Part of the Casswiki article series Books
Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy is a classic scholarly work by Mircea Eliade, first published in 1951. It is a historical survey of the different forms of shamanism around the world and became a standard work for understanding the beliefs and practices of shamanism. It is divided into fourteen chapters.
In the first part of the book, Eliade deals with the various elements of shamanic practice, such as the nature of initiatory sickness and dreams, the methods for obtaining shamanic powers, the role of shamanic initiation and the symbolism of the shaman’s costume and drum. In the remaining part, the author maps the practices from their origins in Siberia and Central Asia to destinations as far as North and South America, Indonesia, Tibet, China, and beyond. The main argument points to these shamanisms in many area having had a common source as the original religion of humanity in the Palaeolithic era.
As the author writes in his Foreword on shamanism:[1]
Now, shamanism is precisely one of the archaic techniques of ecstasy - at once mysticism, magic, and “religion” in the broadest sense of the term. We have sought to present it in its various historical and cultural aspects, and we have even tried to outline a brief history of the development of shamanism in Central and North Asia. But what we consider of greater importance is presenting the shamanic phenomenon itself, analyzing its ideology, discussing its techniques, its symbolism, its mythologies, We believe that such a study can be of interest not only to the specialist but also to the cultivated man, and it is to the latter that this book is primarily addressed.
See also
References
- ↑ Eliade, Mircea. Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy, p. xix-xx. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1964.