Journeys into the Invisible
Shamanic Technologies of the Imagination
Published on 30. April 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
400 pages
978-1-912808-90-8 (ISBN)
Description
A lively exploration of the Indigenous traditions of shamanism in the Far North of Eurasia and North America.
In this book, Charles Stepanoff draws on ethnographic literature and his fieldwork in Siberia to reveal the immense contribution to human imagination made by shamans and the cognitive techniques they developed over the centuries.
Indigenous shamans are certain men and women who can travel in spirit in ways that appear mysterious to Westerners but rely on the human capacity of imagination. They perceive themselves simultaneously in two types of space-one visible, the other virtual-putting them in contact and establishing links with nonhuman beings in their surroundings. Shamans share their experience of spirit travel with their patients, families, or the wider community, allowing them to experience this odyssey through the invisible together.
This work will appeal to anthropologists and to anyone with an interest in learning about the power of imagination from the masters of the invisible, the shamans of the Far North.
In this book, Charles Stepanoff draws on ethnographic literature and his fieldwork in Siberia to reveal the immense contribution to human imagination made by shamans and the cognitive techniques they developed over the centuries.
Indigenous shamans are certain men and women who can travel in spirit in ways that appear mysterious to Westerners but rely on the human capacity of imagination. They perceive themselves simultaneously in two types of space-one visible, the other virtual-putting them in contact and establishing links with nonhuman beings in their surroundings. Shamans share their experience of spirit travel with their patients, families, or the wider community, allowing them to experience this odyssey through the invisible together.
This work will appeal to anthropologists and to anyone with an interest in learning about the power of imagination from the masters of the invisible, the shamans of the Far North.
Reviews / Votes
"It is safe to bet that Journeys into the Invisible will be a landmark work. First of all, because it manages to be both a scholarly and an accessible account of the various kinds of shamanism to have developed in that part of the world where Westerners first discovered the practice. It is a work that happily combines the analysis of what shamans say with that of the conditions in which they speak, the analysis of their actions with that of the social circumstances in which they act, the analysis of the material devices they employ with that of the pragmatic modalities of their effectiveness. But also because, in the best tradition of ethnography, this book draws on a body of extremely specific and meticulously described facts in order to propose theoretical reflections of a much more general scope on problems as central to human experience as the relationship between physical and mental images, the complementarity of linguistic and iconic signs, and the use of the human body in action as a support for conjectures." -- Philippe Descola, author of Beyond Nature and CultureMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
HAU Society Of Ethnographic Theory
Target group
Professional and scholarly
Illustrations
58 halftones, 47 line drawings, 4 maps
Dimensions
Height: 231 mm
Width: 149 mm
Thickness: 25 mm
Weight
624 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-912808-90-8 (9781912808908)
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
Persons
Charles Stepanoff is director of studies and professor in the Laboratoire d'Anthropologie Social at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales in Paris. He has done ethnographic research in Siberia and France on human relations with the nonhuman, including animals, spirits, and plants.
Content
Foreword - Nomads of the Imaginary, by Philippe Descola
Introduction
Part One - Traveling by Spirit
Chapter 1. Imagination and Mental Travel
Chapter 2. Argonauts of the Invisible
Chapter 3. The Dark Tent and the Light Tent
Chapter 4. The Two Shamanisms
Part Two - Technologies of the Imagination and Hierarchy
Chapter 5. The Celestials Roads of the Ket
Chapter 6. A Drum to Find Your Way in the Dark
Chapter 7. A Cosmic Journey From Home
Chapter 8. The Costume: A Cosmic Body
Chapter 9. Yakut Technologies of Virtual Space
Chapter 10. The Bear: From One Ontology to Another
Part Three - The Great Expanse of Hierarchy
Chapter 11. A Continental Expansion
Chapter 12. Why Hierarchy?
Chapter 13. Conclusion: the invisible, the image, and hierarchy
Introduction
Part One - Traveling by Spirit
Chapter 1. Imagination and Mental Travel
Chapter 2. Argonauts of the Invisible
Chapter 3. The Dark Tent and the Light Tent
Chapter 4. The Two Shamanisms
Part Two - Technologies of the Imagination and Hierarchy
Chapter 5. The Celestials Roads of the Ket
Chapter 6. A Drum to Find Your Way in the Dark
Chapter 7. A Cosmic Journey From Home
Chapter 8. The Costume: A Cosmic Body
Chapter 9. Yakut Technologies of Virtual Space
Chapter 10. The Bear: From One Ontology to Another
Part Three - The Great Expanse of Hierarchy
Chapter 11. A Continental Expansion
Chapter 12. Why Hierarchy?
Chapter 13. Conclusion: the invisible, the image, and hierarchy