In Darkness and Secrecy

Neil L. Whitehead

Description

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. Dominique Buchillet, Carlos Fausto, Michael Heckenberger, Elsje Lagrou, E. Jean Langdon, George Mentore, Donald Pollock, Fernando Santos-Granero, Pamela J. Stewart, Andrew Strathern, Marnio Teixeira-Pinto, Silvia Vidal, Neil L. Whitehead, Johannes Wilbert, Robin Wright

Sujets

• Magic: el encuentro
• Witchcraft
• Biological anthropology
• Brazil
• Magic

Informations

• Publié par: Duke University Press
• Date de parution: 03 juin 2004
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780822385837
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

In Darkness and Secrecy

IN DARKNESS AND SECRECY

The Anthropology of Assault Sorcery and Witchcraft in Amazonia Edited by Neil L. Whitehead and Robin Wright

Duke University Press

Durham & London 

©  Duke University Press All rights reserved Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper  Typeset in Melior by Tseng Information Systems, Inc. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data appear on the last printed page of this book.

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Contents

Introduction: Dark Shamanism,Neil L. Whitehead and Robin Wright

The Order of Dark Shamans among the Warao,Johannes Wilbert

Dark Shamans and the Shamanic State: Sorcery and Witchcraft as Political Process in Guyana and the Venezuelan Amazon, Silvia Vidal & Neil L. Whitehead

The Wicked and the Wise Men: Witches and Prophets in the History of the Northwest Amazon,Robin Wright

Sorcery Beliefs, Transmission of Shamanic Knowledge, and Therapeutic Practice among the Desana of the Upper Río Negro Region, Brazil,Dominique Buchillet

The Glorious Tyranny of Silence and the Resonance of Shamanic Breath,George Mentore

A Blend of Blood and Tobacco: Shamans and Jaguars among the Parakanã of Eastern Amazonia,Carlos Fausto

The Wars Within: Xinguano Witchcraft and Balance of Power, Michael Heckenberger

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Siblings and Sorcerers: The Paradox of Kinship among the Kulina, Donald Pollock

Being Alone amid Others: Sorcery and Morality among the Arara, Carib, Brazil,Márnio Teixeira-Pinto

Sorcery and Shamanism in Cashinahua Discourse and Praxis, Purus River, Brazil,Elsje Lagrou

The Enemy Within: Child Sorcery, Revolution, and the Evils of Modernization in Eastern Peru,Fernando Santos-Granero

Commentary,E. Jean Langdon

Afterword: Substances, Powers, Cosmos, and History, Andrew Strathern & Pamela J. Stewart

Contributors

Index

In Darkness and Secrecy

Introduction: Dark Shamanism

Neil L. Whitehead & Robin Wright

Shamanism is a burgeoning obsession for the urban middle classes around the globe. Its presentation in popular books,specials, and on the Internet is dominated by the presumed psychic and physical benefits that shamanic techniques can bring. This heightened interest has required a persistent purification of the ritual practices of those who inspire the feverish quest for personal meaning and fulfillment. Ironically, as Fausto points out in his essay in this volume, given the self-improvement motiva- tions that have brought so many into a popular understanding of shaman- ism, two defining aspects of shamanism in Amazonia—blood (i.e., violence) and tobacco—have simply been erased from such representations (see also Lagrou, this volume). Such erasure is not only a vain self-deception but, more important, it is a recapitulation of colonial ways of knowing through both the denial of radical cultural difference and the refusal to think through its consequences. This volume is intended to counteract that temptation. All of the authors whose works are presented herein are keenly aware of the way in which salacious and prurient imagery of native peoples has ser- viced the purposes of conquest and colonization over the past five hundred years. In missionary writings, for example, ideas about ‘‘native sorcery’’ and the collusion of shamans with ‘‘satanic’’ forces meant that such individuals were ferociously denounced and their ritual equipment and performances were banned from the settlement of the converts. In this context no distinc- tion was made between the forms and purposes of ritual practice: curers as well as killers were equally persecuted. Thus, the rehabilitation of shaman- ism as a valid spiritual attitude and a culturally important institution that has taken place over the past twenty years through the enthusiastic, if ill-