In April, Ashgate will release “Shamanism, Discourse, Modernity” by Thomas Karl Alberts (University of Cape Town, South Africa). The publisher’s description follows:
Shamanism, Discourse, Modernity considers indigenous peoples’ struggles for human rights, anxieties about anthropocentric mastery of nature, neoliberal statecraft, and entrepreneurialism of the self.
The book focuses on four domains – shamanism, indigenism, environmentalism and neoliberalism – in terms of interrelated historical processes and overlapping discourses. In doing so, it engages with shamanism’s manifold meanings in a world increasingly sensitive to indigenous peoples’ practices of territoriality, increasingly concerned about humans’ integral relationship with natural environments, and increasingly encouraged and coerced to adjust self-conduct to comport with and augment government conduct.