THE SHAMANISM OF ECO-TOURISM, by J. Whitaker (2025)

In The Shamanism of Eco-Tourism. the first book in English to focus specifically on the Makushi in Guyana, James Andrew Whitaker examines how shamanism informs Makushi interactions with outsiders in the context of historical missionization and contemporary tourism. The Makushi are an Indigeneous people who speak a Cariban language and live in Guyana, Brazil, and Venezuela. Combining ethnohistory, ethnographic fieldwork, and archival research, this book elucidates a shamanic framework that is seen in Makushi engagements with outsiders in the past and present. It shows how this framework structures interactions between Makushi groups and various visitors in Guyana. Similar to how Makushi shamans draw in spirit allies, Makushi groups seek human outsiders and form strategic partnerships with them to obtain desired resources that are used for local goals and transformative projects. The book advances recent scholarship concerning ontological relations in Amazonia and is positioned at the cusp of debates over Amazonian relations with alterity.

Available at: https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/shamanism-of-ecotourism/B2F50ED4C1628AD156B7B450C72DCCB5

Reviews

‘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)

‘In this finely conceived volume, Whitaker has traced two hundred years of how the Makushi have transformed outsiders, especially missionaries and tourists, into parts of a long-established social order, thereby maintaining their society and cosmology despite numerous threats.’ (Mark Harris – University of Adelaide)

---

---