Shamans and religion : an anthropological exploration in critical thinking /

There have been few probing and critical discussions of the work of Mircea Eliade, the central figure in the establishment of religious studies in the US. One of Eliade's classic works is Shamanism (1964), a collection of shamanic customs from around the world, which has become the most widely referenced work on the subject. Kehoe (Univ. of Wisconsin--Milwaukee) has produced a most enlightening and erudite analysis of Eliade's work and the more general field of shamanic studies. At last someone in anthropology protests against Eliade's uncritical use of secondary and unreliable sources! This author gives a much more complex and sophisticated view of shamanism. The volume concludes with a discussion of the appropriation of shamanism in the New Age movement. Kehoe invites reconsideration of the nature of the shamanic experience, requiring its understanding not as a single phenomenon, but rather as a variety of religious traditions collected from around the world and distilled (artificially, for the most part) into something that fits into the "romance of the Other." This volume is very well written, accessible to the general educated reader, and highly recommended for students, at all levels, of anthropology and religious studies. J. J. Preston SUNY College at Oneonta