Shamanism of Eco-Tourism

History and Ontology among the Makushi in Guyana

Inbunden, Engelska, 2025

Av James Andrew Whitaker, James Andrew (Troy University) Whitaker

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In the first book in English to focus specifically on the Makushi in Guyana, James Andrew Whitaker examines how shamanism informs Makushi interactions with outsiders in the context of historical missionization and contemporary tourism. The Makushi are an Indigeneous people who speak a Cariban language and live in Guyana, Brazil, and Venezuela. Combining ethnohistory, ethnographic fieldwork, and archival research, this book elucidates a shamanic framework that is seen in Makushi engagements with outsiders in the past and present. It shows how this framework structures interactions between Makushi groups and various visitors in Guyana. Similar to how Makushi shamans draw in spirit allies, Makushi groups seek human outsiders and form strategic partnerships with them to obtain desired resources that are used for local goals and transformative projects. The book advances recent scholarship concerning ontological relations in Amazonia and is positioned at the cusp of debates over Amazonian relations with alterity.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum2025-02-06
Mått157 x 235 x 17 mm
Vikt487 g
FormatInbunden
SpråkEngelska
SerieCambridge Latin American Studies
Antal sidor229
FörlagCambridge University Press
ISBN9781009478403

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Amerikas historia inom Historia och arkeologi
Antropologi inom Samhalle och politik

James Andrew Whitaker is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Troy University. He also holds honorary research appointments at Mississippi State University and the University of St Andrews. He has conducted fieldwork with the Makushi in Guyana since 2012. His research combines ethnographic fieldwork with archival analysis to examine histories and ontologies in Amazonia and West Africa. He has published numerous articles in anthropological journals and has recently co-edited Climatic and Ecological Change in the Americas: A Perspective from Historical Ecology (2023).

Introduction; 1. Fetching the outside among the Makushi; 2. Eco-Tourism and development in Surama Village; 3. Missionaries, explorers, and other Spirits; 4. Transformation and otherness: Prophetic movements in the aftermath of early missionization; 5. Spirits in the landscape: Makushi Shamanism and ecological relations; 6. Tourists as shamanic spirits: strategic engagements with the other; 7. Becoming the other: shifting alterity In Surama Village; Afterword; Index.

'Written in a clear and engaging style, James Andrew Whitaker provides a case study for discussions about the ontological turn in anthropology, the relationship between history and culture, multi-species ethnography, and the effects of tourism on indigenous communities. It will make an excellent contribution to current scholarship and teaching.' Rachel Corr, author of Ritual and Remembrance in the Ecuadorian Andes