
- 643 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
About this book
The foundational work on shamanism now available as a Princeton Classics paperback
Shamanism is an essential work on the study of this mysterious and fascinating phenomenon. The founder of the modern study of the history of religion, Mircea Eliade surveys the tradition through two and a half millennia of human history, moving from the shamanic traditions of Siberia and Central Asia—where shamanism was first observed—to North and South America, Indonesia, Tibet, China, and beyond. In this authoritative survey, Eliade illuminates the magico-religious life of societies that give primacy of place to the figure of the shaman—at once magician and medicine man, healer and miracle-doer, priest, mystic, and poet. Synthesizing the approaches of psychology, sociology, and ethnology, Shamanism remains the reference book of choice for those interested in this practice.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Foreword to the 2004 Edition
- Foreword
- Note on Orthography
- Half Title
- I. General Considerations. Recruiting Methods. Shamanism and Mystical Vocation
- II. Initiatory Sicknesses and Dreams
- III. Obtaining Shamanic Powers
- IV. Shamanic Initiation
- V. Symbolism of the Shaman’s Costume and Drum
- VI. Shamanism in Central and North Asia: I. Celestial Ascents. Descents to the Underworld
- VII. Shamanism in Central and North Asia: II. Magical Cures. The Shaman as Psychopomp
- VIII. Shamanism and Cosmology
- IX. Shamanism in North and South America
- X. Southeast Asian and Oceanian Shamanism
- XI. Shamanic Ideologies and Techniques among the Indo-Europeans
- XII. Shamanic Symbolisms and Techniques in Tibet, China, and the Far East
- XIII. Parallel Myths, Symbols, and Rites
- XIV. Conclusions
- Epilogue
- List of Works Cited
- Index