Shamanic Journeys Through the Caucasus

Berman's thesis - that shamanic stories represent a specific genre within mythology as well as in folklore - has been developing throughout his excellent previous studies of shamanic narrative. By examining tales from regions situated at the crossroads between Asian and European civilizations he subjects his paradigm to genuinely risky test, thus achieving a theoretical heroism worthy of Karl Popper. His brilliant analysis slices through the layers of denial and obfuscation imposed by Stalinist materialism as well as the enforced acculturation of the Mongols and the opposing claims of both Christian and Muslim transmutations of pagan ideas. Through careful studies of tales from specific regions of the Caucasus, together with detailed descriptions of surviving rituals ( such as jumping over bonfires in Azerbaijan and ritual animal slaughter and blood-smearing in Georgia) Berman shows clear evidence of distinctively shamanic characteristics in the surviving folk cultures. Thus, for example the epic cycle of the Narts demonstrates a thriving contemporary expression of Berman's clearly specified genre. Like the other wonderful stories in this book it conveys the continuing relevance of the pagan understanding of the unity of all being as well as the healing practice of the shaman's journeying between numinous and material semiospheres. (Dr Julienne Ford, formerly a lecturer at the London School of Economics and the founder of the publishing company Superscript.)