Shamanism and Violence

Diana Riboli is a lecturer in Social Anthropology at Panteio University, Greece. She has been carrying out ethnographic research among the Chepang of Central and Southern Nepal and she is currently directing a research project among the Semang-Negrito of Peninsular Malaysia. She is the author of Tunsuriban. Shamanism in the Chepang of Southern and Central Nepal (2000) and of numerous articles and essays on shamanism, indigenous concepts of health and illnesses, altered states of consciousness and strategies for survival of indigenous cultures. Davide Torri is a researcher at the Asia-Europe Cluster of Excellence, Karl Jaspers Centre for Advanced Transcultural Studies at the University of Heidelberg, Germany. He studied Hindi language and Hinduism at the University of Venice. After his dissertation on the Lepchas of Sikkim, he dedicated himself to the anthropology of religion and to the study of shamanism among indigenous communities of India, Nepal, and Mongolia. In particular, he is specialised in the study of Himalayan indigenous and minority groups. He wrote several papers on shamanism and forms of syncretism between South Asian indigenous cultures, Hinduism, Buddhism and Christianity. Having done fieldwork in Nepal during the Civil War and the following peace process, he developed an interest in conflicts dynamics, politics and patterns of change affecting small-scale societies.

• List of Figures, Notes on Contributors, Acknowledgments, Introduction, 1 Dark and Light Shamanisms: Themes of Conflict, Ambivalence and Healing, 2 Enchantment and Destruction, 3 Shamans Emerging from Repression in Siberia: Lightning Rods of Fear and Hope, 4 Experiences of Mongol Shamans in China: Victims and Agents of Violence, 5 Variations of Violence at the Vital Core of Chinese and Korean Shamanic Ritual Worlds, 6 Words of Violence: a Shamanic Curse in a Sagay Text, 7 Exorcism Death in Virginia: On the Misrepresentation of Korean Shamans, 8 Contesting Power, Negotiating Influence: Rai Shamans and New Religious Movements in Eastern Nepal , 9 Between a Rock and a Hard Place: Himalayan Encounters with Human and Other-Than-Human Opponents, 10 Of Angry Thunders, Smelly Intruders and Human-Tigers. Shamanis Representations of Violence and Conflict in Non-Violent Peoples: The Semang-Negrito (Malaysia) , 11 Appendix: Divine Hunger – The Cannibal War-Machine, Bibliography, Index

’...an excellent collection of no less excellent papers where one third of the authors belong to the editorial board of Shaman.[...] The style and the ’cool’ English tone of the book are outstanding.’ Shaman