Jean Langdon: transformations and perspectives from half a century of research about shamanism

This paper reviews Jean Langdon's key contributions to the study of shamanism, emphasizing her role in reviving research in the 1980s when male anthropologists dominated the field. Langdon proposed that Indigenous shamanisms be understood as cosmological systems, emerging from specific political and historical contexts, and as dialogical categories shaped by diverse actors, discourses, and interests. The review highlights her influence on the anthropology of health and Indigenous health policies, as well as on discussions of gender and female agency in lowland South America. Langdon's later work focuses on contemporary shamanic networks, particularly those centered on ayahuasca, which connect Indigenous and non-Indigenous actors across geographic and conceptual boundaries, underscoring the dynamic and creative nature of Amerindian shamanisms.

Study at a glance

Abstract

This text reviews some of Jean Langdon’s most important classical and contemporary writings about shamanism, highlighting her key contributions to the area, as well as her relevance to the anthropology of health and Indigenous health policies. The paper also reflects on Langdon’s influence in the discussions surrounding gender and female agency in ethnographies of lowland South America. Jean Langdon was one of the pioneers in the revival of the research on shamanism in the 1980s. During a period when male anthropologists largely dominated studies on this topic, she highlighted the complexity and diversity of Indigenous shamanisms, proposing that they should be seen as cosmological systems. In her more recent works, she suggests that shamanisms emerge from specific political and historical contexts and proposes to approach this phenomenon as a dialogical category resulting from the interactions of actors with very diverse origins, discourses, and interests. Langdon also discusses contemporary shamanic networks, circuits that have expanded significantly over the past two decades in Latin American countries such as Brazil and Colombia, as well as in other parts of the world. With ayahuasca playing a central role, these growing networks connect multiple Indigenous and non-Indigenous social actors across geographic, symbolic, and conceptual boundaries. Langdon particularly emphasizes the dynamic, creative and constantly transforming nature of Amerindian shamanisms, which often challenges the anthropological imagination.