Fortune and the Cursed : : The Sliding Scale of Time in Mongolian Divination / / Katherine Swancutt.
Innovation-making is a classic theme in anthropology that reveals how people fine-tune their ontologies, live in the world and conceive of it as they do. This ethnographic study is an entrance into the world of Buryat Mongol divination, where a group of cursed shamans undertake the ‘race against tim...
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| Superior document: | Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Berghahn Books Complete eBook-Package 2000-2013 |
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| VerfasserIn: | |
| Place / Publishing House: | New York; , Oxford : : Berghahn Books, , [2012] ©2012 |
| Year of Publication: | 2012 |
| Language: | English |
| Series: | Epistemologies of Healing ;
11 |
| Online Access: | |
| Physical Description: | 1 online resource (284 p.) |
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| Other title: | Frontmatter -- Contents -- List of Tables and Figures -- Acknowledgements -- Cast of Characters -- Preface -- Chapter 1. A Race Against Time: Mongolian Fortune and the Anthropology of Magic -- Chapter 2. Buryat Cosmology and the Timescales of Religious Practice -- Chapter 3. Fortune, the Soul and Spiralling Returns -- Chapter 4. Curses, Khel Am and the Omnipresence of Witchcraft -- Chapter 5. Divination and the Inextensive Distance to Cursing Rivals -- Chapter 6. An Unconventional Timescale: The Immediate Rise of Fortune -- Glossary of Vernacular Terms -- References -- Index |
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| Summary: | Innovation-making is a classic theme in anthropology that reveals how people fine-tune their ontologies, live in the world and conceive of it as they do. This ethnographic study is an entrance into the world of Buryat Mongol divination, where a group of cursed shamans undertake the ‘race against time’ to produce innovative remedies that will improve their fallen fortunes at an unconventional pace. Drawing on parallels between social anthropology and chaos theory, the author gives an in-depth account of how Buryat shamans and their notion of fortune operate as ‘strange attractors’ who propagate the ongoing process of innovation-making. With its view into this long-term ‘cursing war’ between two shamanic factions in a rural Mongolian district, and the comparative findings on cursing in rural China, this book is a needed resource for anyone with an interest in the anthropology of religion, shamanism, witchcraft and genealogical change. |
| Format: | Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web. |
| ISBN: | 9780857454836 9783110998283 |
| DOI: | 10.1515/9780857454836 |
| Access: | restricted access |
| Hierarchical level: | Monograph |
| Statement of Responsibility: | Katherine Swancutt. |