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Art, Shamanism and Animism
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Art, Shamanism and Animism

A special issue of Religions (ISSN 2077-1444). This special issue belongs to the section "Religions and Humanities/Philosophies".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (15 February 2021) | Viewed by 52313

Printed Edition Available!
A printed edition of this Special Issue is available here.

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Robert J. Wallis

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Guest Editor
Department of Art History, School of Arts and Humanities, The Open University, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK
Interests: art; archaeology; anthropology; shamanism; neo-shamanism; animism; rock art; prehistory; human–animal relations; pagan studies; early medieval art; Vikings
Dr. Max Carocci

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
1. Chelsea School of Art, University of the Arts London, London SW1P 4JU, UK
2. Anthropology Department, Goldsmiths College, University of London, London SE14 6NW, UK
Interests: anthropology of art; native American expressive cultures; material culture; ethnographic museums and collections; indigenous cosmologies; belief; animism; shamanism

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are writing to invite you to contribute to the Special Issue of Religions journal with the theme ‘Art, Shamanism and Animism’. The scope concerns the art, materiality and representation of shamanism and animism, from prehistory to the present and on a global scale.

Recent scholarship in anthropology, archaeology and the study of religion has theorised the roles of shamans within wider-than-human animist communities in terms of relational ontologies and other indigenous ways of knowing. The importance of visuality and materiality in shamanic and animist ritual performance is less well studied. This thinking has also permeated into contemporary art practice, museum representations and other forums of display.

Papers are invited from across disciplines which consider the art, materiality and/or representation of shamanism and animism in any period or region. Recent thinking has examined how these themes can be approached without recourse to a culture–nature dichotomy, in the light of the inter-disciplinary ontological turn and other post-humanist thinking in the humanities and social sciences.

This Special Issue engages critically with established thinking and tackles the next step, where the thinking on and practices of art, shamanism and animism go from here. Papers that theorise the relationships between the concepts of art, shamanism and animism in innovative ways are particularly welcome.

Dr. Robert J. Wallis
Dr. Max Carocci
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a double-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Religions is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • art
  • shamanism
  • animism
  • relationality
  • ontologies
  • post-humanism
  • visual culture
  • material culture
  • representation
  • ritual performance

Published Papers (12 papers)

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Editorial

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7 pages, 193 KiB  
Editorial
Introduction to the Special Issue Art, Shamanism and Animism
by Robert J. Wallis and Max Carocci
Religions 2021, 12(10), 853; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rel12100853 - 11 Oct 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1764
Abstract
Art, shamanism and animism are mutable, contested terms which, when brought together, present a highly charged package [...] Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Art, Shamanism and Animism)

