Year: 2025
Type: article
Abstract: The fact that shamanism, as described by Mircea Eliade or Carlos Castaneda, is an “invention of tradition” is considered a commonplace today. But to understand its historical location we need to follow the entanglements of science, art and politics. This essay argues that the concept of shamanism reveals itself as a response to a defeat that affected not so much the scattered communities of Siberia or the Himalayas, but above all their later interpreters. It describes shamanism as a figure of thought in which the defeated of the WWII attempted to act as advocates of indigenous communities in order to overcome their own involvement in fascism and war. Looking at and with Ernesto de Martino and Joseph Beuys, it shows how Shamanism turned fragility into strength.
Source: Comparative studies in modernism
Author: Van Loyen, Ulrich
Institution: University of Siegen
Language: English
Subfield: Philosophy
Field: Arts and Humanities
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W6921968612
FWCI:
Cites:
Cited by:
Related to: