Shamanic Odyssey: The Lushootseed Salish Journey to the Land of the Dead (Ballena Press Anthropological Papers, No 32)

Readers will welcome an important new contribution to the literature of shamanism and the North American Indian. It is now generally recognized that the beginnings of not only religion, but also of art, dance, and music, lie in shamanic systems that have characterized many of the world s oldest societies. Here a shamanic ceremony that was central to the beliefs of the Lushootseed Salish in the Puget Sound area of Washington State is described and analyzed by an anthropologist who worked closely with Lushootseed elders. It is not only the story of how the Lushootseed participated in a journey to the land of the dead, but also an account of their beliefs about illness, death, and the hereafter, and a comparison of those beliefs with those of other American Indians. The reader will be pleased to find photographs of paraphernalia displays now found in far-flung museum collections, as well as drawings of all of them. These and the many quoted accounts will be of special value to other scholars of shamanism.