Research

Jump to: Editorial

24 pages, 6970 KiB  
Article
Art and Influence, Presence and Navigation in Southern African Forager Landscapes
by Sam Challis and Andrew Skinner
Religions 2021, 12(12), 1099; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rel12121099 - 13 Dec 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 3715
Abstract
With earlier origins and a rebirth in the late 1990s, the New Animisms and the precipitate ‘ontological turn’ have now been in full swing since the mid-2000s. They make a valuable contribution to the interpretation of the rock arts of numerous societies, particularly [...] Read more.
With earlier origins and a rebirth in the late 1990s, the New Animisms and the precipitate ‘ontological turn’ have now been in full swing since the mid-2000s. They make a valuable contribution to the interpretation of the rock arts of numerous societies, particularly in their finding that in animist societies, there is little distinction between nature and culture, religious belief and practicality, the sacred and the profane. In the process, a problem of perspective arises: the perspectives of such societies, and the analogical sources that illuminate them, diverge in more foundational terms from Western perspectives than is often accounted for. This is why archaeologists of religion need to be anthropologists of the wider world, to recognise where animistic and shamanistic ontologies are represented, and perhaps where there is reason to look closely at how religious systems are used to imply Cartesian separations of nature and culture, religious and mundane, human/person and animal/non-person, and where these dichotomies may obscure other forms of being-in-the-world. Inspired by Bird-David, Descola, Hallowell, Ingold, Vieiros de Castro, and Willerslev, and acting through the lens of navigation in a populated, enculturated, and multinatural world, this contribution locates southern African shamanic expressions of rock art within broader contexts of shamanisms that are animist. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Art, Shamanism and Animism)
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22 pages, 9182 KiB  
Article
Meshkwajisewin: Paradigm Shift
by Maureen Anne Matthews, Roger Roulette and James Brook Wilson
Religions 2021, 12(10), 894; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rel12100894 - 18 Oct 2021
Viewed by 2417
Abstract
In 2012, the Manitoba Museum began the development of an exhibit called “We Are All Treaty People”. Mindful of recent scholarship on animacy and the ontological turn in museum ethnography, this paper examines how this exhibit reversed decades of practice regarding [...] Read more.
In 2012, the Manitoba Museum began the development of an exhibit called “We Are All Treaty People”. Mindful of recent scholarship on animacy and the ontological turn in museum ethnography, this paper examines how this exhibit reversed decades of practice regarding ceremonial artefacts. Twelve pipes, formerly removed from view because of their ceremonial status, have now, as celebrated animate entities, become teachers in a collaboratively developed exhibit about treaties. They will work to educate thousands of visitors, many of them Indigenous children who visit the museum annually. The exhibit was imagined, shaped, and made possible by the Elders Council of the Association of Manitoba Chiefs and the Treaty Relations Commission of Manitoba who treat the pipes as active social partners and, from the outset, intended that the pipes would boldly instantiate Indigenous agency in treaty making. The relational world of the pipes has increased exponentially since they have become public actors in the museum, and more importantly, they have formed deep bonds with the school children and Elders of the community of Roseau River First Nation. They go to the school yearly to be celebrated, sung to, feasted, smoked, and honoured and return to the museum restored and ready for their newfound educational and diplomatic work. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Art, Shamanism and Animism)
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18 pages, 4954 KiB  
Article
Embodiment of Ancestral Spirits, the Social Interface, and Ritual Ceremonies: Construction of the Shamanic Landscape among the Daur in North China
by Feng Qu
Religions 2021, 12(8), 567; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rel12080567 - 22 Jul 2021
Cited by 7 | Viewed by 3882
Abstract
The case study in this paper is on the Daur (as well as the Evenki, Buriat, and Bargu Mongols) in Hulun Buir, Northeast China. The aim of this research is to examine how shamanic rituals function as a conduit to actualize communications between [...] Read more.
The case study in this paper is on the Daur (as well as the Evenki, Buriat, and Bargu Mongols) in Hulun Buir, Northeast China. The aim of this research is to examine how shamanic rituals function as a conduit to actualize communications between the clan members and their shaman ancestors. Through examinations and observations of Daur and other Indigenous shamanic rituals in Northeast China, this paper argues that the human construction of the shamanic landscape brings humans, other-than-humans, and things together into social relations in shamanic ontologies. Inter-human metamorphosis is crucial to Indigenous self-conceptualization and identity. Through rituals, ancestor spirits are active actors involved in almost every aspect of modern human social life among these Indigenous peoples. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Art, Shamanism and Animism)
