Sorcery in Amazonia: A Comparative Exploration of Magical Assault (Biblioteca Antropologica Americana, 1) (English and Spanish Edition)

$83.05
by Tarryl Janik

Shop Now
Although shamanism has become a well-developed and expansive topic within the anthropology of Amazonia, the ethnographic literature focusing on sorcery has been sporadic and sparse by comparison. This has particularly been the case since the death of Neil L. Whitehead in 2012. However, as this volume shows, sorcery is often of great importance in the lives and cosmologies of many people in different parts of lowland South America. Across the region, it takes a variety of forms and involves a diverse range of practices. This edited volume comparatively re-examines the topic of sorcery in Amazonia with particular emphases on local ontological frameworks, issues of embodiment, and related uses of sound. It highlights ethical approaches to research concerning sorcery and discusses the ethics within local communities of sorcery practices and accusations. James Andrew Whitaker is an assistant professor of anthropology at Troy University, an honorary research fellow at the University of St Andrews, and affiliated faculty at Mississippi State University. His research focuses primarily on ethnohistory, ontologies, and historical memory in Amazonia and West Africa. He is the author of The Shamanism of Eco-Tourism: History and Ontology among the Makushi in Guyana (Cambridge, 2024) and co-editor of Climatic and Ecological Change in the Americas: A Perspective from Historical Ecology (Routledge, 2023). Matthias Lewy is a musicologist and cultural anthropologist. He works as a professor at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts. For more than 20 years he has been working in collaborative research, archival, and educational projects with the Pemon (Venezuela) and more recently with the Aparai-Wayana in Brazil. As a collaborative professor at the University of Brasilia (Brazil), he supervises Indigenous researchers in the Master's program PPG/MUS - PROGRAMA DE POS-GRADUACAO EM MUSICA. Tarryl Janik recently received his Ph.D. in anthropology from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. His research focuses on the ethnology of the Guianas and international religious movements involving ayahuasca. It emphasizes the connections between power and shamanism.

Customer Reviews

No ratings. Be the first to rate

 customer ratings


How are ratings calculated?
To calculate the overall star rating and percentage breakdown by star, we don’t use a simple average. Instead, our system considers things like how recent a review is and if the reviewer bought the item on Amazon. It also analyzes reviews to verify trustworthiness.

Review This Product

Share your thoughts with other customers