Boulders in the Stream: The Lineage and Founding of the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness
Anthropology of Consciousness September 1, 2021 Stephan A. Schwartz 12 citations
The founding of the Society for the Anthropology of Consciousness (SAC) arose from a cultural and intellectual heritage, particularly a series of 1974 symposia that confronted the challenge posed by Carlos Castaneda. Castaneda argued that understanding the shamanic worldview requires becoming a shaman, because much of it is experiential and cannot be conveyed by an informant. Two central insights from his thesis are relevant to SAC: an aspect of human consciousness exists independent of time and space and is subject to volitional control, and all life forms are interconnected. The SAC represents a Kuhnian response to the reassessment Castaneda forced on anthropology.