Reviews for Shamanism: A Reader

The average rating for Shamanism: A Reader based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2014-10-11 00:00:00 Gregory Luders 4.4 stars, really: an excellent resource not just for students and those interested in native cosmologies and the changing Western response thereto, but for open-minded and curious people in general. The reader compasses pertinent snippets tracking changes in anthropological approaches and tackles sticky questions of New Age and other cultural appropriation with admirably little bias, often fielding both original articles and their rebuttals. I have an entrenched ambivalence towards archaeology's sister dicipline, but this textbook is as reflective as a source can get whilst retaining its focus on what shamanism is and does. Although I make it sound extremely dry, most of the articles are anything but: a previously hard-atheist anthropologist accidentally ending up a shaman subsequent to a near-lethal dose of hallucinogens, for instance, or the fascinating overlap between the mind-breakingly ancient Bear Cult and the perception of transgender or/and genderqueer individuals as better suited for a shaman's life. Well worth the time to find in a library and dip into at will, though the cumulative knowledge - and understanding that there is vastly more to know, and still more that is lost - makes a cover-to-cover reading equally worthwhile. warning: may result in a tendancy to ask misusers of the word 'shaman' "where's your reindeer, then?" and do the kind of research that makes one giggle uncontrollably at the sight of Santa-themed light displays.

Review # 2 was written on 2007-11-14 00:00:00 Tony Hunter An excellent, objective, and thoroughly-researched book. Wallis has an opinion and a stance on the subject, but doesn't let that keep him from critical debate of a complex issue.