Leiden University Student Repository

Dierckxsens, Valerie (2012)

In the Realm of Shamanism and Cosmovision

Master thesis | Cultural Anthropology and Development Sociology (MSc)

Asking grand questions has long been found problematic in anthropology. The focus is usually put on the smaller issues. This thesis will research how we can unpack these trends. I investigate a macro‐approach by using literature on shamanism and cosmovision. Grand questions are a compelling topic. Various disciplines, from history to archaeology and anthropology, have developed great talents in focusing on grassroots problems and micro‐issues. Small‐scale and area‐fixed studies are the norm. Not only is the focus put on the smaller issues, it is also considered too risky to present grand statements and promises, for it almost seems to beg for criticism. My criticism is that although these processes are essential, in that they provide the data for larger research questions, these studies often do not themselves get back to the broader perspectives. The hybridity, as well as the larger implications, thus easily remain obscured. In this thesis I take on the challenge to combine and...Show moreAsking grand questions has long been found problematic in anthropology. The focus is usually put on the smaller issues. This thesis will research how we can unpack these trends. I investigate a macro‐approach by using literature on shamanism and cosmovision. Grand questions are a compelling topic. Various disciplines, from history to archaeology and anthropology, have developed great talents in focusing on grassroots problems and micro‐issues. Small‐scale and area‐fixed studies are the norm. Not only is the focus put on the smaller issues, it is also considered too risky to present grand statements and promises, for it almost seems to beg for criticism. My criticism is that although these processes are essential, in that they provide the data for larger research questions, these studies often do not themselves get back to the broader perspectives. The hybridity, as well as the larger implications, thus easily remain obscured. In this thesis I take on the challenge to combine and reconnect the richness of different types of data with the theory‐based literature. Through a critical assessment of the literature, I will research how we can look at small‐scale issues from a broader perspective. Simultaneously, I will analyse how research with a focus on large‐scale issues can be analysed. This brings me to the connections that exist among the various approaches and perspectives used in anthropological and interdisciplinary research. It is precisely the combining of divergent approaches that challenges us, anthropologist, in our research and that is the topic of my research. The idea of interconnectedness will be put on the agenda by discussing how the topic can or cannot be studied. This means that I will look at approaches used in the literature and make an attempt in reconnecting the concepts that have been disconnected by researchers in the past. In conclusion, the main question of this thesis will focus on how we can research large topics by bringing research outcomes of projects that focus on small‐case issues together. One could say that in these small‐scale projects there is a trend to work within a fixed set of boundaries. This raises the question whether we, as anthropologists, are able to cross the boundaries of such delimited thinking.Show less

shamanism

cosmovision

consciousness

interconnectedness

time and space

Author

Dierckxsens, Valerie

Note

This thesis addresses the following: • Anthropologists focus on specific concepts in order to understand a certain aspect of a phenomenon. They carry out research on small cases and micro issues because a large focus has shown to be problematic and complicated. This thesis will therefore put the idea of understanding certain phenomena as a totality by reconnecting the concepts that have been delimited by researchers in the past, on the agenda. • This thesis will try to give an understanding how several phenomena can be interconnected. Researchers in the past have never really looked at the possible interconnection of phenomena. It is therefore important to perceive phenomena as totalities before we can address their interconnectedness. • The importance of these interconnecting phenomena for contemporary society. This is appointed to the growing importance ancient knowledge seems to have among individuals nowadays. These arguments are explored through an assessment of interdisciplinary literature that addresses both in depth theories and small case studies.

Faculty

Faculty of Social & Behavioural Sciences

Supervisors

Zuyderhoudt, Lea

ECTS Credits

10

Language

en