Description
Book SynopsisTells the life story of Mandu da Silva, the last living jaguar shaman among the Baniwa people in the Northwest Amazon. In this original and engaging work, Robin M. Wright, who has known and worked with Silva for more than thirty years, weaves the story of Silva’s life together with the Baniwas’ broader society, history, mythology, cosmology, and jaguar shaman traditions.
Trade Review"
Mysteries of the Jaguar Shamans is a tour de force, a remarkable work of deep understanding and expressive skill that should become a classic of Amazonian ethnography."—Donald Pollock,
Anthropos"Complex, detailed, fascinating, and well-written."—Rebecca R. Stone,
Journal of Anthropological Research "No ethnographer has ever written so extensively on a single shaman of the northwest Amazon. . . . A monumental study!"—S. D. Glazier,
Choice"What
Mysteries of the Jaguar Shamans of the Northwest Amazon will be most remembered for is the essential connection between myths, religious roles, social organization, and physical places. . . . Any anthropologist interested in shamanism or animism should take note of it."—Jack David Eller,
Anthropology Review DatabaseTable of Contents List of Illustrations
Foreword
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Part 1. Shamans, Chanters, Sorcerers, and Prophets
1. "You Are Going to Save Many Lives": The Life Story of Mandu da Silva, Hohodene Jaguar Shaman, coauthored by Manuel da Silva and Ercilia Lima da Silva
2. Mandu's Apprenticeship and a Jaguar Shaman's Powers of World-Making
3. "You Will Suffer Along Our Way": The Great Suffering in Mandu's Life
Part 2. Shamanic Knowledge and Power in the Baniwa Universe
4. Creation, Cosmology, and Ecological Time
5. Mythscapes as Living Memories of the Ancestors
Part 3. Transmission of Shamanic Knowledge and Power
6. The Birth of the Child of the Sun, Kuwai
7. Death and Regeneration in the First Initiation Rites, Kwaipan
8. A Struggle for Power and Knowledge among Men and Women
Part 4. Revitalization Movements in Traditional and Christianized Communities
9. The House of Shamans' Knowledge and Power, the House of Adornment, and the Pamaale School Complex
Conclusion
Appendix 1. Letter Authorizing Reproductions of Kuwai-ka Wamundana
Appendix 2. Description of The Mysterious Body of Kuwai
Notes
Bibliography
Index
