A provocative treatise, of much interest to students of culture, religious belief, and social science.
A wide-ranging study of a putatively premodern way of knowledge.
Anthropologist Singh writes extensively of fieldwork among the Mentawai people of Indonesia, whose shamans undertake healing rituals, knowing “the plants for treating fungal infections and the songs for calling souls to feverish bodies.” Once the object of much anthropological study, shamanism was co-opted by the problematic mythographer Mircea Eliade and the New Age guru Michael Harner. Both got it wrong, by Singh’s lights, the latter by turning it into “a bite-size bundle amenable for Western consumption.” This denatured, homogenized view of shamanism—in some views mumbo-jumbo, in other views “primeval wisdom,” and mostly very different from the practices of the Tungusic people whose language is embedded in the name—turns it into formulas (hallucinogens here, spirit journeys there) that are ideal for flimflammery. Yet, in a broader view—and here a solid background in anthropology will help the reader—it’s also fallen victim to a certain essentialism: This practice is industrial, this is agricultural, this is scientific. Nonsense, Singh suggests, stretching the boundaries of his field: When evangelists pray over Donald Trump, they’re practicing (perhaps black) magic, and hedge-fund wizards speculate no more scientifically than a so-called witch doctor seeking a cure for spirit possession, in that “they fill very similar niches.” If traditional shamanism is in decline around the world because of what Max Weber called disenchantment, there are still plenty of people willing to engage in its “moral ambiguity.” As for hallucinogens, Singh dismisses the notion that magic mushrooms are the preferred shamanic key to the otherworld (beer is much more prevalent, tobacco even more so). He also questions anthropology’s vaunted relativism: “A power of anthropology…is in turning the strange familiar and the familiar strange, yet this reversal requires a comparative approach.”
A provocative treatise, of much interest to students of culture, religious belief, and social science.Pub Date: May 20, 2025
ISBN: 9780593537541
Page Count: 288
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Feb. 1, 2025
Kirkus Reviews Issue: March 1, 2025
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
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