Product Description

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

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #106271 in Books
• Published on: 2004-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Review
"The great merit of this volume is that it amply documents the wide variety of ideas and practices that can be classified as shamanistic in Amazonia and, in so doing, establishes that dark shamanism is an essential element of the worldviews and moral philosophies of peoples of this region."--David Maybury-Lewis, Harvard University "In Darkness and Secrecy takes sectors of Amazonian ethnography to a new level of productive and provocative excellence."--Norman Whitten, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign "This book has an original and valuable focus: it is about the 'dark side' of shamanism in Amazonia."--Jrnl of Contemporary Religion, Vol 21, No. 1, 2006 " ... a stimulating repository of ideas in this informed, intelligent, and important contribution to the comparative investigation of shamanism."--ANTHROPOS, 101.2006

From the Back Cover
“The great merit of this volume is that it amply documents the wide variety of ideas and practices that can be classified as shamanistic in Amazonia and, in so doing, establishes that dark shamanism is an essential element of the worldviews and moral philosophies of peoples of this region.”—David Maybury-Lewis, Harvard University

About the Author
Neil L. Whitehead is Professor of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. Among his most recent books are Dark Shamans: Kanaimà and the Poetics of Violent Death (published by Duke University Press) and Beyond the Visible and the Material: The Amerindianization of Society in the Work of Peter Rivière (coedited with Laura Rival). Robin Wright is Associate Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Center for Research in Indigenous Ethnology at the Universidade Estadual de Campinas in Brazil. He is the author of Cosmos, Self, and History in Baniwa Religion: For Those Unborn and the editor of several books in Spanish.

Customer Reviews

Scholarly, thorough, eye-opening!
In Darkness and Secrecy: The Anthropology of Assault Sorcery and Witchcraft in Amazonia Edited by Professor Neil Whitehead (U of Wisconsin) and Assoc. Professor Robin Wright (Brazil), 2004.

The Greek god Asclepius could appear as a serpent and is often ichnographically depicted as a serpent (or with a serpent). The serpent-entwined staffs are the symbol of Asclepius. And he is also the Greek god of medicine, and his association with medicine is his association with the serpent. He can be the administer of medicine (venom) or can be the medicine himself. The staff of Asclepius has but one snake, but the myth involves two snakes, one that dies and one that appears and heals the other with plants. Ophiuchus saw this, and learned how to use herbs to cure people. Snakes can be associated with good, healing, and wisdom. Asclepius is attributed all of these positive characteristics. Using a snake to heal someone from the venom of another snake mythologically demonstrates that snakes are both good and evil. And that venom (drugs/medicine) can harm as well as heal. From my own research, this has shown to be symbolized in the form of the caduceus.

Dr. Neil Whitehead and Dr. Robin Wright have edited together the most fascinating research into shamanism I've come across in years.

The research brought forth by these two professionals shows how shamanism has its dark side, just as its good or healing side. It reveals many aspects of shamanism that have often been overlooked by entheogenic researchers, and completely ignored by the neo-shamanism New Agers. My comparison above to the caduceus and Asclepius reveals this same concept of good and evil. But what is good or evil?

The act of curing in Amerindian shamanism requires two primary aspects, that of the shaman to cure, and that of the witch or sorcerer who created the illness in the first place. All illness, as it is believed in Amerindian cultures, is here shown to be caused by acts of sorcery or Dark Shamanism. Part of the role of the healer shaman is to reveal the guilty sorcerer who created the illness. This act of sorcery could have been performed through the knowledge of the plants that kill, the poisons, as well as spells or other acts. Once the sorcerer is identified, assassination is often not far behind, warranted or not. Cannibalism may or may not follow.

The book details the importance of these acts in the socio-political role of maintaining the society's status quo. Those on the fringes of society, those who don't conform to the A-typical idealism as a member of the tribe are most often the first to be accused. Sound familiar?

The book is completely unbiased in its presentation and descriptions and presents its information as mater-of-fact. Whitehead and Wright combine the research of many other anthropologists in this pan-Amazonian study, dedicating a chapter to each essay by each anthropologist; all of whom lived and studied with the tribes they write about.

While my description of the profundity of this text does the work no real justice, I will say with all sincerity that if you take the study of shamanism seriously and have not read Dr. Whitehead's research, you don't have an inkling of understanding regarding shamanism. If this is the case, you'd better put these books at the top of your must read list.

As the last paragraph on page 311 states:

"For some time it has been apparent that any cross-cultural definition of shamanism is difficult to establish, and as Vitbesky has argued, it is characterized by a "chameleon-like elusiveness". Besides confirming Vitbesky's observation, the essays in this volume also demonstrate this elusiveness to be true for cross-cultural definitions of witchcraft and sorcery. On the other hand, it does not support Parkin's suggestion that witchcraft and sorcery deserve no privileged place as analytical categories. The ethnographies here move beyond categories and focus on secret assaults as forms of symbolic, social, and political processes."

Dr. Whitehead has become a "favorite author". 5 stars!

A Researchers Guide
So little is written about this primitive part of the world that this book takes on enormous importance for any researcher seeking guidance.
The Shamanistic belief which motivates the primitive tribes of Amazonia are quite a contrast from the New Age Shamanism practiced in the civilised world. Above all else this is a textbook on Anthropology, not a heres how guide to Shamanistic practice. For my purpose this book was ideal. It provided me with an overview of Amazonia's native people and the evolution of their system of beliefs. Whether your interest is in native people, or the origins and practices of assault witchcraft I recommend this book.