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.
Table of Content
List of Figures
Acknowledgements
Foreword
Stephen Hugh-Jones
Maps
Introduction: Animism and Invisible Worlds: The Place of Non-humans in Indigenous Ontologies
Marc Brightman, Vanessa Elisa Grotti and Olga Ulturgasheva
Chapter 1. Too Many Owners: Mastery and Ownership in Amazonia
Carlos Fausto
Chapter 2. Revisiting the Animism versus Totemism Debate: Fabricating Persons among the Eveny and Chukchi of North-eastern Siberia
Rane Willerslev and Olga Ulturgasheva
Chapter 3. Animism and the Meanings of Life: Reflections from Amazonia
Laura Rival
Chapter 4. Stories about Evenki People and their Dogs: Communication through Sharing Contexts
Tatiana Safonova and István Sántha
Chapter 5. Making Animals into Food among the Kanamari of Western Amazonia
Luiz Costa
Chapter 6. ‘Spirit-charged’ Animals in Siberia
Alexandra Lavrillier
Chapter 7. Shamans, Animals and Enemies: Human and Non-Human Agency in an Amazonian Cosmos of Alterity
Casey High
Chapter 8. Expressions and Experiences of Personhood: Spatiality and Objects in the Nenets Tundra Home
Vera Skvirskaja
Chapter 9. Humanity, Personhood and Transformability in Northern Amazonia
Vanessa Elissa Grotti and Marc Brightman
Chapter 10. Masked Predation, Hierarchy and the Scaling of Extractive Relations in Inner Asia and Beyond
Katherine Swancutt
Afterword
Piers Vitebsky
Notes on Contributors
Index
About the author
Olga Ulturgasheva is Research Fellow in Social Anthropology at the Scott Polar Research Institute and Clare Hall, University of Cambridge.
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