Animism in Rainforest and Tundra: Personhood, Animals, Plants and Things in Contemporary Amazonia and Siberia

Published by Berghahn Books 2012

Animism in Rainforest and Tundra

Personhood, Animals, Plants and Things in Contemporary Amazonia and Siberia

Edited by: Marc Brightman , Vanessa Elisa Grotti and Olga Ulturgasheva

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780857454690

Overview
Contents

About this book

Amazonia and Siberia, classic regions of shamanism, have long challenged ‘western’ understandings of man’s place in the world. By exploring the social relations between humans and non-human entities credited with human-like personhood (not only animals and plants, but also ‘things’ such as artifacts, trade items, or mineral resources) from a comparative perspective, this volume offers valuable insights into the constitutions of humanity and personhood characteristic of the two areas. The contributors conducted their ethnographic fieldwork among peoples undergoing transformative processes of their lived environments, such as the depletion of natural resources and migration to urban centers. They describe here fundamental relational modes that are being tested in the face of change, presenting groundbreaking research on personhood and agency in shamanic societies and contributing to our global understanding of social and cultural change and continuity.

Author / Editor information

Marc Brightman is Marie Curie Intra-European Fellow at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva and Research Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford.

Vanessa Elisa Grotti is British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow at the Institute of Social and Cultural Anthropology and Research Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford University.

Olga Ulturgasheva is Research Fellow in Social Anthropology at the Scott Polar Research Institute and Clare Hall, University of Cambridge.

Marc Brightman is Marie Curie Intra-European Fellow at the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva and Research Fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford.

Reviews

“This thoughtful volume is extraordinarily rich and will prompt all of us interested in these questions to think about them from fresh perspectives.” • Anthropological Forum

“This is an extremely interesting collection of papers which takes our understanding of animism forward considerably. Pre-scientific ideas abound in religion. The Bible's focus on sacrifice has roots here, and what is 'idolatry' but nature religion giving human characteristics to divinities and even trees, the Asherah.” • Journal of Beliefs and Values

“This exciting book…offers an excellent introduction to the main theoretical problem that the book addresses—“the anthropology of nature.”… there is a lot of rich material here on how Siberian and Amazonian peoples create lives and communities out of inter-species relations and inter-species communicative practices that involve rural, frontier landscapes…I highly recommend this book for its rich ethnography and theory, and for its fruitful comparative perspective.” • Sibirica

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	v
Figures Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Acknowledgements Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Foreword Stephen Hugh-Jones Publicly Available Download PDF	xi
Maps Publicly Available Download PDF	xv
Introduction: Animism and Invisible Worlds: The Place of Non-humans in Indigenous Ontologies Marc Brightman, Vanessa Elisa Grotti and Olga Ulturgasheva Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
Chapter 1 Too Many Owners: Mastery and Ownership in Amazonia Carlos Fausto Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	29
Chapter 2 Revisiting the Animism versus Totemism Debate: Fabricating Persons among the Eveny and Chukchi of North-eastern Siberia Rane Willerslev and Olga Ulturgasheva Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	48
Chapter 3 Animism and the Meanings of Life: Reflections from Amazonia Laura Rival Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	69
Chapter 4 Stories about Evenki People and their Dogs: Communication through Sharing Contexts Tatiana Safonova and István Sántha Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	82
Chapter 5 Making Animals into Food among the Kanamari of Western Amazonia Luiz Costa Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	96
Chapter 6 ‘Spirit-charged’ Animals in Siberia Alexandra Lavrillier Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	113
Chapter 7 Shamans, Animals and Enemies: Human and Non-human Agency in an Amazonian Cosmos of Alterity Casey High Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	130
Chapter 8 Expressions and Experiences of Personhood: Spatiality and Objects in the Nenets Tundra Home Vera Skvirskaja Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	146
Chapter 9 Humanity, Personhood and Transformability in Northern Amazonia Vanessa Elisa Grotti and Marc Brightman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	162
Chapter 10 Masked Predation, Hierarchy and the Scaling of Extractive Relations in Inner Asia and Beyond Katherine Swancutt Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	175
Afterword Piers Vitebsky Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	195
Notes on Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	200
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	203

Language: English
Publisher: Berghahn Books
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 226
Keywords: Anthropology of Religion; Environmental Studies (General); Anthropology (General)

eBook

Published: August 1, 2012
ISBN: 9780857454690