
Mediums and Magical Things
Statues, Paintings, and Masks in Asian Places
Laurel Kendall(Author)
University of California Press
1st Edition
Published on 25. May 2021
Book
Paperback/Softback
280 pages
978-0-520-29867-5 (ISBN)
Description
Statues, paintings, and masks-like the bodies of shamans and spirit mediums-give material form and presence to otherwise invisible entities, and sometimes these objects are understood to be enlivened, agentive on their own terms. This book explores how magical images are expected to work with the shamans and spirit mediums who tend and use them in contemporary South Korea, Vietnam, Myanmar, Bali, and elsewhere in Asia. It considers how such things are fabricated, marketed, cared for, disposed of, and sometimes transformed into art-market commodities and museum artifacts.
Reviews / Votes
"Mediums and Magical Things makes a valuable contribution to the study of material religion, anthropology of religion, and religion in modernity. It is a timely volume that will no doubt fulfill Kendall's hope that it 'propel others down similar paths'." * Nova Religio * "Mediums and Magic Things contributes to the study of material religion and the anthropology of religion in a very readable and easily accessible way." * Religious Studies Review *More details
Edition
First Edition
Language
English
Place of publication
Berkerley
United States
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Illustrations
30 color photographs, 30 b-w photographs
Dimensions
Height: 153 mm
Width: 228 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
476 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-520-29867-5 (9780520298675)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

Book
05/2021
1st Edition
University of California Press
€99.20
Shipment within 10-20 days

E-Book
05/2021
1st Edition
Naval Institute Press
€34.49
Available for download
Person
Laurel Kendall is Curator of Asian Ethnographic Collections at the American Museum of Natural History and Senior Research Scholar at the Weatherhead East Asian Institute at Columbia University.
Content
List of Illustrations
Preface and Acknowledgments
Conventions
1. MacGuffins and Magical Things
2. Ensoulments
3. Materiality, Making, and Magic
4. Agency and Assemblage
5. The Ambiguities of the Unsacred
6. Afterlives
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Preface and Acknowledgments
Conventions
1. MacGuffins and Magical Things
2. Ensoulments
3. Materiality, Making, and Magic
4. Agency and Assemblage
5. The Ambiguities of the Unsacred
6. Afterlives
Conclusion
Notes
Bibliography
Index