Cover art for Shamans
Published
Thames & Hudson, August 2025
ISBN
9780500028681
Format
Hardcover, 256 pages
Dimensions
24cm × 17cm

Shamans The visual culture of animism, healing and journeys to other planes

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Due August 28, 2025.
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A clear, concise and compelling analysis of the eclectic and beautiful visual and material culture of shamanism.

Entering trance states, healing body and soul, invoking animals as spirit guides and journeying to incorporeal realms - these skills have been central to shamanism over thousands of years and across much of the world, from the Evenki shamans of northern and central Asia to contemporary Neo-Shamans of the West. Join cultural and social anthropologist Max Carocci as he explores an eclectic array of shamanic artefacts and images, decoding the symbolism and explaining their extraordinary shamanic ritual practices. Marvel at the adornments of a Siberian shaman's coat; examine the prehistoric rock art that depicts mystical transformations of shamans into animals; and discover the psychotropic plants that open our minds to interdimensional journeys of healing and wisdom.

Carocci makes the manifold meanings encoded in the forms, colours and purposes of shamanic images and objects clear, painting a vibrant and in-depth picture of shamanic cultures past and present.

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