Liminality and Incorporation in the Art of the Tlingit Shaman
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4880144 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Aldona Jonaitis (corresponding author) |
| Year | 1983 |
| Volume | 7 |
| Issue | 3 |
| Pages | 41 |
| Publication date | 1983-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | The American Indian Quarterly (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0095-182X • E-ISSN: 1534-1828 |
| Publisher | JSTOR (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.2307/1184256 |
| PMID | 11616512 |
| OpenAlex | W2316420044 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 2 |
TLINGIT SHAMANS, who possessed potent supernatural forces, used many magically powerful artworks during curing ceremonies.They also manipulated other artworks which clearly embodied social order and profane structure. These seemingly contradictory qualities-spiritual potency and secular structure-are actually complementary artistic aspects that helped facilitate the shaman's curing rituals, which can best be understood as rites of passage. In this paper, we will discuss the art of the Tlingit shaman from the perspective of how certain pieces communicated the sacredness of the liminal phase of the rite of passage, while others conveyed its incorporative phase. Since both the symbolism and the style of these carvings embodied ritual meaning, this paper will analyze the complementary, and often intricately interconnected, iconographic and formal elements of Tlingit shamanic art. The symbolic meaning of four animals depicted on these pieces-land otters, octopus, ravens and killer whales-and of three types of articlesmasks, charms and raven rattles-as well as the significance of the style of charms and raven rattles will be related to liminality and incorporation. Liminality and incorporation are, however, specific expressions of the general notions of the sacred and the profane within the Tlingit world view. Thus, before the shaman's artworks can be analyzed iconographically and formally, it will be necessary first to discuss shamanism proper within the context of the Tlingit views on spirituality and secularity. Tlingit shamanism as we shall describe it was practiced during the nineteenth century; most of the artwork we shall analyze was collected at the end of that century
Aesthetics · Archaeology · Art · Liminality · Shamanism · Sociology · Visual arts · Anthropology · Art Education and Development · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · History · Indigenous Studies and Ecology
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,11 |
| Citation span | 1998 - 2020 (23) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |