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This phenomenologically oriented ethnography focuses on experiential aspects of Yanomami shamanism, including shamanistic activities in the context of cultural change. The author interweaves ethnographic material with theoretical components of a holographic principle, or the idea that the "part is equal to the whole," which is embedded in the nature of the Yanomami macrocosm, human dwelling, multiple-soul components, and shamans' relationships with embodied spirit-helpers. This book fills an important gap in the regional study of Yanomami people, and, on a broader scale, enriches understanding of this ancient phenomenon by focusing on the consciousness involved in shamanism through firsthand experiential involvement.
List of contents
List of Illustrations
Preface and Acknowledgements
Introduction
Shamanism: Origins and Key Features
Yanomami Shamanism: A Cross-Cultural Perspective
The Book's Subject Matter and its Guiding Principles
Fieldwork Setting and Methodology
The Book's Outline
Chapter 1. Life on Top of the Old Sky: Yanomami Habitat, Ethnographic Setting and Local Histories
Yanomami Habitat
Historical Migratory Movements and Encounters
The Sweeping Winds of Change and its Consequences
Platanal and Sheroana-theri at the Turn of the Twenty-First Century
Chapter 2. Inside the Boa's Abdomen: The Yanomami Cosmos
Holographic Totality of the Yanomami Cosmos
No Patapi tëhë: The Ever-present Mythical Time of Creation
Origin Myths
Chapter 3. Hekura, Body and Illness
Shamans and Hekura
Epena: Transformative Substance and Aliment for Hekura
Shamanism in Myths and in Contemporary Context
Yanomami Conception of a Person and Causes of Illness
Chapter 4. Hekuraprai: Corporeal Cosmogenesis
Summary of the Initiatory Ordeal
Transformation into Hekura: Day-by-Day Process
Cosmic Body and its Dynamism
First Trance: Re-experience of Death and the Beginning of Hekuramou
Chapter 5. Oneiric Encounters
Hekuramou and Expansion of Shamanistic Powers
Dreams and Shamanism
Dream Lucidity and the Transitional States of Dream Consciousness
Dreams, Illness and Healing
Chapter 6. Shamanic Battlefield: The Pendulum of Life and Death
Shapori's New Identity and Social Obligation on the Intracommunal Level
The Dialectics between Defensive and Offensive Hekuramou
Body Intrusion and the Dynamics of the Cosmic Flow
Shaporimou and Intersubjective Knowledge Diffusion
Chapter 7. Two Pathways to Curing and in Between: Biomedical and Shamanic Treatment in the Life of Yanomami
Shamanism and Biomedicine: Compatibility and Differences
Dynamics of Doctor-Shapori-Patient Interaction
Yanomami Responses to Diarrhoea, Malaria and Respiratory Infections
Chapter 8. Return of the Ancestors: The All-pervading Shawara, The End of the World and the Beginning of a New Epoch
The Origin of Shawara Epidemics
Further Expansion of the Shawara Concept
The End of the World and the Beginning of Another Cosmic Cycle
Postscript: Recent Developments
Glossary of Yanomami Terms
Bibliography
Index
About the author
Zeljko Jokic received his PhD in Social Anthropology in 2004 at the University of Sydney. Since then he lectured at various universities, conducted a short-term fieldwork in Siberia and worked as a Research Assistant at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. He also spent several years working as a consultant for the Inter-American Organization for the Elimination of Onchocerciasis at the Amazonian Centre for Investigation and Control of Tropical Diseases, Puerto Ayacucho, Venezuela. Currently, he is a Policy Officer at the Health and Medical Research Office of the Australian Government Department of Health.
Summary
This ethnography focuses on Yanomami shamanism, especially in the context of cultural change. The author interweaves ethnographic material with theoretical components of a holographic principle, or the "part is equal to the whole." This book fills a gap in the study of Yanomami people and enriches understanding of this ancient phenomenon.
