Piers Vitebsky

Idén om att människan har en dubbelsjäl har mycket gamla rötter, och kan hittas i de flesta kulturer och samhällen, till exempel inom religion och konst. Fenomen som extas, trance och utomkroppsliga tillstånd har observerats och analyserats i relation till den dubbla själens historia och förekomst i olika kulturer. Hur kan vi förstå dessa upplevelser? Vad har de för betydelse för vår förståelse av människans förhållande till den eviga och den sekulära världen? Kan de förklaras psykologiskt? Antologin Dubbelsjälen i religiös erfarenhet utforskar idén om att människan har en dubbel själ, dels gudomlig och dels jordisk. Några av vår tids främsta religionshistoriker, idéhistoriker, socialantropologer och psykologer går på djupet i frågan såväl filosofiskt som historiskt och i samtiden. Boken innehåller tidigare opulicerade texter om Hilma af Klints syn på dubbelsjälen. Boken finns även på engelska, The Double Self in the Religious Experience.

Idén om att människan har en dubbelsjäl har mycket gamla rötter, och kan hittas i de flesta kulturer och samhällen, till exempel inom religion och konst. Fenomen som extas, trance och utomkroppsliga tillstånd har observerats och analyserats i relation till den dubbla själens historia och förekomst i olika kulturer. Hur kan vi förstå dessa upplevelser? Vad har de för betydelse för vår förståelse av människans förhållande till den eviga och den sekulära världen? Kan de förklaras psykologiskt? Antologin The Double Self in the Religious Experience utforskar idén om att människan har en dubbel själ, dels gudomlig och dels jordisk. Några av vår tids främsta religionshistoriker, idéhistoriker, socialantropologer och psykologer går på djupet i frågan såväl filosofiskt som historiskt och i samtiden. Boken innehåller tidigare opulicerade texter om Hilma af Klints syn på dubbelsjälen. Boken finns även på svenska, Dubbelsjälen i religiös erfarenhet.

Just one generation ago, the Sora tribe in India lived in a world populated by the spirits of their dead, who spoke to them through shamans in trance. Every day, they negotiated their wellbeing in heated arguments or in quiet reflections on their feelings of love, anger, and guilt. Today, young Sora are rejecting the worldview of their ancestors and switching their allegiance to warring sects of fundamentalist Christianity or Hinduism. Communion with ancestors is banned as sacred sites are demolished, female shamans are replaced by male priests, and debate with the dead gives way to prayer to gods. For some, this shift means liberation from jungle spirits through literacy, employment, and democratic politics; others despair for fear of being forgotten after death. How can a society abandon one understanding of reality so suddenly and see the world in a totally different way? Over forty years, anthropologist Piers Vitebsky has shared the lives of shamans, pastors, ancestors, gods, policemen, missionaries, and alphabet worshippers, seeking explanations from social theory, psychoanalysis, and theology. Living without the Dead lays bare today’s crisis of indigenous religions and shows how historical reform can bring new fulfillments—but also new torments and uncertainties. Vitebsky explores the loss of the Sora tradition as one for greater humanity: just as we have been losing our wildernesses, so we have been losing a diverse range of cultural and spiritual possibilities, tribe by tribe. From the award-winning author of The Reindeer People, this is a heartbreaking story of cultural change and the extinction of an irreplaceable world, even while new religious forms come into being to take its place.

Just one generation ago, the Sora tribe in India lived in a world populated by the spirits of their dead, who spoke to them through shamans in trance. Every day, they negotiated their wellbeing in heated arguments or in quiet reflections on their feelings of love, anger, and guilt. Today, young Sora are rejecting the worldview of their ancestors and switching their allegiance to warring sects of fundamentalist Christianity or Hinduism. Communion with ancestors is banned as sacred sites are demolished, female shamans are replaced by male priests, and debate with the dead gives way to prayer to gods. For some, this shift means liberation from jungle spirits through literacy, employment, and democratic politics; others despair for fear of being forgotten after death. How can a society abandon one understanding of reality so suddenly and see the world in a totally different way? Over forty years, anthropologist Piers Vitebsky has shared the lives of shamans, pastors, ancestors, gods, policemen, missionaries, and alphabet worshippers, seeking explanations from social theory, psychoanalysis, and theology. Living without the Dead lays bare today’s crisis of indigenous religions and shows how historical reform can bring new fulfillments—but also new torments and uncertainties. Vitebsky explores the loss of the Sora tradition as one for greater humanity: just as we have been losing our wildernesses, so we have been losing a diverse range of cultural and spiritual possibilities, tribe by tribe. From the award-winning author of The Reindeer People, this is a heartbreaking story of cultural change and the extinction of an irreplaceable world, even while new religious forms come into being to take its place.

Your readers will explore the rich worldview of the Native Americans through myths and legends. Tales originating from various tribes functioned in a number of important ways. They explained the story of creation, described the relationship of humans to the rest of the universe, and preserved the sacred history of the tribe. Myths and storytelling helped Native Americans pass on knowledge related to hunting, fishing, farming, healing the sick, and dealing with conflict or disaster. This book places their mythology in historical context. Readers will connect earth myths with the Native Americans' real-life, tragic struggle to preserve their lands. Filled with colorful photographs and works of art, Native Americans' beliefs are beautifully illustrated, including their reverence for animals and the earth.

An anthropologist describes life among the Eveny people of Siberia, detailing their nomadic way of life in one of the most inhospitable places on Earth, their close relationship with the reindeer who share their environment, and their successful survival despite their harsh living conditions and Soviet efforts at control. Reprint.

A voyage of discovery into the life of a remote aboriginal community in the Siberian Arctic, where the reindeer has been a part of daily life since Palaeolithic times. The reindeer, along with the dog, was probably the first species to be drawn into a close relationship with man. This book, by an eminent British anthropologist, is the beautifully written story of how that relationship works and of the intimacy between the nomadic reindeer people and the landscape they inhabit. What to the Western eye looks like a vast, uninhabited Arctic wilderness is in fact filled with animals, humans and spirits – and the memory-traces of their interactions down the ages. No other Western author has had such access (since before the Cold War ended) to these distant regions of the Siberian taiga. Living and travelling with the reindeer people over a period of a dozen years, Piers Vitebsky has seen how, first, Communism and collectivisation threatened the way of life of the nomadic tribesmen, and then the marketplace continued to transform their existence. Through all the changes of the late 20th-century the reindeer has retained its central place in the physical and spiritual life of the people. The book is also a celebration of human love at an elemental level.

The shaman occupies a key role as a healer mediating between the world of the living and the world of spirits and is a potent figure in alternative medicine. Shamanism, a richly illustrated guide, looks at both historic and present-day manifestations, from the snowscaps of Siberia to the jungles of the Amazon.The book discusses visions, initiation rites, shamanic chants, shamanism and mental health, the shamanic use of plants, and the political and social background to the shaman's work. Also covered are the links between the shaman's sense of unity in nature and the recent growth of ecological consciousness in Western societies.* Includes more than 250 color illustrations that present a unique pictorial record of shamanism in practice and as represented in art and artifacts* Includes a detailed region-by-region survey of shamanism with full-color maps* Explores both spiritual and psychological aspects of the subject, as well as the relevance of shamanism to contemporary Western culture