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Visions and Stones

Spirit Matters and the Charm of Small Things in South Korean Shamanic Rock Divination

Bibliographic Data

ID2261995
AuthorsDavid J Kim (0000-0001-8656-8008, Purchase College, corresponding author)
Year2015
Volume40
Issue1
Pages1-19
Publication date2015-06-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAnthropology & Humanism (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1548-1409 • E-ISSN: 1559-9167
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/anhu.12065
OpenAlexW1820873515
LanguageEN
Citations received3
References cited11

This article considers conceptualizations of the sacred via two of the founding members of The College of Sociology (1937-1939), Michel Leiris and Georges Bataille, as they relate to everyday life. Through this sacred lens everyday life in the city is reflexively intertwined with the stories of a Korean shaman, who through rock divination conjures the spirits of nature for her divinations. Her fantastic and uncanny stories are examined in detail, as well as the intricate relationship between the diviner, patron, and materials used in Korean shamanic in-house divination. Following Atkinson, Taussig, and others, this piece stresses that power in shamanism is a complicated relation of exchanges and activities, readings and writings, of which the shaman is only one component. Not only is it more and more necessary to consider the perspectives of the patrons and the patients, but the materials, social contexts, and spectral machineries that are brought to the discursive table must also bear equal weight-all of which, in turn, constitute the grounds for what might be considered "shamanic" activity. Through divination, physiognomic traces reveal the interior world of things as a waking dream, which takes part in the mysteries of what another member of The College, Roger Caillois, referred to as the "natural fantastic." The object of divination-ourselves and our fate-is petrified into thing that can be read and critiqued, and subsequently transformed into a medicine or commodity, which is then consumed as the patron returns to the exterior landscape of the city and awaits its effects

Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Art history · Divination · Epistemology · Linguistics · Literature · Object (grammar · Power (physics · Reincarnation · Shamanism · Sociology · Uncanny · Vision · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · History · Japanese History and Culture · Philosophy · Religious Studies and Spiritual Practices

  • Divination and its Potential Futures

    Open Access•David J Kim•Material Religion•2019

  • Gods and Things

    Open Access•L Kendall•Religions•2021

  • Dreams, Visions, and Worldmaking

    Open Access•K Swancutt•Annual Review of Anthropology•2024

  • In near ruins

    Nicholas B Dirks•In near ruins•1998

  • My Cocaine Museum

    M Taussig, Michael J Taussig•My Cocaine Museum•2004

  • Shamanisms Today

    Jane Monnig Atkinson•Annual Review of Anthropology•1992

  • Interview with Michel Leiris

    Madeleine Gobeil, Michel Leiris et al.•SubStance•1975

  • The Elementary Forms of Religious Life

    Emile Durkheim, Carol Cosman et al.•The Elementary Forms Of Religious…•2009

  • What Color Is the Sacred

    Michael Taussig•What Color Is the Sacred?•2009

  • Of hungry ghosts and other matters of consumption in the Republic of Korea

    Open Access•L Kendall•American Ethnologist•2008

  • The Language of Flowers

    M Taussig, Taussig et al.•Critical Inquiry•2003

Unique citing works3
Citations per year0,43
Citation span2019 - 2024 (6)
Citation velocityrecent
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 3

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