Urban Shamans

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DC Field	Value
dc.identifier	ECF_book_421
dc.creator	Rivadossi Silvia
dc.title	Urban Shamans. Tracing a New Discourse in Contemporary Japan
dc.type	Monograph
dc.language.iso	it
dc.description.abstract	What does it mean to be a ‘shaman’ in present-day Tokyo? In what way(s) is the role of the shamanic practitioner represented at a popular level? Are certain characteristics emphasised and others downplayed? This book offers an answer to these questions through the analysis of a specific discourse on shamans that emerged in the Japanese metropolitan context between the late 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century, a discourse that the more ‘traditional’ approaches to the study on shamanism do not take into account. In order to better contextualise this specific discourse, the volume opens with a brief historical account of the formation of the academic discourse on shamans. Within the theoretical framework offered by critical discourse analysis and by means of multi-sited ethnographic research, it then weaves together different case studies: three novels by Taguchi Randy, a manga, a TV series and the case of an urban shaman who is mostly active in Tokyo. The main elements emerging from these case studies are explored by situating them in the precise historical and social context within which the discourse has been developed. This shows that the new discourse analysed shares several characteristics with the more ‘traditional’ and accepted discourses on shamanism, while at the same time differing in certain respects. In this work, particular attention is given to how the category and term ‘shaman’ is defined, used and re-negotiated in the Japanese metropolitan context. Through this approach, the book aims to further problematize the categories of ‘shaman’ and ‘shamanism’, by highlighting certain aspects that are not yet accepted by many scholars, even though they constitute a discourse that is relevant and effective.
dc.relation.ispartof	Ca’ Foscari Japanese Studies
dc.relation.ispartof	Religion and Thought
dc.identifier.doi	10.30687/978-88-6969-414-1
dc.publisher	Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Digital Publishing, Fondazione Università Ca’ Foscari
dc.issued	2020-05-14
dc.dateAccepted	2020-03-24
dc.dateSubmitted	2020-02-28
dc.identifier.uri	http://edizionicafoscari.it/en/edizioni4/libri/978-88-6969-415-8/
dc.identifier.issn	2610-8976
dc.identifier.eissn	2610-9395
dc.identifier.isbn	978-88-6969-415-8
dc.identifier.eisbn	978-88-6969-414-1
dc.rights	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
item.fulltext	with fulltext
item.grantfulltext	open
dc.peer-review	yes
dc.subject	Contemporary Japan
dc.subject	Discourse
dc.subject	Nature
dc.subject	Shaman
dc.subject	Spirituality

Monograph
open access peer reviewed

Urban Shamans

Tracing a New Discourse in Contemporary Japan

Silvia Rivadossi Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia

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abstract

What does it mean to be a ‘shaman’ in present-day Tokyo? In what way(s) is the role of the shamanic practitioner represented at a popular level? Are certain characteristics emphasised and others downplayed? This book offers an answer to these questions through the analysis of a specific discourse on shamans that emerged in the Japanese metropolitan context between the late 20th century and the first decade of the 21st century, a discourse that the more ‘traditional’ approaches to the study on shamanism do not take into account. In order to better contextualise this specific discourse, the volume opens with a brief historical account of the formation of the academic discourse on shamans. Within the theoretical framework offered by critical discourse analysis and by means of multi-sited ethnographic research, it then weaves together different case studies: three novels by Taguchi Randy, a manga, a TV series and the case of an urban shaman who is mostly active in Tokyo. The main elements emerging from these case studies are explored by situating them in the precise historical and social context within which the discourse has been developed. This shows that the new discourse analysed shares several characteristics with the more ‘traditional’ and accepted discourses on shamanism, while at the same time differing in certain respects. In this work, particular attention is given to how the category and term ‘shaman’ is defined, used and re-negotiated in the Japanese metropolitan context. Through this approach, the book aims to further problematize the categories of ‘shaman’ and ‘shamanism’, by highlighting certain aspects that are not yet accepted by many scholars, even though they constitute a discourse that is relevant and effective.

Published

May 14, 2020

Accepted

March 24, 2020

Submitted

Feb. 28, 2020

Language

ISBN (PRINT)

978-88-6969-415-8

ISBN (EBOOK)

978-88-6969-414-1

Keywords

Spirituality • Shaman • Discourse • Contemporary Japan • Nature

permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-414-1

Copyright: © 2020 Silvia Rivadossi. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.