SUMMER SESSION 2007
Anthropology 273g
Shamans, Spirits and Ancestors
Janet Hoskins
Office GFS 131, x. 01913, jhoskins@usc.edu
Classroom GFS 228, MWF 9:30-12:05
Course description:
This course examines the religious traditions of non-Western societies, with
special attention to the activities of shamans, spirits and ancestors. The course fulfills a
General Education requirement in Global Cultures and Civilizations, and provides an in
depth portrait of shamanism in its classic forms, the religion of Vodou (an AfricanAmerican blend of indigenous African spirit worship and Catholicism) as it is practiced
in Haiti and the US, and spirit and ancestor worship among the Kodi people of Sumba. It
examines anthropological controversies about whether the term “shaman” should be
extended beyond its original Siberian context, whether it can be applied to all native
healers, and whether it should be appropriated by Westerners with interests in nonWestern forms of spirituality. It also examines wider processes of exploration, contact
and colonization of the non-Western world by Europeans to provide a context for
understanding these societies both individually and comparatively. The difference
between indigenous understandings of the religious world and those of their European
conquerors are particularly stressed.
Themes that will be developed include the sensationalism of reports of
cannibalism, human sacrifice and headhunting, differences between the representations of
travelers, colonial officials and anthropologists, forms of exchange, men’s and women’s
roles in shamanism and spirit possession, notions of the self and the person, and the role
of objects in spirit worship and representations of biographical experience.
Required Readings:
Mircea Eliade Shamanism: Archaic Techniques of Ecstasy. Princeton; Princeton
University Press 1991.
Piers Vitebsky Shamanism. University Press 1989.
Alice Beck Kehoe Shamans and Religion: An Anthropological Exploration in Critical
Thinking. Illinois: Waveland Press 2000.
Barbara Tedlock The Woman in the Shaman’s Body. New York: Random House 2005.
Karen McCarthy Brown Mama Lola: A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn. University of
California Press 1991.
Janet Hoskins Biographical Objects; How Things Tell the Stories of People’s Lives.
New York: Routledge Press 1998.
Course requirements:
Reading is the most important part of the course, and readings must be done
carefully and thoroughly. Lectures will provide a comparative context to evaluate the
readings, and will indicate which sections are most important, but will not summarize or
substitute for careful readings of ethnographies. Films are used to provide a visual image
of these societies, and to spark discussion in the classroom. Most class sessions will open
with 40 minutes of lecture (although questions and comments are welcomed during this
period), followed by a film, and then a discussion. Sometimes we will have guest
speakers during the last hour of class. Because of the concentrated nature of the summer
session, we will have a coffee break (usually after the lecture).
Attendance is required, with participation in lectures and discussions making up
10% of the grade. There will be a midterm examination on May 31 (25% of grade), a
seven page analytic paper (30% of grade) due June 9, and a ten page take home
examination (35% of grade) given out on June 16 and due on June 20.
SYLLABUS
Week One: Wednesday May 16
Introduction to the Study of Non-Western Religions: Shamanism
Read: Mircea Eliade Shamanism p. 1-109
Films: “The Split Horn: A Hmong Shaman in America”
and “Shamanism: An Ancient Science in the Modern World”
Week One: Friday May 18
Dreams, Distress and Dismemberment: Shamanism and Cannibalism
Read: Mircea Eliade Shamanism p. 110-180, 288-336 and look
over Vitebsky Shamanism
Films: “Cannibalism” and “I am a Sorcerer”
Week Two: May 21
Shamanic Powers in the Spirit and in the Flesh: Gendered Bleeding
Read: Barbara Tedlock The Woman in the Shaman’s Body, p. 3-14,
79-142
Watch: “Headhunting”
Week Two: May 23
Read: Barbara Tedlock The Woman in the Shaman’s Body, p. 173-237
Watch: “Human Sacrifice”
Week Two: May 25
More Critiques of Eliade’s Theory of Shamanism
Read: Alice Kehoe Shamanism and Religion p. 1-102
Watch: “White Shamans, Plastic Medicine Men”
Monday, May 28th is Memorial Day Holiday
Week Three: Wednesday May 30
MIDTERM EXAMINATION: The midterm will combine identifications from
the
readings, short answer questions and essays to measure how thoroughly you have
done the readings and understood differences between the authors. It will take up
the first hour and a half of class time.
The Historical Background to Voodoo
Watch; “The Power of Voodou”
Week Three: Friday June 1
Spirit Possession and Healing in Africa and in Haiti
Read: Karen Brown Mama Lola p. 1-20, 36-48, 94-139 (“Intro, Azaka, Ogou”)
Watch: “Voodoo and the Church in Haiti”
PAPER ASSIGNMENT PASSED OUT; The paper will examine the readings
and assignments on Vodou, allowing you to pursue projects on popular culture
representations of this religion in films, television and other media
Week Four: June 4 Voodoo and Hollywood Representations
Read: Karen Brown Mama Lola, p. 156-201, 220-257, (“Kouzinn”, and “Ezili,”)
Watch: “The Serpent and the Rainbow”
Week Four: June 6
Voodoo and the Imagination of Monsters: Blood and Snakes
Watch: “Mythical Monsters”
Read: Karen Brown, Mama Lola 272-309 (“Danbala”), p, 330-381 (“Gede”)
Week Four: June 8
PAPER DUE AT THE BEGINNING OF CLASS
Indonesian Spirit Worship: Colonial History and Conquest
Read: Biographical Objects, p. 1-114
Watch: “Lempad of Bali”
Week Five: June 11
Spirit Mediums in Bali, Vietnam and Eastern Indonesia
Read; Biographical Objects, p. 115-160
Watch: “The Left Eye of God” and “Jero: A Balinese Trance Séance”
Week Five; June 13
Animism and Objects, Animals and Persons
Read: Biographical Objects, p. 161-198
Watch: “Horses of Life and Death”
Week Five: June 15
Gendered Biographies of Persons, Biographies of Things
Watch: “Love Man, Love Woman” and “Mistaken Identity”
TAKE HOME FINAL EXAMINATION GIVEN OUT
Week Six: June 18
Conclusions
Watch: “Feast in Dream Village”
TAKE HOME FINAL EXAMINATION DUE ON JUNE 20