In Darkness and Secrecy: The Anthropology of Assault Sorcery and Witchcraft in Amazonia

In Darkness and Secrecy: The Anthropology of Assault Sorcery and Witchcraft in Amazonia

Neil L. Whitehead

Language: English

Pages: 256

ISBN: 0822333457

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


In Darkness and Secrecy brings together ethnographic examinations of Amazonian assault sorcery, witchcraft, and injurious magic, or “dark shamanism.” Anthropological reflections on South American shamanism have tended to emphasize shamans’ healing powers and positive influence. This collection challenges that assumption by showing that dark shamans are, in many Amazonian cultures, quite different from shamanic healers and prophets. Assault sorcery, in particular, involves violence resulting in physical harm or even death. While highlighting the distinctiveness of such practices, In Darkness and Secrecy reveals them as no less relevant to the continuation of culture and society than curing and prophecy. The contributors suggest that the persistence of dark shamanism can be understood as a form of engagement with modernity.

These essays, by leading anthropologists of South American shamanism, consider assault sorcery as it is practiced in parts of Brazil, Guyana, Venezuela, and Peru. They analyze the social and political dynamics of witchcraft and sorcery and their relation to cosmology, mythology, ritual, and other forms of symbolic violence and aggression in each society studied. They also discuss the relations of witchcraft and sorcery to interethnic contact and the ways that shamanic power may be co-opted by the state. In Darkness and Secrecy includes reflections on the ethical and practical implications of ethnographic investigation of violent cultural practices.

Contributors. Dominique Buchillet, Carlos Fausto, Michael Heckenberger, Elsje Lagrou, E. Jean Langdon, George Mentore, Donald Pollock, Fernando Santos-Granero, Pamela J. Stewart, Andrew Strathern, Márnio Teixeira-Pinto, Silvia Vidal, Neil L. Whitehead, Johannes Wilbert, Robin Wright

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Fallen orb had shattered and its light dispersed across the earth like wind. The scattered light had turned into a myriad of pneumatic agents (hoa) that entered all components of the objective world. Villagers who witnessed the momentous transformation felt a sharp pain in their chests and became nauseous as the miasmal air entered their bodies, debilitating everybody as if the blood duct were still working. Nobody knew of the pneumatic agents and their function, because their creator had.

Certainly had an obeah adviser, Mother Monica, and even appears to have acted out his obeah on the international stage. Once on a visit to London for a Commonwealth heads meeting he sent for one-hundred-year-old Chinese eggs, which he solemnly devoured, averring that they would increase his potency. Another time, when out shooting ducks on the Abary River with Shridath Ramphal, secretary general to the Commonwealth, he would have the ducks brought to him, stick his hand up their backsides and.

Animal / human forms and/or more color than the bronze monument to Cuffy]. Although Moore is much revered by art lovers, he is on this `throne' as much because he is elderly and rather fat, for comfort perhaps more than symbolism. However, there is a palpable sense of awe and respect surrounding his person, but whether that is from his popularity and fame [which would appeal to many Guyanese] or to his mastery of obeah is an open question" (S. Huelster, personal communication). Others would.

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Americanistes 81: 181-206. Crocker, Jon C. 1985. Vital Souls:Bororo Cosmology, Natural Symbolism, and Shamanism. Tucson: University of Arizona Press. Dole, Gertrude E. 1966. "Anarchy without Chaos: Alternatives to Political Authority among the Kuikuru." In Political Anthropology, ed. M. J. Schwartz, V. W. Turner, and A. Tuden. 73-87. Chicago: Aldine Company. 1973. "Shamanism and Political Control among the Kuikuru." InPeoples and Cultures of Native South America, ed. D. R. Gross. 294-307. New.

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