Research

September 21, 2011

Book|Report

Art shows experience of shamanic trance

Emory art history professor and faculty curator Rebecca Stone has spent her career focused on ancient American art. But over the last number of years, she's come to the conclusion that art historians and art lovers are missing out if they don't explore the connection between that period's art and the shamanic experiences of trance that were also happening at this time. In fact, the closer that Stone looked, the more she saw that much ancient American art reflected the experience of shamanic trance, an altered state of consciousness by one who interacts with the human and spirit realms.

In the new book, "The Jaguar Within: Shamanic Trance in Ancient Central and South American Art" (University of Texas Press, 2011), Stone focuses on representations of shamanic trance in art and explores what the art can tell us about the world those artists inhabited.

Hear Rebecca Stone talk about "The Jaguar Within" and see art featured in the book:

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