Shamans Through Time [Hardcover]

Although editors Jeremy Narby and Huxley admit he faked much of his material, Carlos Castaneda is included, but of currently frowned-upon James Frazer nothing is seen. Watery passages from esteemed writers Alfred Métraux and Mircea Elíade appear in dribbles.

To illustrate the vacuity of the volume as a whole and the extent of its reach, consider the following: anthropologist Michael Harner (founder of The Foundation for Shamanic Studies), while living among the Jivaro Indians of the Peruvian Amazon, joins in a shamanic ceremony and hallucinates wildy. The subject of his extensive vision is the revelation that a frightening reptilian race resides in the human spinal column, from where it controls the evolution and doings of mankind. Coming to his senses, Harner meets a husband-and-wife team of Christian evangelists traveling in the region and shares his experience. The evangelists explain that 'serpent' is synonymous in the Bible with 'dragon' and 'Satan,' and Harner, educated man and Westerner that he is, is awestruck at this news.

What excuse is there for the absence of a complete index? It appears nobody wanted to spend much time or thought on this book, including its editors. Though Huxley himself titled one of his own works Affable Savages: An Anthropologist Among the Urubu Indians of Brazil, the use of words 'primitives' and 'savages' is decried in the brief politically-correct introduction, especially in regard to all those awful elitist scientists of the 18th and 19th centuries.

Shamans Through Time is pseudo-intellectualism at its best.

What is a shaman? How does he practice? Jeremy Narby and Francis Huxley, anthropologists of the mind and much else beside, deftly guide us through five hundred years of literature - from the 16th century Christian view (Ministers of the Devil), through the coming of anthropologists, to contemporary accounts by shamans themselves. The selected writings are richly varied, each reflecting its time and place; and they are short, which makes the reading easy. Here's Diderot in 1765, Franz Boas in 1887, Alfred Metraux and Levi Strauss in the 1940s, Carlos Castaneda in '68, Maria Sabena in 1977 -- sixty four in all, a significant number, you might think: Huxley is a conjurer of numbers no less than letters (see the Raven and the Writing Desk). His own contribution to the collection is a gem, 'Smoking Huge Cigars', about an Urubu shamanic ceremony in which vast quantities of tobacco are smoked. Narby also tells a good story, 'Shamans and Scientists'(2000), about an encounter between three molecular scientists and a Peruvian ayahuascero.

The entire collection is divided into seven chronological sections, each with a short, bright introduction by the editors. The result is a map by which to navigate this otherwise quite bewildering terrain. There's also a topical index, with surprising and helpful categories, like 'Varieties of Shaman'' (diviners, healers, jugglers, tricksters and magicians...), 'Creatures' (anaconda, ant, antelope, caterpiller...) and 'Magic Substances' (arrows, cords, crystals, darts, ectoplasm, viruses and DNA!).

'Shamans Through Time' is not only skillfully put together and easy to read: it offers deep understanding. This is important, because shamanism is serious stuff. A shaman - 'one who maintains by profession, and in the interest of the community, an intermittent commerce with spirits...' (using Metraux's definition) -- is gifted with access to major power, for healing and for harm. In an age when many profess to this calling, we need a deeply reliable voice on the matter. This is it.

Milhaly Hoppal, Director of the European Folklore Institute, says 'Shamans Through Time' is "the most comprehensive survey on shamanism ever. It will be a classic in its field." I'm sure he's right. It's a marvellous book.

Michael Schwab, Doctor of Public Health
Berkeley, CA