An Introduction to Shamanism

Thomas A. DuBois is the Birgit Baldwin Professor of Scandinavian Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison where he teaches in the fields of Scandinavian Studies, Folklore Studies and Religious Studies. He is author and editor of five books including Nordic Religions in the Viking Age (1999) and Sanctity in the North: Saints, Lives and Cults in Medieval Scandinavia (2008).

• Preface; Part I. Introductions: 1. Shamanism and the issue of religion; 2. A history of shamanic encounters; 3. Shamanism in archaeological evidence; Part II. Shamanic Soteriology and Ritual: 4. Cosmology and the work of the shaman; 5. The call and initiation; 6. Mediating the spirit world: shamanic roles and careers; Part III. Examining Ritual Effectiveness: 7. Séance, trance and the shamanic mind; 8. Shamans, clients, and healing; Part IV. The Shamanic Arsenal: 9. Music and entheogens: pathways to ecstasy; 10. The material culture of shamanism; 11. Shamanic verbal art; Part V. Shamanic Politics in a Changing World: 12. Shamanism under attack; 13. Shamanic revitalizations; 14. Neoshamanism; Epilogue; Bibliography; Index.

'… the book stands out overall as one of the best of its kind.' Robert Wallis, Time and Mind: The Journal of Archaeology, Consciousness and Culture