The Living Ancestors

Zeljko Jokic received his PhD in Social Anthropology in 2004 at the University of Sydney. Since then he lectured at various universities, conducted a short-term fieldwork in Siberia and worked as a Research Assistant at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. He also spent several years working as a consultant for the Inter-American Organization for the Elimination of Onchocerciasis at the Amazonian Centre for Investigation and Control of Tropical Diseases, Puerto Ayacucho, Venezuela. Currently, he is a Policy Officer at the Health and Medical Research Office of the Australian Government Department of Health.

"A captivating and original ethnographic description of religious/healing practices among the Yanomani of the Upper Orinoco. . . The author has achieved a deep understanding of the culture, worldviews, ideologies, and cosmology during his fieldwork in two communities. The writing is articulate, fluent, and incisive, and still remains plain enough to attract a wide range of academic and non-academic public." · Diana Riboli, Panteion University

"...the work as a whole is superb... a meticulous documentation of shamanistic experience and practices." · Jadran Mimica, University of Sydney


This phenomenologically oriented ethnography focuses on experiential aspects of Yanomami shamanism, including shamanistic activities in the context of cultural change. The author interweaves ethnographic material with theoretical components of a holographic principle, or the idea that the "part is equal to the whole," which is embedded in the nature of the Yanomami macrocosm, human dwelling, multiple-soul components, and shamans' relationships with embodied spirit-helpers. This book fills an important gap in the regional study of Yanomami people, and, on a broader scale, enriches understanding of this ancient phenomenon by focusing on the consciousness involved in shamanism through firsthand experiential involvement.


Zeljko Jokic is a Visiting Fellow at the School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University, and Research Assistant at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies. Formerly, he worked at the Amazonian Centre for Investigation and Control of Tropical Diseases and as a consultant for the Inter-American Organization for the Elimination of Onchocerciasis.

List of Illustrations
Preface and Acknowledgements