num_pages: 256
description: In this timely collection, Neil Price provides a general introduction to the archaeology of shamanism by bringing together recent archaeological thought on the subject. Blending theoretical discussion with detailed case studies, the issues addressed include shamanic material culture, responses to dying and the dead, shamanic soundscapes, the use of ritual architecture and shamanism in the context of other belief systems such as totemism. Following an intial orientation reviewing shamanism as an anthropological construct, the volume focuses on the Northern hemisphere with case studies from Greenland to Nepal, Siberia to Kazakhstan. The papers span a chronological range from Upper Palaeolithic to the present and explore such cross-cutting themes as gender and the body, identity, landscape, architecture, as well as shamanic interpretations of rock art and shamanism in the heritage and cultural identity of indigenous peoples. The volume also addresses the interpretation of shamanic beliefs in terms of cognitive neuroscience and the modern public perception of prehistoric shamanism.Part One -- The archaeology of shamanism: Cognition, cosmology and world-view1. An archaeology of altered states: Shamanism and material culture studiesNeil S. Price2. Southern African shamanistic rock art in its social and cognitive contextsJ.D. Lewis-WilliamsPart Two -- Siberia and Central Asia: The 'cradle of shamanism'3. Rock art and the material culture of Siberian and Central Asian shamanismEkaterina Devlet4. Shamans, heroes and ancestors in the bronze castings of western SiberiaNatalia Fedorova5. Sun Gods or shamans? Interpreting the 'solar-headed' petroglyphs of Central AsiaAndrzej Rozwadowski6. The materiality of shamanism as a 'world-view': Praxis, artefacts and landscapePeter Jordan7. The medium of the message: Shamanism as localised practice in the Nepal HimalayasDamian WalterPart Three -- North America and North Atlantic8. The gendered peopling of North America: Addressing the antiquity of systems of multiple genderSandra E. Hollimon9. Shamanism and the iconography of Palaeo-Eskimo artPatricia D. Sutherland10. Social bonding and shamanism among late Dorset groups in High Arctic GreenlandHans Christian Gullov and Martin AppeltPart Four -- Northern Europe11. Special objects -- special creatures: Shamanistic imagery and the Aurignacian art of south-west GermanyThomas A. Dowson and Martin Porr12. The sounds of transformation: Accoustics, monuments and ritual in the British NeolithicAaron Watson13. An ideology of transformation: Cremation rites and animal sacrifice in early Anglo-Saxon EnglandHoward Williams14. Waking ancestor spirits: Neo-shamanic engagements with archaeologyRobert J. Wallis
language: English
title: The Archaeology of Shamanism
titlecomplete: The Archaeology of Shamanism
genres: Anthropology, Religion, Archaeology, Nonfiction, Prehistory, Mythology, Research, History
ratings_count: 26
publisher: Routledge