations as long ago as the Middle/Upper Palaeolithic, but at the same time, do not follow developments during the history of humankind. As ethnographic evidence shows, shamanistic activity represents a complex phenomenon that is extremely diversified, its spiritual activity possessing a large variety of expressions in the material culture. In other words, shamanism could be defined as a series of differing spiritual world views which model the material culture and the landscape. Throughout the archaeological record of all prehistoric and historic periods, there is a series of visual representations and objects and landscape alterations that could be ascribed to these differing world views, many thought to represent shamanistic cognition and activity. The shaman's landscape reveals itself to the world as one of multifaceted spiritual and material activity. Consequently, this first book dedicated completely to the shamanistic landscape presents in fresh perspective the landscapes of the lower and upper worlds as well as their phenomenological experience. Case Studies come from Europe, North America and Asia.

Full Product Details

Author:   Dragoş Gheorghiu ,  George Nash ,  Herman Bender ,  Emilia Pasztor
Publisher:   Oxbow Books
Imprint:   Oxbow Books
ISBN:  

9781785709548

ISBN 10:   1785709542
Pages:   288
Publication Date:   16 August 2018
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Contributors Introduction: Towards a Landscape for Shamans The Editors   1. The Horse as a Shamanic Landscape Device: The Distribution of Equus on Upper Palaeolithic Open-Air Rock Art Sites of the Iberian Peninsula George Nash and Sara Garcês   2. Göbekli Tepe – A Shamanic Landscape Dragoş Gheorghiu   3. Caves and the Sacral Landscape: A Case Study on the Neolithic and Early Aeneolithic Periods in South-east Central Europe Vladimír Peša   4. As Above, So Below: St Melangell and the Celestial Journey Caroline Malim   5. Songs of the Shamans? Acoustical Studies in European Prehistory Chris Scarre   6. Sights and Sounds of Selected Sacred and Shamanic Landscapes Paul Devereux   7. Bronze Age Deposits in the Carpathian Basin – Markers for Spirit-Animated Landscape? The Role of Structured Deposition in Understanding the Worldview of Bronze Age Europe Emília Pásztor   8. Landscape Transformation and Continuity in Shamanic Rock Art of Northern Asia Ekaterina Devlet   9. Shamans’ Landscapes: note sur la psychologie du shaman pre et protohistorique plus particulierement en Eurasie Michel Louis Séfériadès   10. The Mystery of the Bird-Nester: The Shaman Which Lévi-Strauss Did Not Recognise Enrico Comba   11. Bear Myths and Traditions: The Moon and Mounds in North America Herman Bender   12. To Re-Enact Is to Remember: Envisioning a Shamanic Research Protocol in Archaeology Apela Colorado and Ryan Hurd

Reviews

Land of the Shamans is a very nice book, treating many interesting aspects [...] The volume deals with archaeology, landscape archaeology, symbolism and worldviews of ancient people. --Journal for the History of Astronomy

Author Information

Dragoş Gheorghiu is a cultural anthropologist and an experimental archaeologist, currently teaching at the Doctoral School of the National University of Arts in Bucharest. His approach to the European Chalcolithic uses semiotics and rhetoric to interpret the material culture and the landscapes of the past. Another main research area is the rituality of prehistoric technologies and places. George Nash is an Associate Professor at the Instituto Politécnico de Tomar (IPT) in Portugal and Visiting Fellow at the University of Bristol. Herman Bender is an independent researcher with a background in geology and industry. An amateur astronomer with decades of experience and a historical consultant, he has been internationally published in the fields of archeoastronomy, prehistoric trail research, petroform research, applied geophysics and cultural landscape studies. Emilia Pasztor is an archaeologist specialising in late Prehistoric Europe, working as an expert for Museums János Thorma and Istvan Turr. Her main research focuses on prehistoric sky lore and cosmological notions.

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