After more than 20 years working with shamans and their apprentices in northern Peru and the United States, the author describes a personal transformation from scientist and skeptic to humanist and adept. A specific experience in which the boundary between the seen and unseen worlds temporarily lifted allowed the author to engage with Spirit in new ways. This shift led to struggles in redefining the author's relationship to anthropological work. The article suggests that thinking outside the conventional paradigmatic box can benefit the discipline, which has long kept anthropologists disengaged from the world they study.
In the Sakha Republic (Yakutia) of the Russian Far East, the social and political upheavals following the Soviet collapse have spurred a complex revival of shamanism. Initial hope for reform in the 1990s gave way to confusion, and shamanic practices have become both popular and contentious. While many faith healers have lost credibility, new shamanic movements led by two featured leaders are attracting followers by addressing philosophical, social, and ecological issues beyond personal healing. Drawing on fieldwork since 1986, the article examines how individual and community healing are intertwined, contributing to discussions of revitalization, shamanism, gender, and nationalism.