Gathering Hopewell : society, ritual, and ritual interaction /

What looks like a massive, scholarly, scientific research project is, upon critical reading, a set of graduate student papers directed by anthropology professor Carr (Arizona State Univ.), who is convinced that Hopewell, a Midwestern archaeological complex, was a set of societies led by "shamans." Following Eliade's fanciful armchair theory, Carr uses a New Age definition of "shaman"--one who goes on "soul journeys ... to alternate realities while in an altered state of consciousness." In 800 pages and a CD, a wealth of distribution data is embedded in verbose text and tables subordinated to Carr's overriding preoccupation with his idea of shaman. For example, on p. 495 "obsidian spear points" denote "shaman-like war or hunt divination," while "bear canines" denote "ordinary clan or sodality membership," interpretations at variance with ethnographic studies of Midwestern First Nations likely descended from Hopewell, such as Anishinaabe (Ojibwa). The book can serve professional and graduate-level researchers who can filter the detailed artifact, site, and tomb descriptions, measurements, and occurrences out of the assumptions and poorly warranted interpretations. Students should be guided to the ethnographic literature (Ruth Landes, A. I. Hallowell) and William Dancey and Paul Pacheco's Ohio Hopewell Community Organization (CH, Feb'98, 35-3393). ^BSumming Up: Optional. Graduate students/faculty. A. B. Kehoe University of Wisconsin--Milwaukee