Dealing with Disasters

Diana Riboli is Associate Professor in Anthropology at Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Greece. She is the co-editor, with Davide Torri, of Shamanism and Violence (2013).

Pamela J. Stewart (Strathern) is Senior Research Associate in Anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh, USA. With Andrew J. Strathern, she co-edits the Journal of Ritual Studies and five book series.

Andrew J. Strathern is Andrew Mellon Professor of Anthropology at the University of Pittsburgh, USA. With Pamela J. Stewart, he co-edits the Journal of Ritual Studies and five book series.

Davide Torri is Senior Researcher at the department of History, Anthropology, Religions and Performing Arts, Sapienza University of Rome, Italy. He is the author of Landscape, Ritual and Identity among the Hyolmo of Nepal (2020).

Providing a fresh look at some of the pressing issues of our world today, this collection focuses on experiential and ritualized coping practices in response to a multitude of environmental challenges-cyclones, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, earthquakes, warfare and displacements of peoples and environmental resource exploitation. Eco-cosmological practices conducted by skilled healing practitioners utilize knowledge embedded in the cosmological grounding of place and experiences of place and the landscapes in which such experience is encapsulated.  A range of geographic case studies are presented in this volume, exploring Asia, Europe, the Pacific, and South America. With special reference throughout to ritual as a mode of seeking the stabilization, renewal, and continuity of life processes, this volume will be of particular interest to readers working in shamanic and healing practices, environmental concerns surrounding sustainability and conservation, ethnomedical systems, and religious and ritual studies.

Chapter 1. Introduction, Diana Riboli and Davide Torri .- Chapter 2. "The War Has Just Begun." Nature's Fury against Neocolonial 'Spirit/s':   Shamanic Perceptions of Natural Disasters in Comparative Perspective, Diana Riboli.- Chapter 3. The Spirits of Extractivism: Non-human Meddling, Shamanic Diplomacy and Cosmo-political Strategy among the Urarina (Peruvian Amazon), Emanuele Fabiano.- Chapter 4. Batek Cosmopolitics in the Early 21st Century, Ivan Tracey.- Chapter 5. Jinn Pinn Dance in the Floods: Perceptions of Flood Disasters among the Kalasha of Pakistan, Taj Khan Kalash .- Chapter 6. Eco-Cosmologies: Renewable Energy , Pamela J. Stewart and Andrew J. Strathern.- Chapter 7. The Earth and the Tree in Alekh Shamanism in Koraput/ Odisha, Lidia Guzy.- Chapter 8. Sacred, Alive, Dangerous and Endangered: Humans, Non-humans and Landscape in the Himalayas, Davide Torri.- Chapter 9. Shamanism, Magic and Indigenous Ontologies: Eco-critical Perspectives on Environmental Changes in India, Stefano Beggiora.- Chapter 10. Unblocking the Blockage between Earth and Heaven: Shamanic Space for Cultural Intimacy in China, Naran Bilik.- Chapter 11. Burying gold, digging the past: remembering Ma Bufang regime in Qinghai (PRC), Valentina Punzi.