Shamans Siberian Spirituality and the Western Imagination

by Hutton, Ronald

• ISBN13: 9781847250278
• ISBN10: 1847250270
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-08-01
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic

Summary

With their ability to enter trances, to change into the bodies of other creatures, and to fly through the northern skies, shamans are the subject of both popular and scholarly fascination. In Shamans: Siberian Spirituality and the Western Imagination Ronald Hutton looks at what is really known about both the shamans of Siberia and about others spread throughout the world. He traces the growth of knowledge of shamans in Imperial and Stalinist Russia, descibes local variations and different types of shamanism, and explores more recent western influences on its history and modern practice. This is a challenging book by one of the world's leading authorities on Paganism. >

Table of Contents

Introduction

Part One: Why We Think We Know about Shamans

1. The Creation of Siberia

2. The Creation of Siberians

3. The Transformation of Siberians

4. The Records of Shamanism

Part Two: What We Think We Know about Shamans

5. What Shamans Did

6. Shamanic Cosmologies

7. Shamanic Apprenticeship and Equipment

8. Shamanic Performance

9 Knots and Loose Ends

Part Three: Siberia in the Shamanic World

10. The Discovery of a Shamanic World

11. The Discovery of a Shamanic Past

12. The Discovery of a Shamanic Future

Notes

Bibliography

Index