SARAH MILLEDGE NELSON is John Evans Distinguished Professor at the University of Denver. Nelson is a specialist in cultural development, the origins of agriculture, and gender in the ancient world. She has done extensive fieldwork in Korea, China, and the American West.

'n this book Sarah Milledge Nelson suggests that shamanism was a significant building block for state formation in East Asia, and that women, who often had the shamanistic access to the spirit world, played an important role in this process. She shows how this would have been the case, by systematically going through archaeological, historical and ethnographic records of various regions of East Asia and surrounding areas, from Palaeolithic through early historic times, unravelling and rewinding various strands of mythological, ideological, documentary, and simply anthropological. Very convincingly, [Nelson] demonstrates the fun and value of an alternative approach to East Asian archaeology.' umiko Ikawa-Smith, McGill University

• Preface and Acknowledgments xv , CHAPTER 1: ORIENTATION TO SHAMANISMAND THE ORIGIN OF STATES , CHAPTER 2: LANDSCAPES, LEGENDS, AND SKYSCAPES, CHAPTER 3: WHAT IS A SHAMAN? CHAPTER 4: POWER, LEADERSHIP, AND GENDER, CHAPTER 5: SHAMANS IN THE EAST, ASIAN NEOLITHICCHAPTER 6: SHAMANISM IN EARLY CHINESE STATES, CHAPTER 7: SHAMANISM IN KOREA, CHAPTER 8: SHAMANISM IN THE JAPANESE ISLANDS 199, CHAPTER 9: RETYING THE KNOTS

SARAH MILLEDGE NELSON is John Evans Distinguished Professor at the University of Denver. Nelson is a specialist in cultural development, the origins of agriculture, and gender in the ancient world. She has done extensive fieldwork in Korea, China, and the American West.

'n this book Sarah Milledge Nelson suggests that shamanism was a significant building block for state formation in East Asia, and that women, who often had the shamanistic access to the spirit world, played an important role in this process. She shows how this would have been the case, by systematically going through archaeological, historical and ethnographic records of various regions of East Asia and surrounding areas, from Palaeolithic through early historic times, unravelling and rewinding various strands of mythological, ideological, documentary, and simply anthropological. Very convincingly, [Nelson] demonstrates the fun and value of an alternative approach to East Asian archaeology.' umiko Ikawa-Smith, McGill University

• Preface and Acknowledgments xv , CHAPTER 1: ORIENTATION TO SHAMANISMAND THE ORIGIN OF STATES , CHAPTER 2: LANDSCAPES, LEGENDS, AND SKYSCAPES, CHAPTER 3: WHAT IS A SHAMAN? CHAPTER 4: POWER, LEADERSHIP, AND GENDER, CHAPTER 5: SHAMANS IN THE EAST, ASIAN NEOLITHICCHAPTER 6: SHAMANISM IN EARLY CHINESE STATES, CHAPTER 7: SHAMANISM IN KOREA, CHAPTER 8: SHAMANISM IN THE JAPANESE ISLANDS 199, CHAPTER 9: RETYING THE KNOTS