Chamanismes en Amazonie : du mythe aux réalités

Complementing our Amazonia exhibition, UdeM’s Les Belles Soirées et les après-midis presents a lecture entitled Chamanismes en Amazonie : du mythe aux réalités (Shamanism in Amazonia: from myth to reality).

Amazonia englobes a rich cultural and linguistic diversity and paradoxically, a certain homogeneity of ideas and social practices, aspects which are exemplified in shamanism. Amazonia and shamanism fascinate the West and tend to be mystified. By presenting Amazonian shamanism in its multiplicity and exposing the specific cosmology that underlies it, this conference seeks to demystify certain ideas. To achieve this, the perspectives of the shamans themselves on their own practices will be explored.

The conference will be presented by Anne-Marie Colpron, doctor of anthropology at Université de Montréal and research associate in that same department (2013). She has led field research in Amazonia since 1996 on indigeneous cosmologies and shamanism.