Category: Shamanism

Third Gender – Marie Czaplicka, Marjorie Balzer, and Bernard Saladin d’Anglure demonstrate the importance of broadening the notion of gender to include not only male…

Theriomorphism – In animist contexts in which the ability to transform is understood to be a defining characteristic of persons, or specifically of powerful persons,…

Therapy – If therapy is understood broadly as equivalent to healing, the term is certainly applicable to much of what shamans do. This is illustrated…

Tedlock, Barbara and Dennis – Barbara Tedlock is professor of anthropology at the State University of New York (SUNY), Buffalo, a researcher among Guatemalan Maya,…

Techno-Shamans – The rise of “acid-house” rave parties, “techno” electronic music with repetitive and monotonous beats, and the use of the drug ecstasy (MDMA) in…

Taussig, Michael – Professor of anthropology at Columbia University. Taussig’s book Shamanism, Colonialism, and the Wild Man: A Study of Terror and Healing (1987) provides…

Tart, Charles T. (1937– ) – Professor and core faculty member of the Institute of Transpersonal Psychology, Palo Alto, California. Tart is internationally known for…

Taboo (tabu; tapu) – All cultures distinguish between appropriate and inappropriate behaviors. Rules govern the ways in which people should or should not engage with…

Sweat Lodges – Many Native American nations make use of a ritual complex in which people enter a heated confined space in order to seek…

Sun Bear – Among the most well-known Native American medicine people who have been willing, indeed eager, to teach non-Native people about their practices and…