Reviews for Last Shaman: Change in an Amazonian Community, Vol. 2

The average rating for Last Shaman: Change in an Amazonian Community, Vol. 2 based on 2 reviews is 4.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2019-12-11 00:00:00 Juan Gonzalez El libro tiene como objetivo introducirnos en la mitología como ciencia, sobretodo a quienes recien se sumergen en este maravilloso mundo. La obra se inicia entregando ciertas definiciones necesarias para la comprensión del volumen como lo son mito, mitología, folclore, entre otros. A su vez, realiza comparaciones entre religión, mito y folclore. Continua con la descripción de las etapas por las cuales han evolucionado las "creencias" humanas, desde el prístino animismo hasta la desarrollada religión monoteísta.

Review # 2 was written on 2014-06-02 00:00:00 Bryan Francis Interesting book about the sources of myths and how they evolved. A slight bit repetitive in that the book is broken into chapters dealing with types of deities, rituals, the afterlife and creation. Spence repeats the stories and attributes of the mythological figures quite often. It's revealing that many of the myths indicate that early peoples resorted to human sacrifice to placate their Gods. Even at this remove the inhuman barbarity and cruelty of the Aztecs is arresting. They sacrificed children to rain gods and considered it a 'good omen' if the children wept. The Aztec treatment of prisoners puts their conquest by Spanish into perspective. Some of the stories, for example, the Kiche Indian myths of Guatemala must have been composed under the influence of hallucinatory drugs. Despite the repetition I enjoyed it.