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22 pages, 4102 KiB  
Article
Reassessing Shamanism and Animism in the Art and Archaeology of Ancient Mesoamerica
by Eleanor Harrison-Buck and David A. Freidel
Religions 2021, 12(6), 394; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rel12060394 - 28 May 2021
Cited by 8 | Viewed by 6275
Abstract
Shamanism and animism have proven to be useful cross-cultural analytical tools for anthropology, particularly in religious studies. However, both concepts root in reductionist, social evolutionary theory and have been criticized for their vague and homogenizing rubric, an overly romanticized idealism, and the tendency [...] Read more.
Shamanism and animism have proven to be useful cross-cultural analytical tools for anthropology, particularly in religious studies. However, both concepts root in reductionist, social evolutionary theory and have been criticized for their vague and homogenizing rubric, an overly romanticized idealism, and the tendency to ‘other’ nonwestern peoples as ahistorical, apolitical, and irrational. The alternative has been a largely secular view of religion, favoring materialist processes of rationalization and “disenchantment.” Like any cross-cultural frame of reference, such terms are only informative when explicitly defined in local contexts using specific case studies. Here, we consider shamanism and animism in terms of ethnographic and archaeological evidence from Mesoamerica. We trace the intellectual history of these concepts and reassess shamanism and animism from a relational or ontological perspective, concluding that these terms are best understood as distinct ways of knowing the world and acquiring knowledge. We examine specific archaeological examples of masked spirit impersonations, as well as mirrors and other reflective materials used in divination. We consider not only the productive and affective energies of these enchanted materials, but also the potentially dangerous, negative, or contested aspects of vital matter wielded in divinatory practices. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Art, Shamanism and Animism)
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19 pages, 6621 KiB  
Article
Connective Tissue: Embracing Fluidity and Subverting Boundaries in European Iron Age and Roman Provincial Images
by Miranda Aldhouse-Green
Religions 2021, 12(5), 351; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rel12050351 - 14 May 2021
Viewed by 2483
Abstract
There is a mounting body of evidence for somatic exchange in burial practices within later British prehistory. The title of the present paper was sparked by a recent article in The Times (Tuesday 1 September 2020), which contained a description of human bone [...] Read more.
There is a mounting body of evidence for somatic exchange in burial practices within later British prehistory. The title of the present paper was sparked by a recent article in The Times (Tuesday 1 September 2020), which contained a description of human bone curation and body mingling clearly present in certain Bronze Age funerary depositional rituals. The practice of mixing up bodies has been identified at several broadly coeval sites, a prime example being Cladh Hallan in the Scottish Hebrides, where body parts from different individuals were deliberately mingled, not just somatically but also chronologically. This paper’s arguments rest upon the premise that somatic boundary crossing is reflected in Iron Age and later art, especially in the blending of human and animal imagery and of one animal species with another. Such themes are endemic in La Tène decorative metalwork and in western Roman provincial sacred imagery. It is possible, indeed likely, that such fluidity is associated with deliberate subversion of nature and with the presentation of ‘shamanism’ in its broadest sense. Breaking ‘natural’ rules and orders introduces edge blurring between material and spiritual worlds, representing, perhaps, the ability of certain individuals (shamans) to break free from human-scapes and to wander within the realms of the divine. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Art, Shamanism and Animism)
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18 pages, 3074 KiB  
Article
The Reality of Casas Grandes Potters: Realistic Portraits of Spirits and Shamans
by Christine S. VanPool and Todd L. VanPool
Religions 2021, 12(5), 315; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rel12050315 - 29 Apr 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 3261
Abstract
Most Native American groups believed in a form of animism in which spirit essence(s) infused forces of nature (e.g., the wind and thunder), many living plants and creatures, and many inanimate objects. This animism created other-than-human persons in which spirits were fused with [...] Read more.
