Wayward Shamans tells the story of an idea that humanity’s first expression of art, religion and creativity found form in the figure of a proto-priest known as a shaman. Tracing this classic category of the history of anthropology back to the emergence of the term in Siberia, the work follows the trajectory of European knowledge about the continent’s eastern frontier. The ethnographic record left by German natural historians engaged in the Russian colonial expansion project in the 18th century includes a range of shamanic practitioners, varied by gender and age. Later accounts by exiled Russian revolutionaries noted transgendered shamans. This variation vanished, however, in the translation of shamanism into archaeology theory, where a male sorcerer emerged as the key agent of prehistoric art. More recent efforts to provide a universal shamanic explanation for rock art via South Africa and neurobiology likewise gloss over historical evidence of diversity. By contrast this book argues for recognizing indeterminacy in the categories we use, and reopening them by recalling their complex history.

This splendid reference is the result of the author's ten years spent researching in archives, photographing artifacts, and conducting interviews with elders and artists, excerpts of which are interspersed throughout the information-packed text. Jewelry, beadwork, and ceremonial regalia are presented in 1,200-plus illustrations (about 820 in color), including three eight-page gatefolds; diagrams of jewelry techniques and regional maps are also included. Though it makes no claim to be comprehensive, the scope is expansive, extending from the Arctic Circle to northern Mexico and from the Atlantic to the Pacific, and including a full spectrum of ornamental artwork. The author's previous work The History of Beads is well regarded; and this authoritative and beautiful reference will no doubt stand equal to it. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

Joanne Walker has two choices: Defeat the enemy...or lose her soul trying

A survey of Mesoamerican healers and medical practises in Mexico and Guatemala. The first two essays describe the work of pre-Hispanic and colonial healers and show how their roles changed over time. The remaining essays look at contemporary healers, from social workers to spiritualists.

Encyclopaedia Divine: Shamans - The Call Of The Wild

Shamans and Elders is a major study of Mongolian shamanism and society, past and present. It presents a wealth of new information, and offers a fresh understanding of the widespread phenomenon of shamanism. This unique and detailed analysis of a fascinating subject combines a discussion of Urgunge Onon's memories of shamanism with Caroline Humphrey's text- and field-based analytical knowledge of Central and North Asian shamanism. It covers among other things: notions of gender in Mongolian society, including male and female traditions in ritual, female shamans, and goddess worship; attitudes to death, and funeral rituals; the importance of old men and of ancestors; and Daur notions of landscape within their direct experience (the importance of the sky, of the mountains, of the forest, rivers, etc.) and beyond. In covering these diverse areas, the authors depart from the general cultural models usually offered in discussions of shamanism, providing a new vision of 'shamanism' as made up of fragmentary, non-formularized parts. It presents much-needed insight on a little-known world, and points to an original new way of doing anthropology.

One minute she's off to a vacation out West. The next, Anne is swept by a twister back in time to 1851 Wyoming. Wandering dazed through the sagebrush, she is rescued by rugged Luke McCord and finds herself riding a wagon train to Oregon.