Providing a fresh look at some of the pressing issues of our world today, this collection focuses on experiential and ritualized coping practices in response to a multitude of environmental challenges―cyclones, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, earthquakes, warfare and displacements of peoples and environmental resource exploitation. Eco-cosmological practices conducted by skilled healing practitioners utilize knowledge embedded in the cosmological grounding of place and experiences of place and the landscapes in which such experience is encapsulated. A range of geographic case studies are presented in this volume, exploring Asia, Europe, the Pacific, and South America. With special reference throughout to ritual as a mode of seeking the stabilization, renewal, and continuity of life processes, this volume will be of particular interest to readers working in shamanic and healing practices, environmental concerns surrounding sustainability and conservation, ethnomedical systems, and religious and ritual studies.
Author(s): Diana Riboli, Pamela J. Stewart, Andrew J. Strathern, Davide Torri
Series: Palgrave Studies in Disaster Anthropology
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
Year: 2020
Language: English
Pages: 262
City: Cham
Series Editors’ Preface: Epistemological Blending In Anthropological Analysis.
Contents
Notes on Contributors
List of Figures
1 Introduction
Human History as Disaster
The Disasters of the Anthropocene
Chapters overview3
Bibliography
2 “The War Has Just Begun.” Nature’s Fury Against Neocolonial “Spirit/s”: Shamanic Perceptions of Natural Disasters in Comparative Perspective
Introduction
The Batek and the Tsunami
The Chepang, the Earthquake, and the Landslides
Conclusions
Bibliography
3 The Spirits of Extractivism: Non-Human Meddling, Shamanic Diplomacy, and Cosmo-Political Strategy Among the Urarina (Peruvian Amazon)
Introduction
The Urarina and the History of Oil Exploitation in the Peruvian Amazon
Spills and Oil Spirits
Disaster and Loss of Words
Conclusions
References
4 Batek Cosmopolitics in the Early Twenty-First Century
Introduction
Eco-Cosmologies and Cosmopolitics
Eco-Cosmologies and Landscape
Visions of the Future
Violence, Disease, and Shamanism
Conclusions
References
5 Jinn Pinn Dance in the Floods: Perceptions of Flood Disasters Among the Kalasha of Pakistan
Introduction
Methodology
Background of the Kalasha of Chitral
Kalasha in Post-colonial Pakistan
Pragata and Onjeshta
Ontological Issues, Terminology, and Kalasha Worldview
Wider Understanding of the Kalasha Ecology and Cosmology
The Uprooted Settlement of Siasat and Sadhu in Chizhina
Saras Kuru—The Ritual Offerings for the Bhut
Eggs of the Flood—Intergenerational Perceptions
Flooding, Impurity, and Violence
Deforestation, Modernity, and the State
Concluding Remarks
References
6 Eco-Cosmologies: Renewable Energy
Ireland—Beltany Stone Circle1
Highlands, Papua New Guinea3
Conclusion
References
7 The Earth and the Tree in Alekh Shamanism in Koraput/Odisha
Introduction
Mahima Dharma
Brief Comparison of Socio-Religious Contexts of Mahima Dharma
Alekh Dharma or Alekh Shamanism in Koraput
Prologue
Spread of Mahima Dharma
Conversion to the Alekh Religion
Contexts and Reasons for Initiation
Cultural Change and the Ascetic Ecstasy of Alekh-s
The Ethnography of Song
Conclusion
References
8 Sacred, Alive, Dangerous, and Endangered: Humans, Non-humans, and Landscape in the Himalayas
Introduction
A Memory of Waters
Memories of Wars with the (Now) Invisible
Memories Set in Stone and Collapsing Buildings
Conclusions
Bibliography
9 Shamanism, Magic, and Indigenous Ontologies: Eco-Critical Perspectives on Environmental Changes in India
Ecocriticism and Indigenous Ontologies: An Introduction to South Asia
Case Study: Some Notes on the Fieldwork Among the Kondhs of Odisha
The Shadow Line of the Indigenous Knowledge of the Forest
Ontological Perception of Disasters
Conclusions and Future Perspectives: How to Be Modern and Related Ideological Conflicts
Bibliography
10 Unblocking the Blockage Between Earth and Heaven: Shamanic Space for Cultural Intimacy in China
The Legendary Blocking of the Passage Between Earth and Heaven
Analogical Shamanism: Family Resemblance1
Pan-Shamanic Practice: A Space of Cultural Intimacy
Shamanism in China: Technique of Negotiation and Compromise
Discussion
References
11 Burying Gold, Digging the Past: Remembering Ma Bufang Regime in Qinghai (PRC)
Natural Disasters in a Tibetan Enclave Within a Muslim County
Gold Mining in Qinghai During the Ma Regime (1917–1949)
Tibetan Mining and gter ma: Digging Out, Burying Back, and Keeping in Treasures
Life and Death: Relatedness and Alienness in Gold Source
Conclusions: Eroded Mountains, Eroded Memories
References
Afterword: Reflections
Reference
Index