Most Native American groups believed in a form of animism in which spirit essence(s) infused forces of nature (e.g., the wind and thunder), many living plants and creatures, and many inanimate objects. This animism created other-than-human persons in which spirits were fused with matter that allowed them to interact with and even influence humans. Art in Western culture tends to denote “imagination”, and many scholars studying Native American art bring a similar perspective to their analyses. However, many Native Americans do not equate art with imagination in the same way, but instead use art to realistically portray these other-than-human persons, even when they are not typically visible in the natural world (e.g., the Southwestern horned-plumed serpent). Here, we apply a cognitive framework to evaluate the interplay of spirits at various levels that were created as Casas Grandes artisans used art as a means of depicting the inherent structure of the Casas Grandes spirit world. In doing so, they created links between ceremonially important objects such as pots and spirits that transformed these objects into newly created animated beings. The art thus simultaneously reflected the structure of the unseen world while also helping to determine the characteristics of these newly created other-than-human persons. One technique commonly used was to decorate objects with literal depictions of spirit beings (e.g., horned-plumed serpents) that would produce a natural affinity among the ceremonial objects and the spirit creatures. This affinity in turn allowed the animated ceremonial objects to mediate the interaction between humans and spirits. This approach transcends a view in which Casas Grandes art is considered symbolically significant and instead emphasizes the art as a component that literally helped create other-than-human collaborators that aided Casas Grandes people as they navigate ontologically significant relationships. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Art, Shamanism and Animism)
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18 pages, 4331 KiB  
Article
Animating Idolatry: Making Ancestral Kin and Personhood in Ancient Peru
by George F. Lau
Religions 2021, 12(5), 287; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rel12050287 - 21 Apr 2021
Cited by 4 | Viewed by 2746
Abstract
Historical and archaeological records help shed light on the production, ritual practices, and personhood of cult objects characterizing the central Peruvian highlands after ca. AD 200. Colonial accounts indicate that descendant groups made and venerated stone images of esteemed forebears as part of [...] Read more.
Historical and archaeological records help shed light on the production, ritual practices, and personhood of cult objects characterizing the central Peruvian highlands after ca. AD 200. Colonial accounts indicate that descendant groups made and venerated stone images of esteemed forebears as part of small-scale local funerary cults. Prayers and supplications help illuminate how different artifact forms were seen as honored family members (forebears, elders, parents, siblings). Archaeology, meanwhile, shows the close associations between carved monoliths, tomb repositories, and restricted cult spaces. The converging lines of evidence are consistent with the hypothesis that production of stone images was the purview of family/lineage groups. As the cynosures of cult activity and devotion, the physical forms of ancestor effigies enabled continued physical engagements, which vitalized both the idol and descendant group. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Art, Shamanism and Animism)
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15 pages, 4138 KiB  
Article
Gods and Things: Is “Animism” an Operable Concept in Korea?
by Laurel Kendall
Religions 2021, 12(4), 283; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rel12040283 - 19 Apr 2021
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 4254
Abstract
Shamanship is a thing-ish practice. Early missionary observers in Korea noted that features of the landscape, quotidian objects, and specialized paraphernalia figure in the work of shamans (mansin) and in popular religious practice more generally. Subsequent ethnographers observed similar engagements with [...] Read more.
Shamanship is a thing-ish practice. Early missionary observers in Korea noted that features of the landscape, quotidian objects, and specialized paraphernalia figure in the work of shamans (mansin) and in popular religious practice more generally. Subsequent ethnographers observed similar engagements with numinous things, from mountains to painted images, things vested with the presence of soul stuff (yŏng). Should this be considered “animism” as the term is being rethought in anthropological discourse today? Should we consider shamanic materiality in Korea as one more ontological challenge to the nature/culture divide? Drawing on existing ethnography and her own fieldwork, the author examines the (far from uniform) premises that govern the deployment of material things in Korean shaman practice. She argues that while the question of “animism” opens a deeper inquiry into things that have been described but not well-analyzed, the term must be used with clarity, precision, and caution. Most of the material she describes becomes sacred through acts of human agency, revealing an ontology of mobile, mutable spirits who are inducted into or appropriate objects. Some of these things are quotidian, some produced for religious use, and even the presence of gods in landscapes can be affected by human agency. These qualities enable the adaptability of shaman practices in a much transformed and highly commercialized South Korea. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Art, Shamanism and Animism)
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16 pages, 1369 KiB  
Article
The Gender of God’s Gifts—Dividual Personhood, Spirits and the Statue of Mother Mary in a Sepik Society, Papua New Guinea
