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Shamans, Priests and Witches

SHAMANS, PRIESTS AND WITCHES:
A Cross-Cultural Study of
Magico-Religious Practitioners

Book Details

By Michael Winkelman. Anthropological Research Papers, No. 44. Published by Arizona State University. Tempe, Ariz. 1992. 191 pages. Includes bibliographical references and index. LC 91-78334. ISBN 0-936249-10-2. ISSN 0271-0641. Paperback, $27.50.


Quotes/Reviews

"A seminal piece of cross-cultural research that will be of interest to all of those interested in native healing... because of its empirically derived classification system and its provocative examples." --Dr. Stanley Krippner, Distinguished Professor of Psychology, California Institute of Integral Studies

"A careful comparative delineation of the types of magico-religious practitioners... their practices, and of the societal conditions in which the practitioners and features of their practice occur.  This comparative research is superb." --Dr. Douglas White, Professor of Anthropology, University of California-Irvine


Abstract

This book integrates the findings of a cross-cultural study on types of magico-religious practitioners and shamanistic healers within the context of anthropological and sociological studies.  The study provides a general framework for explaining magico-religious and shamanistic phenomena through statistical analysis of data from a formal cross-cultural sample.  This provides a typology of magico-religious practitioners with universal applicability, distinguishing the shaman from other types of healers.  The analysis reveals an empirical structure related to the institutional bases of these practices--altered states of consciousness (ASC), political control, and social conflict.  The correlation between types of practitioners and socioeconomic conditions provides the basis for a general theory of magico-religious phenomena, the origins of shamanism, and its transformation under socioeconomic change.  These findings are integrated with other studies on magic and religion to provide a general organizational framework for understanding diverse magico-religious phenomena and traditional healing practices.  The biological basis in ASC are shown to provide the origins of shamanism and the therapeutic mechanisms of shamanistic healing.


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