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Article: Shamans. Siberian Spirituality and the Western Imagination.(Book Review)
- Article from:
- Folklore
- Article date:
- April 1, 2005
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2005 Folklore Society. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Shamans. Siberian Spirituality and the Western Imagination. By Ronald Hutton. London: Hambledon, 2001. 220 pp. 16.95 [pounds sterling] (hbk). ISBN 1-85295-324-7
In this thorough study, Ronald Hutton, best known as an iconoclastic historian of early modern England, turns his critical eye on the figure of the shaman and the concept of "shamanism."
His work is divided into three parts: "Why we think we know about shamans," "What we think we know about shamans," and "Siberia in the shamanic world." The first of these, which draws on James Forsyth's fine account of the colonisation of Siberia to provide a historical context for what follows, is somewhat ...