The shaman's mirror : visionary art of the Huichol / Hope MacLean ; foreword by Peter T. Furst.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

MacLean, Hope, 1949-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Huichol art.

Huichol textile fabrics.

Huichol mythology.

Art, Shamanistic.

Hallucinogenic drugs and religious experience.

Symbolism in art.

Physical Description:

xii, 284 pages, 16 unnumbered pages of color plates : illustrations (some color) ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Austin : University of Texas Press, [2012]

Summary:

Huichol Indian yarn paintings are one of the world's great indigenous arts, sold around the world and advertised as authentic records of dreams and visions of the shamans. Using glowing colored yarns, the Huichol Indians of Mexico paint the mystical symbols of their culture-the hallucinogenic peyote cactus, the blue deer-spirit who appears to the shamans as they croon their songs around the fire in all-night ceremonies deep in the Sierra Mad re mountains, and the pilgrimages to sacred sites, high in the central Mexican desert of Wirikuta.

In this illustrated study, Hope MacLean provides the first comprehensive study of Huichol yarn paintings, from their origins as sacred offerings to their transformation into commercial art. Drawing on twenty years of ethnographic fieldwork, she interviews Huichol artists who have innovated important themes and styles, which they teach to their apprentices. She compares the artists' views with those of art dealers and government officials to show how yarn painters respond to market influences while still keeping their religious beliefs.

Most innovative is her exploration of what it means to say a tourist art is based on dreams and visions of the shamans. She explains what visionary experience means in Huichol culture and discusses the influence of the hallucinogenic peyote cactus on the Huichol's remarkable use of color. She uncovers a deep structure of visionary experience, rooted in Huichol concepts of soul-energy, and shows how this remarkable conception may be linked to visionary experiences as described by other Uto-Aztecan and Mesoamerican cultures.

This innovative book will be essential reading for anthropologists, psychologists, and religious studies scholars interested in hallucinogens and shamanism, altered states of consciousness and visionary experience, and the nature of shamanic art. As a long-term study of a tourist art, it will appeal to economists and scholars of tourist arts and globalization. Connoisseurs of Native American and Mexican arts, art historians, and textile artists will appreciate the detailed study of a unique indigenous fiber art. Book jacket.

Contents:

1 The Path to the Sierra Madre 1

2 Wixdrika Children of the Ancestor Gods 19

3 Kakauyari The Gods and the Land Are Alive 25

4 Gifts for the Gods 36

5 Sacred Yarn Paintings 57

6 Commercialization of the Nierika 85

7 Footprints of the Founders 113

8 Making Yarn Paintings 135

9 The Colors Speak 146

10 Sacred Colors and Shamanic Vision 165

11 The Artist as Visionary 191

12 The "Deified Heart" Huichol Soul Concepts and Shamanic Art 201

13 Arte Mágico Magical Power in Yarn Paintings 214

14 Shamanic Art, Global Market 221

15 The Influence of the Market 237

16 Ancient Aesthetics, Modern Images 250.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780292728769

029272876X

9780292735439

029273543X

OCLC:

714734768