Shamanism of Eco-Tourism

James Andrew Whitaker is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Troy University. He also holds honorary research appointments at Mississippi State University and the University of St Andrews. He has conducted fieldwork with the Makushi in Guyana since 2012. His research combines ethnographic fieldwork with archival analysis to examine histories and ontologies in Amazonia and West Africa. He has published numerous articles in anthropological journals and has recently co-edited Climatic and Ecological Change in the Americas: A Perspective from Historical Ecology (2023).

'Written in a clear and engaging style, James Andrew Whitaker provides a case study for discussions about the ontological turn in anthropology, the relationship between history and culture, multi-species ethnography, and the effects of tourism on indigenous communities. It will make an excellent contribution to current scholarship and teaching.' Rachel Corr, author of Ritual and Remembrance in the Ecuadorian Andes

• Introduction; 1. Fetching the outside among the Makushi; 2. Eco-Tourism and development in Surama Village; 3. Missionaries, explorers, and other Spirits; 4. Transformation and otherness: Prophetic movements in the aftermath of early missionization; 5. Spirits in the landscape: Makushi Shamanism and ecological relations; 6. Tourists as shamanic spirits: strategic engagements with the other; 7. Becoming the other: shifting alterity In Surama Village; Afterword; Index.