Download or read book Ayahuasca Shamanism in the Amazon and Beyond written by Beatriz Caiuby Labate and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014-05-21 with total page 315 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Beatriz Caiuby Labate and Clancy Cavnar offer an in-depth exploration of how Amerindian epistemology and ontology concerning indigenous shamanic rituals of the Amazon have spread to Western societies, and of how indigenous, mestizo, and cosmopolitan cultures have engaged with and transformed these forest traditions. The volume focuses on the use of ayahuasca, a psychoactive drink essential in many indigenous shamanic rituals of the Amazon. Ayahuasca use has spread to countries far beyond its Amazonian origin, spurring a wide variety of legal and cultural responses. The essays in this volume look at how these responses have influenced ritual design and performance in traditional and non-traditional contexts, how displaced indigenous people and rubber tappers are engaged in the creative reinvention of rituals, and how these rituals help build ethnic alliances and cultural and political strategies. These essays explore important classic and contemporary issues in anthropology, including the relationship between the expansion of ecotourism and ethnic tourism and recent indigenous cultural revival and the emergence of new ethnic identities. The volume also examines trends in the commodification of indigenous cultures in post-colonial contexts, the combination of shamanism with a network of health and spiritually related services, and identity hybridization in global societies. The rich ethnographies and extensive analysis of these essays will allow deeper understanding of the role of ritual in mediating the encounter between indigenous traditions and modern societies.

Download or read book Music of the Sirens written by Linda Austern and published by Indiana University Press. This book was released on 2006-07-21 with total page 440 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Whether referred to as mermaid, usalka, mami wata, or by some other name, and whether considered an imaginary being or merely a person with extraordinary abilities, the siren is the remarkable creature that has inspired music and its representations from ancient Greece to present-day Africa and Latin America. This book, co-edited by a historical musicologist and an ethnomusicologist, brings together leading scholars and some talented newcomers in classics, music, media studies, literature, and cultural studies to consider the siren and her multifaceted relationships to music across human time and geography.

Download or read book The Forest Within written by Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff and published by Green Books. This book was released on 1996 with total page 254 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a detailed portrait of how an aboriginal tribe of the remote Amazonian region understands the cosmic dimensions of their partnership with the rainforest. Anthropologist Gerardo Reichel-Dolmatoff, who spent most of his life working in Colombia among the Indian tribes of the North-West Amazon, explores the world-view of the Tukano Indians: their view of the forest as a model of the cosmos; the master of the animals; their complex and multi-dimensional bond with their environment; and their social and sexual restrictions in order to harmonise with the rainforest.

Download or read book The Sacred Landscape written by Fredric Lehrman and published by Celestial Arts. This book was released on 2001-04-01 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Areas of striking beauty and power held sacred by humankind exist throughout the world. From Machu Picchu and Glastonbury to Haleakala and Delphi, "The Sacred Landscape" takes us on an unforgettable journey. Page after page is filled with full-color photographs and stirring prose from some of the world's finest writers and photographers.