Share

27.2 (Summer 2003) Shamanisms and Survival

Wind Powering Native America

“You are either at the table, or you are on the menu," a Wisconsin utility executive advised Rosebud Tribal Utility Commission Attorney Robert Gough.

Weaving a Future for Tibetan Refugees: Tibetan Rug Weaving Project

The recent history of Tibet has been one of sorrow. Despite the relative impenetrability of its mountains, it was invaded and occupied by armies of the Communist Peoples Republic of China in 1950. After an unsuccessful popular revolt in 1959, thousands of Tibetan refugees fled across the Himalayan Mountains to India and Nepal, and a government in exile was established under the Dalai Lama, the traditional leader of Tibet. Since that time, the refugee communities have grown larger every year, as more Tibetans flee severe political and cultural repression in their Native land.

The State of Amazonas in Pieces

A plan before Brazil’s House of Representatives calling for the division of the state of Amazonas could have a significant impact on the indigenous peoples who live there.The state of Amazonas in the northern region of Brazil, represents one-fifth of the Brazilian territory and possesses 33 percent of the world’s rainforest reservations. It contains natural and mineral resources that make it a region with some of the greatest biodiversity in the entire planet.

The Changing Sinai

“Ahlan, Nora!” exclaimed the two Bedouin boys who had just come to the door of my art gallery in Dahab, Sinai. I have worked for 20 years in the Sinai as a photographer, and know many of the Bedouin families there well. Because Laura is an unusual name for the Bedouin, they call me the more common name Nora, which means “Light” in Arabic.

Spiritual Hucksterism:The Rise of the Plastic Medicine Men


“Yes, I know of Sun Bear. He’s a plastic medicine man.”— Matthew King, Oglala Lakota Elder, 1985

Shamanisms and Survival

Shamanism, humanity’s most ancient spiritual practice, has undergone a dramatic modern resurgence. The concept of shamanism is widely utilized in contemporary spiritual healing groups and has gained such popularity that traditional healers have adopted the term to tell outsiders about their practices.

Shamanism Defends a People

In 1984 the Gitxsan of northern British Columbia, Canada, and the neighboring Witsuwit’en First Nation launched a landmark land claims case in response to incursion on their territories culminating in clear-cut logging operations. In this lengthy case, called Delgamuukw v. Regina, Gitxsan and Witsuwit’en head chiefs testified they had never given up rights to their land and culture that were based on shamanic traditions intimately tied to a system of hereditary chiefs.

Seeking the Shaman

In this issue of Cultural Survival Quarterly, readers are introduced to the extraordinary category of people who have come to be known as “shaman”—those otherworldly men and women chosen by the spirits to mediate between the human and spiritual dimensions. In a collection of papers from numerous settings assembled by anthropologist Michael Winkelman, shamanism’s universal features become apparent, including the characteristics of the elusive practitioners who have the power to negotiate life and death in some communities.

Canadian Supreme Court to Rule on Historic Metis Rights Case

When Steve Powley and his son Roddy were charged for hunting moose contrary to the province of Ontario’s Game and Fish Act 10 years ago, they claimed that, as Métis, they had a right to hunt for food. The Powleys won the case three times in lower courts before the Ontario government appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada. The case was heard in March in Ottawa.Canada recognized the First Nations, Inuit, and Métis as aboriginal peoples in the 1982 constitution, but the rights of the Métis have never been defined.

Better Living in the Village<br>A Well-Balanced Development Policy in Benin

The “top-down” policy of development implemented in Benin gives an absolute priority to medium and large-sized towns, to the detriment of the rural areas of the country. Consequently, after more than four decades of political independence, the villages, where 80 percent of the population of the country still live in very poor conditions, are characterized by a low level of income due to poor agricultural practices; a scarcity of clean drinking water; electricity that reaches only 1.62 percent of village inhabitants; poor health infrastructure; and a critical lack of secondary schools.

Syndicate content