by Christiane Falck
Religions 2021, 12(4), 270; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rel12040270 - 13 Apr 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 2607
Abstract
A Sepik myth tells of a time in which women were in charge of powerful spirits before jealous men reversed the gender roles by force. Today, the men of Timbunmeli (Nyaura, West Iatmul) have lost control over spirits who have started to act [...] Read more.
A Sepik myth tells of a time in which women were in charge of powerful spirits before jealous men reversed the gender roles by force. Today, the men of Timbunmeli (Nyaura, West Iatmul) have lost control over spirits who have started to act through female bodies. Christian charismatic rituals hint at mythical times, and remind villagers that women are the original custodians of spirits now understood as being spirits of God. While previously, male bodies represented spirits in shamanic rituals and through male ritual regalia, now women are the predominant recipients of God’s gifts. This paper analyzes the current religious practices as onto-praxis in relation to the local concept of personhood and the relational ontology informing the Nyaura’s lifeworld. Building on Strathern, Bird-David, and Gell’s theories about the personhood of humans and things from an anthropology of ontology perspective and adding a gender perspective to the discussion, this paper argues that dividuality put into practice has not only informed the way the Nyaura have made charismatic Christianity their own, but is also central for understanding current events impacting gender relations in which material objects representing spirits play a crucial role. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Art, Shamanism and Animism)
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15 pages, 8032 KiB  
Article
Animals in Saami Shamanism: Power Animals, Symbols of Art, and Offerings
by Tiina Äikäs and Trude Fonneland
Religions 2021, 12(4), 256; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rel12040256 - 07 Apr 2021
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 11039
Abstract
In this paper, we study the role of power animals in contemporary Saami shamanism and how past and present are entwined in the presentation of power animals. In the old Saami worldviews, in addition to animals, spirits and sacred rocks (sieidi, [...] Read more.
In this paper, we study the role of power animals in contemporary Saami shamanism and how past and present are entwined in the presentation of power animals. In the old Saami worldviews, in addition to animals, spirits and sacred rocks (sieidi, SaaN) were also considered to be able to interact with people. Animals were an important part of offering rituals because livelihood and rituals were intertwined. Past “religions” are used as an inspiration for contemporary shamanistic practices, in line with one of late modernity’s core concepts, namely creativity. Present-day shamanistic practices can be described as ritual creativity, and they combine traces of old and new ritual activities. At the shamanistic festival Isogaisa, organized in northern Norway, these different roles of animals and ritual creativity become evident. Here, animals appear as spirit animals, as well as decorative elements on drums and clothes and as performance. In this paper, we combine material culture studies, interview data, and participatory observations in order to reflect the meanings and use of power animals in contemporary spiritual practices. How are traces of the past used in creating contemporary spirituality? How are animals and their artistic presentations entangled in contemporary shamanism? Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Art, Shamanism and Animism)
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15 pages, 290 KiB  
Article
Ontology in Neolithic Britain and Ireland: Beyond Animism
by Chris Fowler
Religions 2021, 12(4), 249; https://0-doi-org.brum.beds.ac.uk/10.3390/rel12040249 - 01 Apr 2021
Cited by 5 | Viewed by 3051
Abstract
A combination of new animism and new materialism has influenced recent interpretations of the Neolithic archaeology of Britain and Ireland, including decorative and figurative productions often referred to as ‘art’. This article queries the appeal to animism in some of this work and [...] Read more.
A combination of new animism and new materialism has influenced recent interpretations of the Neolithic archaeology of Britain and Ireland, including decorative and figurative productions often referred to as ‘art’. This article queries the appeal to animism in some of this work and considers four alternative ways to react to the use of the term. First it considers contextualizing animism by discussing Descola’s identification of four kinds of ontologies—animism, totemism, analogism and naturalism—outlining examples of practices and material culture involved in each. After examining the effect of applying these to the Neolithic archaeology of Britain and Ireland, it then considers identifying Neolithic practices which seem at odds with animism without boxing these as indicative of other categories of ontology. After noting the wide range of Indigenous ontologies such models attempt to characterize, the article advocates an emphasis on ontological difference and attends to ontological diversity within the Neolithic. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Art, Shamanism and Animism)
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