Description
Book SynopsisTells the story of an idea that humanity's expression of art, religion and creativity found form in the figure of a proto-priest known as a shaman. Tracing this classic category of the history of anthropology back to the emergence of the term in Siberia, this title follows the trajectory of European knowledge about continent's eastern frontier.
Trade Review"Ultimately, scholars studying a variety of topics will ?nd this book useful." American Anthropologist "The author finely demonstrates how shamans lost their 'historical diversity' and 'gender variability'; Wayward shamans is a highly interesting and rigorous study that should definitely captivate the attention of those interested in the history of religions, of art, and of Western ideas of otherness and their crucial gender dimensions." -- Paolo Fortis Jornal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1 Discoveries of an Imaginary Place Chapter 2 Strange Landscapes, Familiar Magic Chapter 3 People in a Land Before Time Chapter 4 The Invention of Siberian Ethnology Chapter 5 Sex, Gender, and Encounters with Spirits Chapter 6 Changed Men and Changed Women Chapter 7: French Connections and the Spirits of Prehistory Chapter 8: Conclusion Notes Bibliographic Note References
