Theme of the conference

Tracing Shamanism: Presence, Absence, Transformations, Possibilities

We invite scholars to reflect on the notion of traces (Ginzburg 2006) in relation to shamanism and other animistic/ecstatic practices1. In doing so, we take into account the idea of traces as a methodological tool to explore, map and analyze materials, narratives and practices residing “at the intersection of the seen and the unseen, sound and silence, the coming of being into the social and its recession” (Napolitano 2015: 46)2. Traces are in fact critical knots in a fabric where presence and absence are equally relevant.

We can take traces at face value, as archeological remains, i.e. the present as saturated with relics from the past, or in more subtle ways: in the Anthropocene, a single old tree at the center of a busy district in Kuala Lumpur could be the trace of a recently lost ancient landscape, a sign of a ghost forest; or the wolf footprints in the snow at your cottage door may hint at the presence of the animal(s) even in its immediate absence. In a similar fashion, the obsolete, the marginal, the defeated, remains as a trace from the past, a sign of the passing of time and a material knot highlighting dynamics encompassing the past, the present, and their still productive entanglement.

Traces do not simply register the past; they also hint at possible futures.

From the moment the notion of shamanism entered modernity, it never ceased to leave traces: despite being an elusive, slippery concept, it kept reverberating through contexts, experiences, fields and disciplines (history, anthropology, religious studies, arts, literature, etc.), crossing borders, projecting its shadow deep into the past (i.e. the “archaic shaman”, “shamanic cave art”, etc.) or fast forward into the future (from neo-shamanism to techno-shamanism). The same can be said in relation to cultural and religious narratives, practices and experiences strictly or loosely3 associated with the idea of shamanism (i.e. ecstatic cults, spirit-mediumship and oracular practices, witchcraft, possession, etc.).

We invite scholars to engage in tracing shamanic histories and historicities, to explore the intersections of remembering and imagining, to map encounters and entanglements: how do we define shamanism in relation to its traces? How do we trace or retrace shamanism? What does it mean when shamanic histories persist in things that have been moved to other contexts (e.g. objects in museums, heritage performances etc.) or as indigenous communities work to retrieve, revive or perpetuate precarious shamanic traditions? What is at stake politically in these processes? Upward or downward to the basic question: what makes something a shamanic trace?

References:

• 1 Ginzburg, Carlo (2012). Thread and Traces. True, False, Fictive. Berkeley: University of California Press
• 2 Napolitano, Valentina (2015). “Anthropology and traces.” Anthropological Theory 15, no. 1, pages: 47-67.
• 3 See Francfort, Henry-Paul, Roberte Hamayon, with Paul G. Bahn (2001). The Concept of Shamanism. Uses and Abuses. Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó.

The official language of the conference was English.

MEMBERS OF THE ISARS CONFERENCE ORGANIZING AND SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE

(in alphabetical order):

SARAS Department, Sapienza University of Rome Organizing Committee:

Botta, Sergio

Ferrara, Marianna

Montanari, Walter

Pierini, Emily

Saggioro, Alessandro

Torri, Davide

International Scientific Committee:

Balzer, Marjorie M., Georgetown University (USA)

Beggiora, Stefano, Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia (Italy)

Guzy, Lidia, University College Cork, National University of Ireland (Ireland)

Kendall, Laurel, American Museum of Natural History and Columbia University (USA)

Liu, Pi-Chen, Academia Sinica (Taiwan)

Qu, Feng, Liaocheng University (China)

Riboli, Diana, Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Athens (Greece)

Roussou, Eugenia, CRIA-Iscte/In2past (Portugal)

Tacey, Ivan, University of Plymouth (UK)

von Stockhausen, Alban, Völkerkundemuseum vPST Heidelberg (Germany)

Zola, Lia, Università di Torino (Italy)

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