Under Mount Roraima: the revitalization of a shamanic landscape and practice

Thesis

Humans have unique capacities to enhance and degrade landscapes. Many indigenous peoples embody conceptual systems that perceive, value and interact within landscapes differently than capitalist models of conservation and development. This thesis examines the spiritual ecology of the circum-Roraima landscape atop the Guiana Shield in South America. An extensive interdisciplinary literature review contextualizes primary data collected during 15 months of multi-sited ethnogeographic fieldwork among Pemon and Ka'pon members of the Carib linguistic family. Data in the form of narratives are interpreted within the theoretical framework of landscape that links subfields of historical, spiritual and political ecology. A detailed research program designed to collect qualitative emic data draws methods from ethnography, ethnoecology, historical ecology, grounded theory and decolonizing methodologies. An analysis of the adaptive capacities of situated spiritual ecological knowledge and practices is an important component of this research, since this dimension of landscape is often neglected in conservation and development studies. Ultimately, the project documents and analyzes endangered knowledge systems, reveals new historical details of the syncretic Areruya highland revitalization movement and articulates a shamanic land ethic.

Authors: Cooper, D

• Publication date: 2015
• DOI: 10.5287/ora-xr5mgjbqj
• Type of award: DPhil
• Level of award: Doctoral
• Awarding institution: University of Oxford
• Language: English
• Keywords: Amerindian; Guyana; spiritual ecology; shamanism
• Subjects: Geography