In Darkness and Secrecy

<div><i>In Darkness and Secrecy</i> brings together ethnographic examinations of Amazonian assault sorcery witchcraft and injurious magic or dark shamanism. Anthropological reflections on South American shamanism have tended to emphasize shamans' healing powers and positive influence. This collection challenges that assumption by showing that dark shamans are in many Amazonian cultures quite different from shamanic healers and prophets. Assault sorcery in particular involves violence resulting in physical harm or even death. While highlighting the distinctiveness of such practices <i>In Darkness and Secrecy</i> reveals them as no less relevant to the continuation of culture and society than curing and prophecy. The contributors suggest that the persistence of dark shamanism can be understood as a form of engagement with modernity.<p>These essays by leading anthropologists of South American shamanism consider assault sorcery as it is practiced in parts of Brazil Guyana Venezuela and Peru. They analyze the social and political dynamics of witchcraft and sorcery and their relation to cosmology mythology ritual and other forms of symbolic violence and aggression in each society studied. They also discuss the relations of witchcraft and sorcery to interethnic contact and the ways that shamanic power may be co-opted by the state. <i>In Darkness and Secrecy</i> includes reflections on the ethical and practical implications of ethnographic investigation of violent cultural practices.</p><p><i>Contributors.</i> Dominique Buchillet Carlos Fausto Michael Heckenberger Elsje Lagrou E. Jean Langdon George Mentore Donald Pollock Fernando Santos-Granero Pamela J. Stewart Andrew Strathern Márnio Teixeira-Pinto Silvia Vidal Neil L. Whitehead Johannes Wilbert Robin Wright</p></div>