The Shamanism of Eco-Tourism: History and Ontology among the Makushi in Guyana

In 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.

About the Author

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).