Comments on: No Shamans Here

By: nanopolitan: June 2005

nanopolitan: June 2005 — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 20:51:02 +0000

[...] Apparently, anthropologists get a richer variety of responses. When they tell someone they study, um, anthropology, they receive such gems as: “I have a friend/relative who studies insects.” “Like Indiana Jones? Do you have one of those hats?” “I think shamanism is so fascinating, don’t you?” “ah… dinosaur bones. Fascinating.” [...]

By: Nomadic Thoughts

Nomadic Thoughts — Mon, 27 Jun 2005 17:30:21 +0000

Week in Review 1(3)

NT Week in Review Vol. I, Issue 3 Not much time for commentary (see previous post), but here are some good links: From the blogs: Tak at Savage Minds discusses the implications of racial stereotyping in regards to Gwen Stefani’s…

By: Ozma

Ozma — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 12:45:22 +0000

If I had to choose between anthros marketing new age hokum and anthros working for the CIA, I’d say bring on the hokum!
Of course anyone who doesn’t want to be called a shaman shouldn’t have the term forced on them. But as a term of anthropological art I think it is quite useful, and reflects some of the ambitions of the discipline that seem to have been sidetracked across the 80s and 90s. If the first settlers of the Americas came across the Bering land bridge, maybe it’s not so crazy to think that Siberian practices of shamanism have some relation to “shamanism” in the Americas? And outside of that region, to the exent that human practices resemble one another cross contextually… Any kind of comparative approach requires and generates some sort of umbrella terminology.
One of the things about the scholarly generation preceding ours is that they expended huge amounts of energy coming up with forbidden words, approaches, frameworks, and giant purgatories into which everyone had to fear being relegated for baroque definitions of intellectual gaucherie. I deeply appreciate all the ways that their efforts were necessary, but I also feel very “tra-la!” that such tasks don’t have to be our central concern.

By: orange.

orange. — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 08:37:42 +0000

“You’re Jewish? I think Kabbalah is so fascinating.”

Philosemitism is widely spread in Germany, though pilgrimages to Israel in order to plant olivetrees has somewhat gone out of fashion.
Merchandized mysticism instead is a growing branch.

By: Savage Minds: Notes and Queries in Anthropology — A Group Blog » The Indiana Jones Thing

Wed, 22 Jun 2005 03:17:47 +0000

[...] Home | About « No Shamans Here Tue 21 Jun 2005 The Indiana Jones Thing Posted by [...]

By: jeremy

jeremy — Wed, 22 Jun 2005 02:30:52 +0000

wierd… i think scientific labs and shop floors are what anthropologists study… well with some variation…