The Last Shaman - Change in an Amazonian Community (Paperback, Revised ed.)

The Arakmbut are an indigenous people who live in the Madre de Dios region of the southeastern Peruvian rain forest. Since their first encounters with missionaries in the 1950s,they have shown resilience and a determination to affirm their identity in the face of many difficulties. During the last fifteen years, Arakmbut survival has been under threat from a goldrush that has attracted hundreds of colonists onto their territories. This trilogy of books traces the ways in which the Arakmbut overcome the dangers that surround them: their mythology and cultural strength; their social flexibility; and their capacity to incorporate non-indigenous concepts and activities into their defence strategies. Each area is punctuated by the constant presence of the invisible spirit, which provides a seamless theme connecting the books to each other. The death of a shaman in 1980 had an enormous spiritual and political consequences for one of the Arakmbut communities, resulting in a shift in its social organization from comparative hierarchy to a more egalitarian system. The author uses this case as an illustration to challenge the idea that indigenous peoples live in fossilized, static worlds. He shows that political activities in conjunction with shamanic communication with the spirit world provide the impetus and context for change. Buy all three volumes for 20% discount

General

Imprint:	Berghahn Books, Incorporated
Country of origin:	United States
Series:	Arakmbut of Amazonian Peru
Release date:	August 2003
First published:	2003
Authors:	Andrew Gray
Dimensions:	216 x 140 x 18mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback
Pages:	320
Edition:	Revised ed.
ISBN-13:	978-1-57181-836-2
Categories:	Books > Humanities > Religion & beliefs > General Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Anthropology > General Books > Science & Mathematics > Biology, life sciences > Human biology & related topics > Biological anthropology > General Books > Religion & Spirituality > General Promotions
LSN:	1-57181-836-7
Barcode:	9781571818362

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