Аspects of Post-Structural Anthropology of Eduardo Viveiros de Castro (Postmodernism as a Language of the Description of Amazonian Tribes’ Mythological Reality: the Trickster’s Simulacra in Shamanism)
Concept: philosophy, religion, culture July 7, 2020 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.24833/2541-8831-2020-1-13-84-94 via Semantic Scholar
Summary
This paper traces the origins of E. V. de Castro's poststructural anthropology and explores its applicability to Religious Studies in contemporary Russia. Using description, historical and comparative analysis, and modeling, the author creates a 3D model of the shaman's universe from de Castro's work and tests it against beliefs about werewolves. The study finds that poststructural anthropology originates from Deleuze and Guattari, with background from British social anthropology and Lévi-Strauss's structuralism. The postmodern conceptual framework adequately describes shamanic experience, and the shamanic universe model (Chaosmosis) has heuristic potential for other religious, mythical, and folkloric phenomena.
Study at a glance
| Design | theoretical or philosophical paper |
|---|---|
| Key finding | Poststructural anthropology's origins lie in Deleuze and Guattari, and its postmodern framework can describe shamanic experience, with the resulting shamanic universe model applicable to other religious and folkloric phenomena. |
Abstract
The purpose of the study is to trace the origins of E. V. de Castro’s «poststructural anthropology», and the possibility of its application in Religious Studies in contemporary Russia. For the purpose of the study, the methods of description, historical and comparative analysis and modelling were chosen. The objectives of the study are: 1) to create an analogous 3D model of «the shaman’s universe», according to the factography of E. V. de Castro’s «poststructural anthropology»; 2) to verify its heuristic potential using the material of the belief in the existence of werewolves; 3) to verify whether the postmodern thesaurus, as a language of description, could be adequately applied to the worldview of Amazonian shamans. The author concludes that: a) the immediate origins of «poststructural anthropology» lie in the views of J. Deleuze and F. Guattari, and that the achievements of the British school of social anthropology and Cl. Levi- Strauss’s structuralism served as the general background for E. V. de Castro’s and E. Kohn’s work; b) the conceptual framework of postmodernism is able to serve as an appropriate language of description of the shamanic experience which was clearly demonstrated by Amazonists E. V. de Castro and E. Kohn; c) the shamanic model of the universe (the Chaosmosis) has sufficient heuristic potential to be applied to other phenomena of religion, mytho-ritual, virtual fantasy worlds, fairy tales, and folklore.