The radical otherness that heals

FACULTAD DE CIENCIAS SOCIALES ? ANTROPOLOGIA "THE RADICAL OTHERNESS THAT HEALS proposes aninteresting theoretical advance in va-rious schools of local and regional, andnational and transnational analysis. It is based on a multilocal ethnographyand a detailed sociological and political reading of the interactions betweeninstitutions and social and cultural representations of otherness. The originaltheoretical proposal consists of reading the reconfiguration of shamanismsstemming from processes of ethnicization and patrimonialization, and skillfullyrecons-tructing the national ideological space and the most recent effects ofmulticulturalism through representations of otherness." Anne-Marie Losonczy, Director of Studies at the EcolePratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris "The concept of the yagecero field serves as the axisof this innovative research that in-tertwines a multi-sited ethnography with abiographical approach to the actors. An ex-tensive review of the literature onindigenous shamanisms, their networks, national po-litics, inter-ethnicrelations and representations of the radical alterity that heals makes itpossible for the reader to draw near, based on the close proximity ofneo-shamanic practices, to perceive the national and transnational influencesthat are an integral part of the ongoing dynamics of this phenomenon. Theanalysis of neo-shamanism and the practices of the taita yageceros in Colombiacontributes to deepening current debates on contemporary shamanisms and thebroader issue of new religiosities, the transfor-mations of indigenousshamanisms, the impact of contemporary non-indigenous sha-manisms on indigenousgroups and their politics of identity. This book provides a va-luable input tothe characterization of New Age spirituality from its understanding as alocalized practice. It opens a space to compare the aforementionedmanifestations in Colombia with similar ones in different countries."Esther Jean Langdon, Professor at the Federal University ofSanta Catarina, Brazil